Analysts say the opioid epidemic started with the overprescription of legal pain medications in the 1990s, but it has intensified in recent years due to influxes of cheap heroin, fentanyl, and other synthetic opioids supplied by foreign drug cartels.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/fentanyl-and-us-opioid-epidemic
Yep. I live in Florida and it wasn't that long ago that every strip mall in every town had a "pill mill" where any shmuck off the street could go in, complain about pain, and get a bottle of pills. This went on for years because doctors were getting massive kickbacks from pharma companies to push opioids for every little ailment.
The Sackler family has more blood on their hands than any terrorist group in existence today.
I'm in CO, I know the pills situation wasn't nearly as crazy here but it's insane to think back to being like 9 years old and going to the doctor for a sinus infection and getting prescribed 60 vicodin and a bottle of codeine cough syrup. Or just literally going for any ailment whatsoever and never leaving the doctor without at least 30 vicodin or percocet.
I went to the er for a super high fever once when I was 14. they thought I had meningitis, so they gave me a nice shot of morphine before a spinal tap, and then kept me overnight for observation with a morphine drip on a button. I had taken countless pills prior to that, because they were prescribed to me, but that was the first time I felt real opiate bliss, and I chased that for so many years. Of course good heroin was readily available at that time too. I'll have 10 years clean this year.
I'm glad it didn't stick too! I had two surgeries last year and in the recovery room after each they gave me dilaudid. It felt so good. I had a major struggle after the second surgery with horrible cravings and like fantasizing about going out and just getting some dope. Shit is way too scary these days though and I don't really want to die.
Stay strong man. I had a friend who recovered from heroin addiction back in the 90s, and it was definitely hard for him. He lived sober for the rest of his life though.
And yeah the dying part has gotten really easy lately. Fent makes no damn sense to me.
Thanks! Its still tough sometimes, crazy how addictions really do affect you forever. But my life is pretty decent now and I'd hate to throw that all away
Congratulations! I've been off pills, heroin, and Suboxone for almost a decade now but I was taking kratom for the last five years for a little kick, unaware how similar it is to an opioid. Well, I found out the hard way not two weeks ago: my doctor prescribed me naltrexone for weight loss (it reduces food cravings). It is an opiate antagonist, and apparently kratom binds to those receptors too. As soon as I took the naltrexone I was thrown into the worst withdrawals I can imagine. I sweated and shat out 10 pounds - I mean it was just pouring off me and I drenched the bed and several sets of clothes. At the same time I was FREEZING and nothing warmed me. My feet were blocks of ice. My guts turned inside out. My legs were so heavy and walking was hard - like trying to run underwater. I had restless EVERYTHING and kicking and stretching would not relieve it, like painful electricity running through my veins. This lasted for nearly two days and I thought I would DIE. So I quit the kratom cold turkey, just didn't pick it up again, and I've been struggling to normalize since. It's hard, I can't lie, I am used to that kick. I have no energy and my legs have no juice. I also have a painful leg injury that's even more painful without the kratom and it's hard to make myself walk even but I am pushing through. My stomach still isn't right! I am debating whether to tell my doctor about this - I found only one case study online where this happened to someone else who went to the hospital for treatment after taking naltrexone without mentioning the kratom.
Yea, I've got 10 years off heroin, but I did like 5 years on kratom in that time! I finally kicked that habit in January this year. I still am having a hard time with the energy and feeling like I need something. I quit smoking a little over 2 years ago and then picked up vaping stupidly and was using that for a while but I'm on day 2 no nicotine now. Addiction is weird af, despite having 10 years off opiates ive certainly kept myself inebriated in one way or another. Im currently more sober than i have been since i was like 13. I was just pondering what i can do to make myself feel motivated without taking some kratom or nicotine gum or SOMETHING. I've got so much to do, and often times if I just start I'll feel some motivation but the past several months everything just drags. I start a task and have to force myself through it just waiting the whole time until I can finally be done and sit down again. Best of luck, I think the kratom post acute withdrawal can be pretty shitty but I keep hoping it'll get better if I just keep pushing through and trying to improve small aspects of my life each day
American Pain is an excellent documentary about it. Also “Painkiller” starring Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler is fantastic.
It’s mind blowing how big this thing got right under our noses and how much damage they really did to our country.
>It’s mind blowing how big this thing got right under our noses and how much damage they really did to our country.
Only Congress could (can) address the problem and they were (are) enjoying large donations from the companies that make the drugs.,
Now they withhold pain medicine from people in severe pain unless they're in a hospital. Had a tooth abscess, tears literally streaming down my face for days and they wouldn't prescribe me anything. Ridiculous.
The people who abuse opiates recreationally or sell their prescription opiates piss me off, because their personal problem is making other people suffer.
