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A comment on The making of an opioid epidemic. Parent comment

Re:The making of an opioid epidemic by freedomben on Thursday November 08, 2018 @11:31PM (#18412333)
It may surprise you to learn that very few (about 2%) of people who use prescription opioids end up abusing them [1]. Also, there is also no correlation (let alone causation) between lower prescribing rates and lower overdose rates [2].

[1] https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/21/the-myth-...

[2] https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/10/30/overdoses...

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Re:The making of an opioid epidemic by wavegeek on Friday November 09, 2018 @03:15AM (#18413029)
There were similar observations after the Vietnam war. Many soldiers were opiate addicts over there but the vast majority quit when they returned home and were no longer in the hell of combat.

Any level of scrutiny is going to leave some untreated who need it and some people getting it frivolously and perhaps getting addicted. The question is the role of individual responsibility and where the balance lies.

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