Opioids Aren’t the Problem and Chris Christie Isn’t the Solution
by Sal Rodriguez at Counterpunch
... "But there’s a missing element to these numbers. Opioid overdoses usually involve more than just opioids – and often entail the mixing of multiple drugs, like alcohol,
benzodiazepines, cocaine and fentanyl, either by choice (as is
typically true of the first three substances) or due to unscrupulous
black market dealers tainting their product (with fentanyl). This occurs
so often, “opioid overdose” is virtually a misnomer – and many, if not
most opioid overdoses are better described as “polydrug toxicity,” as
suggested by a 2003 paper in the Journal of Urban Health." ...
... "how often do we hear from politicians or pundits about the reality that opioid overdoses tend to involve more than just opioids? Or that greater emphasis must be made on warning doctors and patients about the risks of concurrent use?" ...
... "the vast majority of users does not misuse pain relievers, and even
among those who do, most don’t even do so long enough to have done it in
the prior month."
"This is consistent with research indicating rates of abuse or addiction among people prescribed opioids could be as little as 0.27 percent of people prescribed opioids to 4.5 percent." ...... "as is the case with resistance to talking about drug mixing, politicians simply don’t want to acknowledge the fact that it is drug prohibition which has made heroin as dangerous as it is." ...
... "Messages that opioids are especially likely to ruin peoples lives, that they are especially dangerous and that government intervention is needed to save people from themselves is just a rehashing of the same old prohibitionist attitudes that enabled the growth in prison populations, overdose deaths and discord all around the world in the first place."
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