It surely does have something to do with that, but the point is that it wouldn't be possible if Oxy weren't well-suited for recreational use.

But the entity deciding to lace certain drugs with another drug designed to harm a class of users, and deciding to not lace certain other drugs, is the same entity that runs the legal Oxy cartel. Surely it's not possible to believe that part of their actions in this regard are motivated by any sort of social concern.

Or am I missing something?

PS: this, of course, not getting into the obvious immorality of lacing a drug to harm addicts. Only a mentally sick society could think otherwise in 2016.

>PS: this, of course, not getting into the obvious immorality of lacing a drug to harm addicts. Only a mentally sick society could think otherwise in 2016.

It's not to harm addicts. It's to discourage recreational use in the first place. If you're prescribed Vicodin and are warned about the harmful effects of taking more than the prescribed amount, you are less likely to act on the "what the hell, might as well pop 3 or 4 and get a buzz" thought that pretty much anyone prescribed these drugs could reasonably have at some point. So you never start on the path to becoming a self-destructive addict.

> It's not to harm addicts. It's to discourage recreational use in the first place.

Yes, discourage recreational use of some specific highly-addictive drugs and not others, at the expense of providing some addicts with a slow agonizing death. As I said, sick.

It's definitely over-prescribed, especially by "pain clinics" that hand them out like candy. But in contrast, pain clinics handing out vicodin prescriptions like candy would be a much less serious issue because the acetaminophen limits the abuse potential.

It only limits the abuse potential long term—an addict will still abuse the stuff, they'll just ruin their liver in the process.

I could see if it was mixed it with something that made you harmlessly sick in larger quantities. But acetaminophen won't give you the negative consequences until much later when your liver is damaged.

It's not there to stop people who are already addicts. It's to dissuade the person prescribed the drug for a good reason from experimenting with it recreationally.