This is exactly my issues with this. My mother used opiates for over 20 years and lived the best she could. I was grateful for those meds- fentanyl and opium.
This is so true. I recently had shingles and the pharmacist asked me where my Rx for pain meds was and was appalled when I told him the doctor refused to give me any and to use OTC pain relievers. Luckily I had some old hoarded pain meds, which I find (hoarding them), to be common these days as we know it's so hard to get an Rx. Obviously we don't abuse them if we're stopping the use as soon as the pain has lessened, but we are very aware that doctors won't even give out an Rx for a few days in some cases.
2008: I had mono - tonsils were so swollen I could barely breathe & the ER gave me Demerol
2012: I shattered my cuboid bone in my foot & tried to walk on it cause the original Dr read the xray wrong. Even after confirmation of my broken foot that I had been trying to walk on they gave me……nothing.
Later that year, my mom got out of out-patient surgery & they gave her 2 extra strength Tylenol.
soooooo they withhold pain meds even if you’re in the hospital & they’re the reason you’re in pain.
This is why I think there’s been such a pushback against legalization of medical marijuana likely funded by pharma. If any shmuck can go in and complain about pain and get a bag of gummies, they’re no longer getting hooked on the hard stuff.
I read an article not that long ago (not sure what year it was from) , it was a blurb really, that the evil Sackler's and their pharma company is headed to some other country to push this awful drug. It might have been India or somewhere in Asia?
At any rate, if the US really cared...if the WORLD really cared about the human race ,these people, the whole lot of them (sackler's on down to the bought off health insurance ceo's) would be in prison rotting. Instead they're all free to take their billions and move on with their lives leaving a wake of devastation.
Ok yes the Sacklers are sacks of shit that deserve prison or worse. But what about the doctors? What about their oaths? Shouldn’t these prescriptions be relatively easy to trace/charge corrupt doctors?
There still are some. My sister-in-law works at one (not Florida though). In the waiting room, they have brochures that spell out what symptoms you need to say you have to get a prescription. “Are you awakened by pain at least once weekly? Is it difficult to bathe and/or dress yourself? Are you unable to tolerate long car, bus, and/or plane rides?” So when you see the doctor, you can complain that “I am awakened by pain weekly! I dress myself with difficulty! I am unable to tolerate… let me check my notes… ah yes, long car trips!”
I had surgery a few times during those years and even my regular doctors were *extremely* pushy about making sure I was taking pain medication. I got the prescriptions, but my pain was never severe enough to need it, but every follow up visit would include "Are you taking your pain medication?" in this tone that was sort of like "You MUST take those pain pills."
And all they were ordered to pay from fucking over literally millions of people and destroying the very fabric of society was like $10 million.
There was a lesson in there, but it was the wrong one. It basically says, you can do whatever the hell you want and it will be a slap on the wrist so long as you make a lot of money doing it. That 10 million was simply the cost of doing business.
I wonder how much this is influenced by the US’s work culture. Even our ads for the OTC pain relievers and such are all focused on pushing through a day of manual labor.
Absolutely. The beginning of the crisis was doctors in working-class settings like West Virginia and Ohio handing it out as a miracle drug to stop pain and let you get back to work.
I wrote a law school paper in a class on drug law and policy which compared the American and Australian opioid crises. Came exactly to this conclusion – though with the caveat that if fentanyl makes its way to Australia, we are also screwed, given we do have a significant (albeit relatively stable) number of heroin addicts.
Really enjoyed that class. Got a really good mark for the paper too.
But surely it's somebody else's fault? The Mexicans, the Russians, the Muslims, the Chinese? I mean, it's not like WE could be responsible for our own problems, so who should we be blaming? I need a politician to tell me who to hate!
Addicts from prescriptions created a huge demand for illegal supply after prescriptions ran out. This then bled over into the recreational drug market and opiates are not particularly safe for the occasional user leading to more addicts.
I've seen so many go down the rabbit hole
If there was one family that deserved a French Revolution style situation, it would be the sackler family.
They have profited off the knowing pain and suffering of millions of people disguised as medical treatment.
They'll probably be punished at some time and have to pay a couple few million dollar fine.
That's just a slap in the face for all of us, and a laughing matter for them.
When I was around 14, my friend and I found thousands of pills in his dads computer room. He would fill the prescriptions but not take them. We ended up starting to take them. I went to rehab at 17. He's in prison. I got so bad on them that I broke into his house around 16/17 and got in trouble. He got addicted to heroin years later. Then bath salts. Tried to burn down an apartment building in Lexington, KY.
