The Opioid Crisis

[Okeefenokee]

The solution to this problem is a white ethno state.

[MilSpecs]

How is it the drug companies fault? People are running from doctor to doctor to get more and more scripts to feed their habits. In Florida, we've "solved" this by making drugs nearly impossible to get. Which is helpful. Not.

So let them. If someone's that hard up to get pain pills and pay for them, go ahead.

Alternatives:
- we could enact a large-scale registry of pain pill prescriptions (bad idea).
- we could regulate the shit out of it, and deny a lot of people their meds (current idea)
- we could remove the profit-motive from healthcare (impossible, without becoming Communist, I'm told)
- we could just let this run its course, and Darwin will sort out the weak. (best idea).

Agreed. Still not clear on how this problem is the drug manufacturers fault.

Also agreed. We seem to be going back to the days when people suffered horribly before they died. It was the worst for children who had no pain medication for even the most painful conditions. It infuriates me to hear women say that they won't give their children adequate medication after surgery because 'addiction!'

[Zero]

So let them. If someone's that hard up to get pain pills and pay for them, go ahead.

Alternatives:
- we could enact a large-scale registry of pain pill prescriptions (bad idea).
- we could regulate the shit out of it, and deny a lot of people their meds (current idea)
- we could remove the profit-motive from healthcare (impossible, without becoming Communist, I'm told)
- we could just let this run its course, and Darwin will sort out the weak. (best idea).

Agreed. Still not clear on how this problem is the drug manufacturers fault.

Kath is right. People aren't popping pills because they want the companies to get rich.

Are you on drugs?

Isn’t it kind of like predatory lending? Aggressively push a product on a distressed individual (in this case non expert patients in pain who trust their doctors).

It’s greed and exploitation, as always.

[Zero]

http://m.theweek.com/articles/541564/ho ... al-company

This seems to encapsulate that side of the debate.

[The Conservative]

From my POV, this shit is getting ridiculous.

Our son, with Aspberger's, can only get a 30 day supply of his medication. The renewal script has to be hand-delivered to the pharmacy every 30 days, not 29 days. Every 90 days, we have to drive back to the doctor to get three more hand-written scripts.

On our most recent road trip. we had to show the pharmacist our confirmed reservation for a hotel in Chicago, in order to fill his script ONE DAY early.

He has Aspberger's, so of course, once in awhile, he loses a pill. It's too bad, so sad land for him.

The government has way too much control over our lives, and it sickens me. People want to OD on drugs? Let them. Quit fucking up life for the rest of us. We have got to stop legislating to the lowest common denominator.

As a side note, I was taking a semi-synthetic opiate for five years that helped with my own condition. (An off label usage.) Never took too much, never had to beg the doctor for more, but because of this bullshit, I can no longer get it. The alternatives work, but not nearly as well, so I am permanently stuck without helpful medications because the government is here to help. Fuck them.

Pfft, you are lucky... my insurance won't allow that. They have to be written and hand-delivered within 10 days or the script is not recognized. Also, same here 30 days or nothing.

[Okeefenokee]

Agreed. Still not clear on how this problem is the drug manufacturers fault.

Kath is right. People aren't popping pills because they want the companies to get rich.

Are you on drugs?

Isn’t it kind of like predatory lending? Aggressively push a product on a distressed individual (in this case non expert patients in pain who trust their doctors).

It’s greed and exploitation, as always.

We have been over this entire debate more than once before. I'm getting ready to hit the road, so someone else can go dig it up.

The people getting hooked on pills are not people who take pain pills for injuries. There are already studies on this, and the people who are getting hooked are people who take pills recreationaly.

Aside from the anecdotal example of pill pushing doctors, the statistical case is that most of the addicts are people who switch from one recreational drug to pills, not people who get hooked on pills after a broken leg.

Blaming the doctors and pill companies is yet another way to avoid personal responsibility, which is turning into a national past time around here.

[Zero]

Thanks - I’ll take a look at the data. I don’t doubt the companies are fat targets for other exploiters, as well.

[K@th]

Blaming the doctors and pill companies is yet another way to avoid personal responsibility, which is turning into a national past time around here.

Doctors shouldn't be over prescribing pain pills anymore than they should be over prescribing blood pressure meds. It is irresponsible to do so. They are the experts. How the hell am I supposed to know if I need 5 or 10 milligrams of whatever drug keeps my blood pressure low? Isn't that why doctors go to medical school?

[Speaker to Animals]

They really don't oversubscribe. There are scammers, though. That's one way legitimate drugs get dumped into the black market. Most doctors won't prescribe them at all anymore because of the draconian regulations. You have to go to a pain clinic now, and if you think government regulations are bad, wait till you see how those places are run.

A lot of people on heroin are legitimate pain patients who cannot get pain meds as well. It's a complicated issue so obviously the government is not an ideal solver of this problem.

[The Conservative]

Blaming the doctors and pill companies is yet another way to avoid personal responsibility, which is turning into a national past time around here.

Doctors shouldn't be over prescribing pain pills anymore than they should be over prescribing blood pressure meds. It is irresponsible to do so. They are the experts. How the hell am I supposed to know if I need 5 or 10 milligrams of whatever drug keeps my blood pressure low? Isn't that why doctors go to medical school?

The over-prescribing of medication is because doctors are getting penalized for seeing patients for the same thing more than once over a specific period of time. To keep this from happening they over-prescribe medications and say to take the medication till they are gone. Even though the patient may feel better after a few days (and in reality, they are better already) they are told to take the medication for the full two weeks, or whatever till the bottle is empty.

This can be problematic because the medications they are telling people to take till gone are in some cases in the opioid family. The bigger problem comes into play when you have people taking the meds that have addictive personalities. Even depending on the medication itself, some medications are laced with a coating that tastes like candy. This doesn't happen much anymore, except for the over the counter medications. Which if a person gets addicted to, the medication loses potency because the body becomes accustomed to the drug.

The reason medication is meant to taste terrible is to keep that from happening. Over the counter medications don't need to follow the same rule.

The song, a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down, wasn't just for fun... it was an indication of the time. Medication that worked tasted bad... today, pfft, heaven forbid...