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A comment on I was a drug rep and know how pharma companies pushed opioids. Parent comment

Re:I was a drug rep and know how pharma companies pushed opi... by bobcostas55 on Sunday December 01, 2019 @09:12PM (#21679344)
~75% of opioid misuse starts with people using them without a prescription. [0]

~90% of people who are prescribed opioids never develop addiction problems. [1]

Despite being in the midst of an opioid crisis with skyrocketing mortality rates, the mortality rate from prescription opiates has been ~stable for the last ~15 years. [2]

[0] https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-DetTab...

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25785523

[2] http://www.ncsl.org/portals/1/documents/health/APeeples0118_...

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Re:I was a drug rep and know how pharma companies pushed opi... by Spooky23 on Monday December 02, 2019 @12:15AM (#21679987)
Sounds great, until you realize that there are >200M opioid prescriptions filled every year. The numbers are large in absolute terms.

Something like 6% of american adults abuse alcohol -- and alcohol is less "addictive" than an opioid for most of the population.

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Re:I was a drug rep and know how pharma companies pushed opi... by ljf on Sunday December 01, 2019 @10:18PM (#21679558)
Wow, one in 10 people prescribed opioids become addicted? I wouldn't like those odds.
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Re:I was a drug rep and know how pharma companies pushed opi... by dnautics on Sunday December 01, 2019 @10:47PM (#21679667)
I don't know if that statistic is per course of prescription or per person, It's probably even lower if you know your family to have no history of addiction. If it is per person I'm frankly surprised it's that low given how prevalent genetic predisposition to addictive behaviors is.
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Re:I was a drug rep and know how pharma companies pushed opi... by smolder on Sunday December 01, 2019 @10:14PM (#21679538)
Opioid use without a prescription includes the massive amount of oxycodone sold as a street drug, which helped to seed this crisis.

I knew of people buying oxycodone on the street a decade ago, and it was clear their dealers had a supply of name brand pills beyond "pills stolen from the medicine cabinet".

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