Only 46 lives per day are lost to the class of opioids used to treat pain (CDC data).
Not 115.
When you factor out heroin, fentanyl, & methadone, it’s 46.
And 50% of these died because they took the painkiller with another substance.
Possibly alcohol. Actually, it’s usually alcohol.
But it might also be a sedative or a benzodiazepine like Xanax.
At this depth you are less likely to blame opioids and more likely to blame polysubstance use.
Right about now that 46 is looking a whole lot more like 23.
Now you are ready to know that an estimated 25-45% of those 23 people took opioids as a means to suicide.
You know this — *I* know this — because the former President of the American Psychiatric Association knows this. Her guestimare comes from an extensive review of the literature. Oquendo is her name.
Now, you’re thinking we shouldn’t blame opioids for the rise in overdoses since 2000.
That’s the year the CDC and FDA want us to use as a comparison.
Okay, I’ll bite. You’ll bite. Hell we’ll ALL bite.
And we’ll blame depression.
Life in 21st Century America is a much better — much more efficient — explanation for the rise in overdose fatalities since we took Sting’s advice and turned the clock to zero … “honey.” Let’s face it. It’s a simple fact. And you don’t seem the type to ignore a simple fact. I’m talking about the fact some people get hooked on substances that relieve a broader socioeconomic brand of pain.
Anxiety.
Stress.
Resentment.
Disappointment.
And then there were — 23, 22, 21 …..
~ 17.
Some dose recklessly out of frustration with intractable pain.
So now you’re thinking — why not blame the pain itself?
Lord only knows what our number — at last count 17 — looks like now.
The Lord also knows that some of these painkillers were obtained by diversion, not by prescription.
Actually we ALL know that. Not just Sherlock Holmes. But the less astute Elizabeth Holmes.
People in HOMES across America. Even LARRY Holmes probably knows that.
Of those addicted to Oxycontin, 79% never had a valid script.
So how can we blame the pain management and compassionate care enterprise for this?
And then there were ~ 5.
So now you know.
The real epidemic here is MASS HYSTERIA.
The real CRISIS is STREET DRUGS, DIVERSION, CURRENT EVENTS, and PAIN.
Of those prescribed painkillers, only 8-12% develop a use disorder & OF THOSE only 4-6% turn to heroin.
THE FACTS MAKE A MOCKERY OF FEDERAL MEDDLING IN PHYSICIAN TREATMENT OF PAIN.
While scripts were declining 30%, heroin overdoses were busy rising to 19%, as doctors forced to abandon patients drove them into the Street.
To suicide.
Or to clinics where the methadone is more deadly than the Rx painkillers — which I guess also explains the morbid suspicion anong lawmakers of butorphanol, kratom, and other relatively safe bridge drugs.
Filed under: General Problems
C’mon now; we’re in an age where facts are utterly irrelevant; appearance, PR, & bloviation are all. They’re gonna keep up this narrative b/c they’re constitutionally incapable of admitting to a mistake, any mistake. And they really wouldn’t give a rip if every CPP, disabled, & lower income person killed themselves anyway; they’d celebrate getting rid of the deadwood & parasites. Doesn’t matter how important or productive we were before we had to stop working; what have we done for them lately?
BEST ARTICLE I’VE EVER READ ON STATISTICS STEVE!!! Now if we could only get the major, mainstream media to publish it!!! Fat chance!
I like these more realistic numbers of (mis)representation and federal meddling. Larry Holmes, that’ts good!