"Depending who you ask, further restricting prescription opioids could actually be driving mortality up even higher by pushing people to the contaminated street market."
The other side of the argument is that restricting prescription opioid prescribing decreases the overdose rate, which is not at all how the history of this has played out. Overdose rates climbed as more prescriptions were written up to 2012 (is that surprising?). Since then, we've reduced prescribing to 1992 levels while the overdose rate skyrocketed.
I really think anyone taking that side of the argument has such strong moral investments in prohibition that they can't be taken seriously. Can anyone give me a counterexample?
"Depending who you ask, further restricting prescription opioids could actually be driving mortality up even higher by pushing people to the contaminated street market."
The other side of the argument is that restricting prescription opioid prescribing decreases the overdose rate, which is not at all how the history of this has played out. Overdose rates climbed as more prescriptions were written up to 2012 (is that surprising?). Since then, we've reduced prescribing to 1992 levels while the overdose rate skyrocketed.
I really think anyone taking that side of the argument has such strong moral investments in prohibition that they can't be taken seriously. Can anyone give me a counterexample?