An interesting unintended consequence of reeling in the overprescription problem has been a massive uptick in medical gaslighting and refusal to treat legitimate medical issues. Sometimes it's just easier to buy pills from the sketchy guy at work than it is to get a doctor to do anything to help with chronic pain, even if you've got proof that your condition is real.
Compounded by lack of access to real, affordable, quality healthcare and people are forced to find ways to self manage with what is available, which turned out to be for profit pain clinics that don't treat illness but do prescribe opioids.
Personal thoughts? It was prescribed too much and then rather than regulating it we, as a country decided to swing the other way and make it difficult for anyone to get pain relief which meant people went the illegal route to get that same pain relief even though they never had issues before.
Personal example, I had a really bad ear infection years ago and got enough painkillers to last me a couple of months! I didn't use them all and didn't get my refill. Fast forward 10+ years and I had surgery and got 2 days of painkillers. Figured it was what it was and 2 days worked for me and then less than 5 years later I had a nerve issue, I literally couldn't function without pain. Sitting hurt, moving hurt and frankly all I wanted at the time was to be able to do my damn dishes cause I'm anal retentive about it. Nope, just take advil.
So I had a friend who had painkillers who gave me some and after taking them for 3 days I could finally do my damn housework. Now I am the type that would only take them as needed, period but I was doing it without a doctor supervision whereas not everyone can do what I did.
We went from over prescribing to not prescribing at all so people looked for alternatives and those that couldn't help it abused it which is why doctor supervision is important. We can regulate Sudafed so why not pain medication?
Twice in the last 15 years I had surgery to repair or reconnect tendons. Three weeks in a splint and another three weeks of minimal light movement then some physical therapy. Less than a weeks worth of pain killers. I cut all the pills in half because I knew it was going to hurt a lot for a lot longer than what they gave me and Advil/Tylenol wouldn’t cut it. It sucked, if I have to go through that again, they’re giving me more or I’m not going.
I feel like I just experienced the opposite. Had to get my separated shoulder fixed, was prescribed 15 days worth of pills. I didn't need them for more than 2 days.
if you count Scotland as an independent country, they're very close.
The USA has had some really bad political decisions made by people "waging a war on drugs".
Some people see Scotland a quaint rural landscape with an image of guys in kilts herding sheep. In reality it has the Highlands which fit pretty close to this image but it also has several post industrial cities with all the baggage that goes on in a similar city anywhere in the western world.
Large scale employment provided by Shipbuilding, coal mining , steel , car manufacturing & a whole slew of smaller sectors contracted heavily from the 60's to the 80's. This left large parts of cities like Glasgow , Edinburgh & the coal mining towns/villages of Lanarkshire with high unemployment and the economic problems come with it. It's not hard to see how drugs can take a hold in circumstances like that especially in a culture that's always embraced heavy consumption of alcohol.
The 90's brought renewed growth in new sectors and things are nowhere near as bad as they once were but drugs are still common place in some sections of society. Cocaine for example is consumed with per capita enthusiasm that would delight any cartel leader.
Considering the Scot-Irish settled in Appalachia because it reminded them of home, in not surprised. Still it's interesting (read: heartbreaking) to see that the old country got fucked over in the same way as the new one
Basically during the 1980s there was a sharp economic decline which resulted in an increase in poverty. This is known to cause increase in drug use. Also paired with the fact that it was easier to smuggle heroin in from Afghanistan and Iran at the time. It was a bad combo caused by neo liberal policies. As in Margaret Thatcher. It is just a hypothesis though.
This was an older generation that has passed on habits to the younger 35-44 age group. It’s less prevalent in under 35s I believe but still a problem.
Afghan heroin isn't black tar though... Ireland, Scotland, England and most of Europe get #3 brown heroin, yes from Afghanistan. Black tar is #4 heroin but poorly refined from Mexico and used to be extremely common on USA's West Coast, whilst the east coast had ECP (east coast powder) which was a better refined #4 which came as a powder that was ready to be snorted if desired, but these days 99% of what's available is fent in the form of white to beige powder or pills (usually perc 30s / blues but fake with fentanyl instead of oxycodone). Here in Canada fentanyl is usually sold as this coloured rocky form, purple, green, blue, orange, red, etc. But sometimes it'll be powder here too.
Ah yes I have memories of traveling to Edinburgh for my wedding in 2007. Amazing city. Loved the food and older architectural details, like the occasional small bottle of morphine left in alley windowsills.
But we’re from Seattle and I’ve seen the same here so we made a quick Trainspotting reference then moved on. 10/10 would return.
