Opioid Use Could Explain 20% of the Drop in American Men from Labor Force

Re:Opioid Use Could Explain 20% of the Drop in American Men ... by tabeth on Thursday September 07, 2017 @12:28PM (#15193335)

> The signals people pick up from their peer groups have a much larger impact on their behavior than media ever could.

This just begs the question. Why did the peers do it? Surely you see someone clearly messed up after doing drugs. Why go in follow them? There are other mindless things you could do like play video games to achieve a similar effect.

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Re:Opioid Use Could Explain 20% of the Drop in American Men ... by maxerickson on Thursday September 07, 2017 @01:21PM (#15193890)

There's all sorts of (arguably destructive/harmful) cultural behaviors that you could ask the same question about. Apparently the answer is that they are human.

I also wonder why you are so certain that video games are a substitute for drug use. Do you also not play video games?

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Re:Opioid Use Could Explain 20% of the Drop in American Men ... by tabeth on Thursday September 07, 2017 @04:35PM (#15195457)

I'd love to play, but no time to spare. I mentioned video games because the OP mentioned how peer group effects are strong. If that's the case and is a proposed explanation for opiate use, why aren't these people playing video games instead. Of course they could just be doing them both.

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Re:Opioid Use Could Explain 20% of the Drop in American Men ... by fnovd on Thursday September 07, 2017 @12:47PM (#15193563)

>Surely you see someone clearly messed up after doing drugs.

You may not start to see the negative impact of drug use until years later. By then it's too late.

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