Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

People use drugs for the same reason they drink alcohol, to reduce anxiety, which is an evolutionary motivation. The best drugs act on the opioid receptors of the brain; a terrific combination of euphoria and pain relief. Natural opiates like morphine, heroin & codine, come from the poppy plant, and they've been used for millennia, both recreationally and medicinally; in fact, morphine is named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dream. Opium is so desirable, wars were fought over it, and it was legal in America until the 20^th Century. There are also synthetic narcotics, called opioids, like methadone, oxycodone & fentanyl. These words have all entered the political lexicon of fear and apprehension: the so-called Opioid & Prescription Drug Crises.

The Opioid Crisis is conflated with prescription drugs because pharmacies are something everyone is familiar with while most people have no contact with the criminal underworld. There's nothing wrong with the prescription process, that's very secure, but misleadingly, reported opioid abuse includes the vast amount of illegal drugs in with prescription abuse. This leads to ridiculous proposed solutions like halving the number of legally-manufactured pills; then why not a quarter? Why make any of these drugs at all? It's the same inane pretext used in anti-gun arguments. Luckily, gun owners are protected by the Constitution; unfortunately, people who need pain medication are not.