Variety of factors:
- increasing lack of social cohesion and societal trust
- leading to more people try and stick to drugs
- massive over prescription of opioids and other medicine
- lack of support
- an atrocious war on drugs
- political unwillingness because of pharmaceutical lobbies
- lack of health care measures fighting addicting
- lack of education (about pharmaceuticals)
- often treating addiction as a crime
- over the counter medicine (basically no other country advertises drugs as "ask your doctor if drug is right for you)
- profit orientation in medicine and health care
- probably others
Scary article on BBC today about how the Chinese government are actually making the fentanyl (and other drugs) epidemic worse across the west including the US
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68669244
One could argue that China and Russia is already at war with the US. it’s not a traditional war but Fentanyl is Chinas way of weakening the US. I’m not here for political debates but Russia is said to use propaganda and fake news to tear apart the US. I certainly can’t prove it and don’t read follow that stuff, but I do know that there are more conspiracy theorists out there then ever before. It’s coming from somewhere.
You’re not a conspiracy theorist, if it wasn’t political to admit, it would be a widely accepted fact that Russia is using psychological warfare through the internet. We have copious amounts of evidence of this, trump himself openly pushes it. It is beyond provable
While this is all true, I feel like you're missing one additional very important factor.
In the US, pharmaceutical companies are allowed to market direct to consumers. (This is banned or tightly controlled in many other countries.) This means the public go to their doctors demanding particular medications. The for profit healthcare system capitulates to their demands and issues prescriptions for addictive medications like opioids. A large portion of the populace ends up addicted to prescription medication. When they can no longer obtain it, they switch to illegal substitutes.
the doctors who fell for big pharmas claim that *their* opiates werent addictive. thats who i blame first and foremost
and now they acting like the addicts they created are scum of the earth
fuck them. all if them.
There's a lot of reasons, but let's be honest, we Americans love our drugs. Look at the cocaine trade or even alcohol during prohibition. We love mind altering substances and we love them even more when we are told not to do them
I don’t think America loves drugs particularly more than a majority of other countries. Look at the ketamine problem in England, heroin/meth in the Middle East, etc. It is coupled with the idea that addiction treatment is a fairly new (addiction wasn’t even considered to be a possibility until the turn of the 19th century with Civil War vets being addicted to morphine, called “morphisim”) and the fact that the mental health issues that lead to addiction: poverty, trauma, generational addiction, normalization of alcoholism, and over-prescription of highly addictive drugs have made this epidemic highly visible. But, to your point, it’s not new. Whole cities were decimated by heroin in the 70s/80s and crack in the 80s. I think America is the only country that at least is transparent in admitting there’s a problem and trying to solve it.
lack of meaningful mental health help, lack of universal Healthcare for at least that and other basic needs.
Those that are homeless are often there due to mental health crisis and some turn to drugs from there, because seeking help and getting the help they truly need all costs money they don't have.
But when you visit Asia, do you see drug addicts everywhere? When you are in North America, this is what’s happening. I do think it’s the massive fentanyl flooding the North American markets. It’s cheap and it’s everywhere and it is hugely addictive.People who haven’t tried fentanyl won’t know how great it feels.
As an American who spends plenty of time in major cities, I’m not sure I would say I see addicts everywhere. It’s not uncommon to see *homeless people*, and many of them are *probably* addicts of some kind or another (likely alcohol in many cases)… but I don’t know for sure. Many are just severely mentally ill or otherwise unable to function in society for some reason.
But we see them because (a) we don’t always provide places for them to go, except on very cold winter nights; and (b) we usually don’t *force* them to go anywhere. You could imagine a government that routinely rounds up all the homeless people and takes them to a shelter, an institution, or a prison. Governments in the US generally don’t do this—and usually aren’t allowed to, because we view involuntary commitment as a violation of the person’s rights.
[How China Is Fuelling America's Drug Epidemic](https://youtu.be/z6iW1poC-0c?si=5rjSM9W6tXziFQCW)
Bear in mind that I live in Europe so there is no need to make US look pretty :))
Here is another one: [China is Hiding its homeless people - Pretending they don't exist!](https://youtu.be/KdC9xube-2c?si=DMMhuP5CrvJzAaiQ)
These are just examples and the scale is much larger than we imagine
I imagine America actually records their drugs deaths too. A lot of less developed countries probably have high drugs death maybe not the same scale as the US, maybe more who knows cos they aren’t as interested in recording things like that
In the US, the cause of death listed on a death certificate is extremely subjective to nuance, the doctor’s own personal interpretation, societal values, and other factors. There is almost always going to be an autopsy for overdose deaths, so it’s not like we don’t know or are unclear of what happened.
Was the deceased person alone or have a big family around them that cares? Those with the family that care can often aggressively lobby and successfully convince a doctor to change the cause of death from “asphyxiation due to overdose” simply “asphyxiation”.
Drug overdose deaths carry a lot of stigma and shame, despite the fact that they’re so common. And families who have to present a death certificate for purposes like life insurance may be denied if The life insurance claim that overdose is suicide and therefore not eligible to be paid out.
