Solving the "opioid crisis"

[Timsup2nothin]

So, the Trump administration is floating this.

Since the pharmaceutical companies have enriched themselves by getting so many Americans hooked on unnecessary painkillers that we are now suffering significant losses of Republicans through overdoses we need to take action. We should enrich the pharmaceutical companies further by having everyone carry around a shot of naloxone just in case they run across someone in a MAGA hat who has overdosed.

 

[Broken_Erika]

The Opioid problem is obviously Obama's fault. The only solution is to eliminate any and all forms of government oversight/involvement in the healthcare industry.(and eliminate all taxes on the pharmaceutical companies and place them above the law of course)

 

[Synobun]

We need to stop people killing themselves with opiods by serving them the death penalty.

America's rate of addiction will plummet overnight!

 

[Azem.Ocram]

I say reduce new prescriptions of opiods, put patient outcome above patient satisfaction, allow free drug rehabilitation for those who seek it, and STOP reviving heroin overdoses

 

[Broken_Erika]

We need to stop people killing themselves with opiods by serving them the death penalty.

America's rate of addiction will plummet overnight!

And while they're at it, they should make attempted suicide a capitol crime with a mandatory death sentence!

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I say reduce new prescriptions of opiods, put patient outcome above patient satisfaction, allow free drug rehabilitation for those who seek it, and STOP reviving heroin overdoses

I think "reduce new prescriptions of opioids" is closing the barn door after the horse is gone. I have to believe that my experience of young people is a fair indicator, and they seem widely inclined to distrust a doctor pitching the latest "bonus drug" the pharmaceutical companies are paying them to push.

 

[BvBPL]

I am totally in favor of more access to rescue medication for overdoses. So, yeah for that. This should be treated as a public health crisis, and making rescue medications more available serves that goal.

I am also in favor of needle exchanges and jail/prison redirection of addicts. I am also in favor of drug courts that are functional and therapeutic as opposed to the hideously nonfunctional ones that seem to be more prevalent.

I am generally opposed to many purposed and current restrictions on prescribing opioids as part of an appropriate pain-management plan.

 

[Azem.Ocram]

My plan would lead to more reasonable addicts getting the rehabilitation they seek while allowing unreasonable addicts to die.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I am totally in favor of more access to rescue medication for overdoses.

I might agree if the pharmaceutical companies that created the crisis were made to provide it as a penalty, but to them this solution to the crisis they caused is basically a new profit center.

 

[Synobun]

My plan would lead to more reasonable addicts getting the rehabilitation they seek while allowing unreasonable addicts to die.

All addicts are unreasonable. That's a prerequisite of addiction. Overdose is rarely the vessel of an intentional attempt on one's life.

 

[Berzerker]

Will I be protected by law if I administer the stuff to someone "I think" ODd and it messes them up?

 

[Broken_Erika]

They overdose because that stoopid dragon is so hard to catch!

Will I be protected by law if I administer the stuff to someone "I think" ODd and it messes them up?

Only if you're a registered republican and/or make more than one million a year.

 

[BvBPL]

I might agree if the pharmaceutical companies that created the crisis were made to provide it as a penalty, but to them this solution to the crisis they caused is basically a new profit center.

Maybe a punishment is appropriate, but making the distribution of life-saving medicine incumbent upon the prior punishment of a party is totally bonkers. Rescue medicine is need RIGHT NOW. That need cannot wait for some punishment.

 

[Azem.Ocram]

I think suicide should be legal anyway. Also, The D’ump only cares about this because his base are more likely to be opioid addicts than his opposition. His opposition tend to favor marijuana, which he wants to keep punishing harshly.

 

[Synobun]

Will I be protected by law if I administer the stuff to someone "I think" ODd and it messes them up?

Naloxone is inert in people who aren't opiod-dependent and aren't currently on opiates.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Maybe a punishment is appropriate, but making the distribution of life-saving medicine incumbent upon the prior punishment of a party is totally bonkers. Rescue medicine is need RIGHT NOW. That need cannot wait for some punishment.

Just out of curiosity, were you saying "rescue medicine is needed right now" twenty years ago? Or did this just start when overdoses became more common among more affluent, more white, addicts?

 

[BvBPL]

I don’t think I had an articulatable position on rescue medication twenty years ago. I doubt I knew of its existence.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I don’t think I had an articulatable position on rescue medication twenty years ago. I doubt I knew of its existence.

I don't know if it existed or not. I'm sure that the segment of society that is horrified by the current situation wasn't calling for development or deployment though. Back then as far as they were concerned the only good junkie was a dead junkie.

 

[BvBPL]

I was in favor of needle exchanges twenty years ago.
I am less concerned about what people were calling for twenty years ago. I am much more concerned about how to save lives today.

 

[Lexicus]

Maybe a punishment is appropriate, but making the distribution of life-saving medicine incumbent upon the prior punishment of a party is totally bonkers. Rescue medicine is need RIGHT NOW. That need cannot wait for some punishment.

You are missing the point entirely. If you don't punish the guilty parties they will just engineer another public health crisis for profit. All the better if they can also profit from the "solution" to the crisis while useful idiots say things like this.