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August 6 - August 20, 2019
Instead, the addictive potential of OxyContin was seen first in the rural areas of Appalachia and in the small towns of New England.
Americans—who make up less than 5 percent of the global population—were consuming 80 percent of the total global opioid supply, and more people
were dying every year from drug overdose than ever died in a single year during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
the physicians who cumulatively prescribe the most opioid painkillers are general practitioners,
“epistemic injustice” is the experience of not having one’s testimony taken seriously due to being part of a particular group.
Somehow, as a result of a hundred different pieces of discrete good fortune—because of features of my life that I had done nothing to earn—I didn’t take any of the pills lying around my house.
We don’t have a prescription opioid problem; we have a pain problem that opioids happen to play a significant role in.
A strange thing happens when your disability begins to become invisible, though: people stop recognizing your limits (which was exactly what I wanted) and start demanding more of you (a side effect I hadn’t foreseen).
The group taking opioids did not have increased function or decreased pain over their non-opioid counterparts. Indeed, those on opioids had slightly more pain at the end of the twelve months, as well as significantly more side effects.
As the CDC puts it: opioids should not be considered first-line therapy for chronic, noncancer pain.
The situation gets even worse when we start to discuss less-traditional therapies. Despite an evidence base supporting exercise, yoga, mindfulness meditation, massage, and acupuncture (more on this later), many insurance plans cover none of these expenses, so taking up a new lifestyle to combat pain can get expensive.
At the most basic level, we need to do two things: first, provide evidence-based addiction treatment that is affordable and accessible; and second, keep those suffering from addiction alive until they are willing to use this treatment.
Since opening as the first safe injection site in North America in 2003, Insite has served more than three and a half million people, intervened in thousands of overdoses, and recorded not a single fatality.
Even those who freely choose to use drugs—whether prescription or illicit—surely don’t deserve to die for what they did.
The question this line of reasoning leaves us with is this: aren’t we simply better off expanding our circle of empathy and care rather than trying to figure out who deserves our attention?
Let’s change the way we view drug laws, health care, and our very concept of what people “deserve.” We shouldn’t address addiction because some people deserve our help; we should do it because people are suffering, and helping them is within our power.