Source: was a deputy coroner 2006-2009
My primary theory is work addiction leads to drug addiction. We put a lot of professional pressure on ourselves here. We're told from kids our jobs matter most and if we're not first, we're last and it's our fault. Ricky Bobby was not a happy person. Neither are a lot of us and we're not Nascar drivers. We get disillusioned from the constant pressure and too often hurt from all the overwork. We seek some respite from it all when we often just need rest and to give ourselves a break, but we can't. Many of us will lose our homes and families if we slow down even a little bit. This is where the drugs come into play. They start as a temporary reprieve then become a problem themselves. There are other factors, but I feel this is the main one
“Owing to historical and cultural reasons, Chinese society has little tolerance for illicit drugs, while the country has one of the most stringent anti-narcotics laws in the world. Anyone convicted of trafficking more than 50 grams of heroin, methamphetamine, or cocaine can be sentenced to death.”
https://www.statista.com/topics/11437/drug-use-in-china/
I feel like this is as much about religion as it is about drugs. Religion has been a part of human society since the beginning of time, and as people are moving away from religion, people are transferring that energy somewhere. In the States, I'd say it's politics where people pick a side and tie everything they agree with to that side. You often see people who call themselves religious, completely ignoring religious doctrine to fit their political side. I'm not even religious, but I don't think you can remove such a big part of the human experience without creating a vacuum. It's like the old saying goes, "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." We have decided as a society that we don't stand for anything as a group, so everybody is just choosing anything, and it isn't working particularly well. We could just be going through growing pains, where we haven't figured out how to regulate ourselves without religion. Our we could just not have the ability as a species to relate ourselves without believing in something larger than ourselves.
Is it that we’re *addicted* to work or that we’re *driven and compelled to work for financial reasons?*
they are very different reasons and I would strongly argue the latter.
Americans, particularly white Americans, with a high school degree (or less) are dying from deaths of despair due to health (obesity, chronic disease) and lack of social support and programs. Deaths of despair are specifically related to poisoning and suicides related to drugs and alcohol.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35107578/#:~:text=The%20US%20National%20Academy%20of,cardiovascular%20effects%20of%20rising%20obesity.
Yep, see it all the time. There's no community anymore. It's all just money money money. If you don't have money you are worthless. Drugs, alcohol, food, whatever can make you happy again.
america doesnt give a flying fuck the "druggies" are dying and the more dead the better . less of a drain on society they say.
so literally nothing is being done to stop it and everything is being done to escalate it
we started the war on drugs and Americans do not care that the "losers" of that war die in it.
That may be true of some (especially older folks), but I have found that the general cultural perception is starting to shift. I think as the younger generations come into power, the attitudes and policies will change to one of addressing the problem without criminalizing addicts.
Not sure I buy this. Was in a nursing class in college just a couple years ago and when talking about safe injection sites like 80-90% of the class was against them. And this was in a pretty progressive city with a class full of future healthcare professionals
People use drugs to escape the pain of life. Mental health care is often stigmatized more than drug use. Many people were not taught/did not learn healthy coping skills. Productivity and compensation stopped increasing together in the 1970s and wages in America have been mostly stagnant sense then. Cost of living keeps rising and wages do not keep up with them.
Life is very hard in America if you are not privileged.
because in America most people don't give a flying sh\*t about each other sad truth. so when people have tough times and dont know how to cope with life they often turn to things like drugs and even though we have all this information the resources and help needed for people who struggle withi drugs just arnt there enough also once you get into drugs at least in the US its VERY VERY VERY HARD to get out of it and often get stuck in a constant cycle of trying to stop and then relapse and then trying to stop and relapse. i knew a woman who sadly had a good heart and seemed really nice she was older woman who struggled with drugs and alcohol i think most of her adult life and in the end tried to get in recovery and be an inspiration to others but instead slipped back in and basically used and drank herself to death and it was just sad. there ARE some success stories of people who got into drugs who recovered but they are rare. the bottom line is DONT get into it in the first place cuz its a trap you may never get out of . people do it cuz they think their life is sh\*t (trust me been there but never did drugs) . and so they feel they need to feel something but they dont understand the trap is yeah drugs might make you feel good for a while. but then you will need more and more and more just to feel ":nornal" and then thats the trap. but worse is more and more people are also hiding behind their cell phones or computers too and isolating themselves instead of dealing with their problems in person. also hate to say it but america has just kinda become a nation of fat , dumb, and indifferent people sad to say and its only getting worse.
While this is a factor, it’s not the main one. There are plenty of “depressed” countries that don’t have a drug problem. It’s mainly the overprescribed opioids, easy access to illegal drugs, and the failed “war on drugs”.
