> Street dealers, "low level" or not, do actually kill their clients.

In much the same sense as people who sell cigarettes do; perhaps we should, therefore, have life without parole for convenience store clerks.

If I buy drugs from a street dealer I know what I'm getting into. If I get prescribed opioids from a supposedly trained professional whom I'm supposed to be able to trust I don't. So as far as I'm concerned adults should be allowed to take whatever drugs they want. However, it should be illegal to bullshit them into taking them. Especially as a medical professional.

Don't worry, we've so over-corrected this thing as a society due to our knee-jerk emotional reactions and mob mentality, you won't be getting any opioids prescribed.

Fourth stage cancer patients are now having a hard time getting them. Chronic pain patients that have been stable for decades are being heartlessly dropped by doctors that now fear the DEA. We are turning our backs as a society on the most vulnerable among us.

Oy! What I really want is all drugs to be legal and people being properly educated about them. Starting in school.

>people being properly educated about them

As if the US government agencies would ever let that happen. They seem to favor a "shock 'em straight" approach that's utterly ineffective.

Totally agree. After decades of drug wars and putting people in cages, I think it's time to admit prohibition doesn't work (I thought we learned that in the 1920s, but I guess not). I tend to believe that education is the answer. I'd love to see us give that a try.

Manslaughter is different from murder.. selling someone something that they use to kill themselves, is different from selling something stronger than they anticipated, is also different from pulling the trigger yourself. Intent matters in the eye of the law.

Chances are you won't die unless you overdose on the opioids and stop breathing with nobody there to assist you.

and so do doctors prescribing unnessisary opiates.