"Trying to cure crime by hiring more police officers is like trying to cure cancer by hiring more ambulance drivers"

[BornInMarch]

That research from 70/s is seriously interesting. I would expect it to be replicated and expanded upon.

You are wrong about a painkiller prescriptions not leading to addiction and use of illegal drugs. I know two felons who used illegal drugs when they stopped using prescription medication.

I didn’t mean that it never happened - just that it’s pretty rare.

I knew a man who was prescribed a dose of Oxycontin after surgery. Once his prescription ended he was able to return to his daily life without any problems or addictions.

What type of home lives did the two people you know have? Did they have a strong network of families and friends to make them feel cared for, or were they socially isolated? It is human nature to bond, and if someone can’t bond with other people then they’ll find something else to bond with (alcohol, cocaine, etc).

 

[Theo520]

I didn’t mean that it never happened - just that it’s pretty rare.

I knew a man who was prescribed a dose of Oxycontin after surgery. Once his prescription ended he was able to return to his daily life without any problems or addictions.

What type of home lives did the two people you know have? Did they have a strong network of families and friends to make them feel cared for, or were they socially isolated? It is human nature to bond, and if someone can’t bond with other people then they’ll find something else to bond with (alcohol, cocaine, etc).

Regarding the people I know, one was a successful businessman with a stable family and the other might have had a tougher upbringing.

Do you have any evidence it’s rare? WebMD indicated it was a common route to abuse, but no statistics.

Who Gets Addicted to Prescription Meds and Why
His path to addiction isn’t unusual. It often starts with a medication prescribed for a medical reason.

"The person had an injury or operation, they got a prescription,” says Peter R. Martin, MD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. “They basically liked it and kept on doing it.”

That leads them to become dependent on the drug, needing more and more to get the same effect. “The next step is to go from doctor to doctor to try to get medicine when the original doctor says no,” Martin says.

 

[mikekle]

No, I don’t agree.

• any drug used not as directed introduces risk. A misused prescription pill can readily kill.
• obtaining illegal prescription pills causes harm, just like other illegal drug trades
• counterfeit ‘prescription pills’ are used to fill demand, with similar unknown harms

Methadone is the only workable alternative I’m aware of, and it is no panacea.

Well, there are FAR more overdose deaths now versus before the painkiller laws, so less people were dying when they abused prescription pills.

Have to ‘contain’ abuse in some way, what would happen if they suddenly cut off the heroin supply to the entire country…we would have 100s of 1000s of addicts going searching for whatever they can get their hands on.

Same thing happened in 2012 when the painkiller laws took effect, all the addicts switched to whatever was readily available, and not so coincidental, heroin happened to be just about everywhere around that time, and cheap… making it a smooth transition for the addicts, and now, in 2016, at least in my area, we are having a heroin epidemic, overdose death keep rising each year, despite numerous efforts by KY lawmakers.

The worst part, they keep trying the same approach, more laws, using law enforcement, etc, when this has never worked?! LOL At some point, just like they did with alcohol prohibition, they are going to have to admit failure on their part, BUT, even if they rescind the pill laws, its really too late for that now, everyone is now hooked on a much stronger drug, so the pills would not satisfy them anymore.

 

[Theo520]

The 2012 pain killer laws were in response to a growing epidemic, not the cause of it. Funny how you admit more regs and enforcement don’t work here but think they will for guns.

I’m not arguing for more drug laws BTW, we have the illegal activity covered. I expect the answer to it lies elsewhere, I don’t what though.

Well, there are FAR more overdose deaths now versus before the painkiller laws, so less people were dying when they abused prescription pills.

Have to ‘contain’ abuse in some way, what would happen if they suddenly cut off the heroin supply to the entire country…we would have 100s of 1000s of addicts going searching for whatever they can get their hands on.

Same thing happened in 2012 when the painkiller laws took effect, all the addicts switched to whatever was readily available, and not so coincidental, heroin happened to be just about everywhere around that time, and cheap… making it a smooth transition for the addicts, and now, in 2016, at least in my area, we are having a heroin epidemic, overdose death keep rising each year, despite numerous efforts by KY lawmakers.

The worst part, they keep trying the same approach, more laws, using law enforcement, etc, when this has never worked?! LOL At some point, just like they did with alcohol prohibition, they are going to have to admit failure on their part, BUT, even if they rescind the pill laws, its really too late for that now, everyone is now hooked on a much stronger drug, so the pills would not satisfy them anymore.