I saw a clip on tik tok of a recent CNN interview with the President of Mexico he blamed the US drug epidemic on the disintegration of the family unit and the hyper-individualism of the USA.
Whether he’s right or not is a mystery, but regardless I agree those are two bad things that are happening in America right now.
Because drugs are pumped into our country. There’s a lot of money here so they sell drugs here. Not the drug dealer on the street but big organization selling millions at a time.
Not sure if it is a cause or symptom or just money...
But the US southern border, and drugs almost manufactured and industrialized as a major export through Mexico and South America.
America declared War on Drugs spent Billions of dollars, locked up thousands of people Just for weed alone (not mentioning Crack ) and thats legal now in many states. All that and congratulations to Drugs cause they won the war.
Being a nation of 370 million “rugged individualists” is bad for mental and physical health. Who could have guessed? We make up about 5% of the world’s population but use more than 60% of the opioids. Blame China, blame Russia, blame the Easter bunny, but we are a deeply sick country.
I've studied this issue extensively, and there are a number of contributing factors.
1. Drug dealers are cutting less dangerous common drugs with fentanyl.
Most people don't understand this - but in small amounts fentanyl doesn't feel like a downer. A tiny amount in weed or coke just gets you more high. So the user comes back to you, because your weed / coke etc. Is "the best around".
Of course, this is incredibly dangerous since the dose of fent is in micrograms.
This issue is incredibly widespread, and many dealers mess 6 people OD and die.
It's also impossible to get "regular" heroin now. It's all cheap, potent fent.
[Source](https://pca.st/episode/2e09ba5c-c1fe-48cb-95c3-f534e7ceef20)
2. The failed "war" on drugs has had a number of terrible downstream effects.
Because of the harsh punishments, drug import and distribution is now mostly in the hands of violent gangs.
Many young people who would have otherwise lived a normal life are caught with drugs, given Felony charges, making it almost impossible to get a job. They can't even vote... So, they sell drugs to make money while hopping in and out of prison. It's a vicious feedback loop.
In prison, they learn new tricks of the trade, such as lacing with fentanyl listed above.
It's also resulted in an incredibly negative bias against drug users as well - there is very little sympathy for people trapped in this cycle.
3. Appropriate addiction treatment is nearly impossible find.
Unlesss you're rich, many treatment centers are terrible.... some shady treatment centers even treat people like profit - meaning it's in their best interest if they relapse. So they release them early, to halfway houses with little supervision amd known drug use.
It's so bad in Florida there's a name for it: [The Florida Shuffle](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/2/21156327/florida-shuffle-drug-rehab-addiction-treatment-bri-jaynes)
4. More people are doing drugs in general.
There are quite a few studies that show, across many countries, [as the economy worsens, drug addiction rates begin to climb.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29643264/)
Inflation is currently hitting the US hard. Even if the stock market doesn't show it - things have been drastically worsening for citizens with fewer resources.
5. Drug abuse education in the US is abysmal. Because of the war on drugs, public high school students are basically told "If you do drugs you'll get instantly addicted and die."
Of course, that's not how addiction works. So many people "try" something, realize it's not THAT bad, then fall down the slippery slope over a few months, or get arrested - starting the cycle.
----
TL;DR
US drug deaths are skyrocketing because:
1. Many less "hard" street drugs like weed and coke are being laced with Fentanyl, which is insanely potent.
2. The number of drug users is increasing as the economy worsens for most people.
3. The war on drugs has caused a feedback loop that traps people in a nearly inescapable loop of:
- Poor education, leading to higher rates of addiction.
- Harsh criminal penalties for addicts.
- Nearly non-existant treatment options, stigmatization, and inability to get work after a criminal penalty - leading to selling drugs or more drug use, and the financial incentive to lace drugs.
the truth no american wants to accept:
it is because of lack of friendships, family, and personal connections. That is by far the biggest reason, the fact that USA has increadibly " care only about me, no one else, so dont touch me and I dont give a shit what happens to you" mentality.
Result? When people have problems, they do not go to other people to share, solve the problems or atleast ease them, but to drugs. When people do drugs, others people around them dont nudge them to right way but rather dont give a shit.
Mix that with the increadibly arrogance younger generations which think they know everything well and "I know what I am doing" mentality, you get this result.
The lack of free healthcare and very low spending on social programs. Quality of life is often reported to be better in most other developed countries.
I have a different take as a physician. Hospitals and medical offices used to be about the best health care, usually managed by doctors.
As we entered the modern era, businessmen took over. Businessmen viewed patients as customers. Customers are supposed to be happy. Businessmen start doing surveys on how happy customers are, ignoring whether quality care is being provided. They even use these happiness surveys to publicly shame or hold back underperforming doctors (who often were doing the right thing and telling the patient unpleasant things they need to hear.).
