Everyone knows, has known for a long while.....that opiate pain pills are addictive.

SFP (stupid first post) IMHO

I knew opiates were addictive when I was 10.  It is common knowledge.  Has been for a long time.

What changed is the number of users is up, while the % addicted is the same.  This is possible due to growth in population and closer living situations due to greater populations.

You just see more people because there are more people.

You are out of your element by your own admission. I have been on them, and have had to go through hell with doctors. If you do not know what the FDA did, read up on it.

edit:spell

Yeah pretty sure the guy you quoted is a young guy who thinks history began at his birth.

And for some time doctors were prescribing it for ailments that didn't require it or were prescribing doses in excess of what was needed, creating addicts.  Once deprived of their legal source and unable to kick the habit, they turn to illegal sources.

We can't honestly say the drug companies didn't play a hand in this either. The amount of pills that were sold into Mingo County WV for example should have raised red flags across the board, but the shipments kept coming.  Over the course of roughly a decade 20 MILLION pills were shipped into a town of 2900 people and no one batted an eye.

This tells me that maybe a fuck-ton of people In Mingo Co WV wanted an escape.   Might ask you why?  But that's just one angle of attacking this particular story.

It takes more than a script to create an addict.  It's not like they are being forced down these people's throats.

It also doesn't pass the logical litmus test that 2900 people consumed 20 million pills.  It makes more sense that there was a drug ring being run out of that place, and some well placed graft has assisted in keeping that part of things quiet.

Is this a masterfully subtle troll, or just simply the *exact, precise* same argument that the left uses with guns?

I mean, I could substitute just a few words and make it read that way.

If it wasn't for the ready availability of {INANIMATE OBJECT NAME} we wouldn't have the result of {HORRIBLE THING}.

It's like Mad Libs for politics.  

I never claimed that those pills were being used legitimately.  On the contrary actually. Prescriptions were being filled and manufacturers/distributors continued supplying the pills to fill the orders but no one bothered to ask why such a small town needed so many drugs. That's a failure at numerous levels. Obviously at the local level it's illegal activity. At higher levels is willful ignorance. They had to know there's no legitimate use for such quantities but they continued to make the sales and ship the drugs.

The point is, unscrupulous or incompetent doctors and pharmacists aren't the only ones to blame.  The big pharma companies turned a blind eye to this in the name of profit.

Maybe for some small, miniscule sliver of the population.  But it's a fucking black swan.

The vast majority of people with pill problems are recreational users of many drugs, who run across a handful of percocet and say "yeah, fuck it, this looks like fun" and they toss em down the hatch, just like many other types of drugs.  Whether it's heroin, meth or whatever, two things are clear.  Substance abusers *will* abuse substances for a variety of reasons, and your average soccer mom doesn't start sucking dicks at highway rest stops after she strains her back and gets a bottle of percocet.  It just doesn't happen in any statistically meaningful way.  And I'd bet my nutsack that had those soccer moms who did develop an issue with them, not had access to opioids, it would be benzos, or alcohol, or whatever.  The person was broken, the meds weren't.

Again, the inanimate object is not the issue.  If there's a "crisis" in this country, it's a mental health crisis, which by the way is the cause of most drug problems and homelessness.  Thank Carter and Reagan for that.

When I was a kid (young adult, like 19), I was actually given a script for Vicoden just to have on hand.  Dr had no problem with it.  I had a really bad head cold once, I took one pill a day which made my day less shitty.  Then maybe one a year later when I had a particularly nasty headache.  That fucking bottle lasted me 5 years.  I suppose it's just inexplicable how I avoided shooting up smack in back alleys.

As an adult, I was given a prescription for 24 Ultram (Tramadol) after a back injury.  I was accidentally given 240 of them.  This was pre-schedule. It would have been very easy to take those recreationally, and there were enough to create a problem.  But it didn't and they just sat in the closet - just like the *vast* majority of people prescribed.

Yet, a couple of years ago I broke a fucking molar in half, and the urgent care doctor accused me of "drug seeking".  Yeah fuckhead, I'm a well dressed guy in his mid 40s with a broken and bleeding tooth, 1300 miles from my dentist with a plane flight between me and home.  Nope, just told me to take Ibuprofen (I had done that already).  Ok, fuck him, on to the next Urgent care. Next guy gave me norco. Finally, some relief.

And to hell with my tooth, there are people with legitimate chronic pain being taken off the only effective thing for them because their physician is scared of nanny government.  It's fucking horrible.

As a result of that norco.......well, I'm typing this from my Obama phone, homeless and ready to take another dick up the ass in exchange for a handful of pills.  I've got a few clean needles left, but when I run out it's cool, my hooker friend said she'd give me some of hers, she rinsed them out with some Aquafina first so no worries.

Obama made me want to take painkillers.

No,no ,no

Didn't you learn anything here? It's all fake news

There is no evidence that there is an opiod epidemic. Also, stop giving Narcan to drug users and that particular problem will fix itself in short order.

raises glass

WTF why is the 240 gunner on point

Other countries don’t hand out pain meds as quickly as we do.  Not even for surgeries. Hell barely give epidurals. The US makes the policy, doctor’s by law have to abide by it.  Coupled with all the little whiny bitches running around with a “broken arm”. Yeah I can see where between the policy creators and us instant gratification folk can see we created a problem.  However, I believe big pharmaceutical new this was addictive and still pushed forward with it. Not to mention why the hell US military protecting the poppy fields in the Afghan. Makes you wonder.  I blame the government more than the addicts but people should take some self responsibility and understand that certain meds/drugs can be addictive. Especially when abused. But look at your local McDonald’s and the cows there it’s obvious people can’t take self responsibility.

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Bedouin2W