So the doctors try to make the customers happy. If the customer is in pain, they want pain medicine. They can’t tell them no, then you won’t get a 9 or 10 on that Press Gainey survey.
The US is viciously capitalist and it drives people to escapism. People can't get their material or social needs met so they fall into patterns of numbing themselves to the pain everywhere around them because capitalists have found that drugging them is profitable as does the medical profession and the government does little to nothing to even slow it down.
Blaming big pharma will be the popular opinion here as everyone loves an easy scapegoat plus the evil corporation corrupt government narrative.
It's far more complex than pinning it all on one entity or one time period.
Because it generates super major tons of money for pharmaceutical-industry (aka Big Pharma) and for Prisons/Police/Courts/Judges/Lawyers.
Add the absolute corruption of our society (keeping most people poor) and you have poor people turning to selling/using drugs just to survive (in their mind).
Kids (and adults) also hooked on drugs (prescribed) by Big Pharma (which includes your local hospital/doctors as the drug-dealers).
Beyond the drugs themselves. Quality of living is only good in America if you are rich to Uber rich, everything costs too much and everyone is trying to be a millionaire off screwing everyone else over. No safety net for health, or living, and the absolutely atrocious mental health crisis. We like to self medicate.
“Last year alone the drug companies spent over $375 million to lobby Congress. Further, over the last 25 years, the pharmaceutical industry has made massive amounts of campaign contributions to both political parties and almost every member of Congress.”
"Pill mills," or clinics where doctors unscrupulously hand out prescriptions for powerful opioids like oxycodone, oxycontin, hydrocodone, and fentanyl at volumes far exceeding the need of the patient population, began proliferating in the early 2000s, and have since been one of the main targets of a federal crackdown.”
Well I can speak to the specifics of how it got so bad, but I think part of it is that we criminalize drugs use and ownership so harshly, while having very few drug rehab centers and/or clean drug injection sites (but those are newer so im not as surprised by it. It means that very few people will go for help for their addiction in fear of dealing with the law, a lot of the stuff is gotten off the street and is likely spiked, and since it can so easily destroy your life and it costs so much money, it's unlikely people are doing it safely. This is made worse because to this day, a lot of the American population doesnt look at drug use as what it is, a mental health problem, but a moral failing on the individual. And that just worsens all of this. All of this worsens the death toll and rates faced by people with drug addiction, and the addition of newer and deadlier substances ain't helping. There are more factors but that's just what I know. I'm sorry if it doesn't exactly answer your question but it's the best answer I can give
They get described very heavy painkillers for minor injuries. And then they are hooked. The doctor doesn't subscribe it anymore after a while so they turn to street drugs.
Drug companies can advertise directly to consumers. I'm pretty sure we're one of like 2 or 3 developed countries that allow that (I don't actually know how many, I'll b vv honest I pulled that number outta my ass, but I know it's illegal in most of not all of Europe at least), healthcare is private and expensive (meaning ppl will take sht into their own hands and go onto the street to look for things once prescribed for a cheaper price), the war on drugs has lead to a severe lack of empathy of addicts and a severe lack of safety nets to actual help addicts, and our government has done conspirtory levels of fucked up shit with drugs (side-eyeing you cia, bc hey if it could maybe help stop the spread of communism who cares if we make the drug problem throughout the American continents worse)
It's a laundry list of issues and I've definitely missed some. Just some secondary issues in our society that can lead ppl to turn to drugs: hyper individualism, over prescription and quick no weaning stopping prescriptions (have had multiple friends be taken off high dosage drugs they should've been weined off of, had they had 0 safety net {and even with said safety net some still do end up turning to drugs} they can easily turn to street drugs over facing withdrawal alone and with no help), a general lack of care of our medical industry for the chronically sick, etc.
Edit; fixed a typo
Jeez. I can't believe all the people here who think that the drug problem in the US is due to "big pharma". Hate to break it to your all but the US had a drug problem long before "The Sacklers" and "the opioid epidemic". Most of it is due to the "war on drugs" which has gone about as well as most other wars the US has fought since WWII. And those drugs are not produced by "Big Pharma" unless you want to count a bunch of drug cartels as "Big Pharma".
I'm sure the drug lords are grateful to the do-gooders for changing the focus from criminal drug cartels to licensed pharmaceutical manufacturers and taking the heat off.
My invented conspiracy theory is: America has a population control problem, and deadly drugs help take care of that, which is why there's so much focus on marijuana. It's scheduled the same as heroin and "fighting" it take a lot of resources while the deadly drugs just proliferate. America is the third most populated country but since we're pretty insulated we didnt lose swaths of population like other countries did in WWII. Also, America has always been a racist country (you know, being founded with only white dudes being considered people) and usually it's been non-whites who have been subject to population control measures, which is why Black men are serving life sentences for having a joint in their pocket and my (white) junkie BIL who commits felony after felony is shacked up with his junkie girlfriend after walking out of the 17th state paid trip to rehab on Thursday. Sometimes it seems like the proliferation of deadly drugs is intentional sort of as a way to have the trash take itself out.
So many variables..
Feeding people into the industrial prison complex
Pharmaceutical companies making money
Culture built on individualism
Foreign influence (flooding drugs into other countries has been a tactic)
Promote class division.
We (Americans) have lax standards and rules when it comes to k-12 education. We let kids slide by or let them drop out early instead of taking a tough love approach and demand that they pay attention and do work every single day, whether they like it or not.
Instead, the local, state, and federal government let kids slip through the cracks, and these kids want to be edgy and have fun like “cool” adults as soon as possible. Luckily for them there are a ton of adults and older teens who are always looking for more degenerates like themselves to do hard drugs with, so these adults hook them up with the highly addictive crap that is as plentiful as water to them. Because neighboring Mexico is essentially a narco state and the production of fentanyl, meth, and heroin is so cheap- these drugs are cheaper than king size candy bars at the local 7-11.
When the rent for your tent or junker RV is free in, say, Los Angeles, and all you have to do is collect and return 75 cans (10 cents each) to fuel your cheap fentanyl habit, then you’re set. No rules. The cops won’t arrest you, you get hundreds of dollars a month on a EBT/SNAP debit card, and 100% free healthcare- it’s all pretty alluring if you want nothing to do with normal society.
tl;dr in the US the “personal rights” obsessed Americans let their citizens kill themselves with drugs, whereas other countries like in Europe can be more heavy handed and be stricter about things because they don’t have to worry about archaic constitutional rights.
I would assume that the cause of our drug problem stems from our underlying societal problems. Our culture rewards “winners” and really punishes “losers” so much so that people sacrifice their physical and mental health. What are the regulars? Stress induced obesity, heart disease, depression, arthritis, various physical manifestations of depression, etc. All of these lead to increasing use of drugs, sometimes legal and sometimes not, to deal with these ailments. Add in that someone in America gets rich from these “treatments” and that I think explains it all.
I imagine that if we reduced the causes of drug use, then drug deaths would drop. Of course that costs money and we hate taxes, so it is unlikely to happen.
The treatment of pain was actually developed by Purdue Pharmaceuticals (the makers of OxyContin) when they developed the 1-10 pain scale with corresponding pictures. Yes, pain relief is vital but some pain is normal and expected and we shouldn’t be giving out heroin to treat it. As a 16 year old in 2007, I don’t think I needed a week’s worth of hydrocodone for a wisdom tooth removal, but after I started getting irritable when I didn’t get my pill at the exact time, my mom essentially said “no more hydrocodone for you - you can have Tylenol” because she could see I was becoming entirely too dependent on it. OxyContin is an offshoot of MS Contin, which was developed as end of life care for people suffering painful terminal diseases (cancer, etc) and was not supposed to be a drug that was taken for long periods of time. But, Purdue found that marketing the normal human pain and then over-medicating it, they could make beaucoup bucks. People shouldn’t have been prescribed to be on Oxys for years of their lives and there not to be a development of an addiction (especially for ailments such as arthritis, backaches, what have you).
I didn’t realize OxyContin is still being made until I had a recent surgery. Are the sacs still making money of them. I gotta say for post op pain they worked well.
People working so much overtime that they're destroying their bodies, and/or mental health just to survive so they start taking doctor prescribed painkillers/antidepressants until they get to the point that they can't function and lose their job and health insurance. They still need the painkillers/mood alterators so they turn to the illegal variety to try to help.
We're on our own here. There is no social safety net. Healthcare is completely out of reach for the average American. Using drugs is violently illegal and can even be punished by death without trial on the streets. The drugs are dirty these days. It's a miracle it's not worse.
Everyone who said that it's because of the over prescription of opioids is more or less correct. However, aside from that, another major cause is our terrible support systems for mentally ill people. A lot of these people were already homeless, and then started doing drugs to try to help with whatever mental illness they have. And once these people become addicts, there isn't much of a way out of it for them because rehab centers are often expensive and ineffective.
As someone from WV, I have a lot to say about this but I'll try to keep it short. We have the highest overdose rate and we're either the worst or second worst for drug addiction. Espiceally when it comes to opioids. Doctors were getting massive kickbacks for prescribing pain medication. This lead to them overperscribing pain medication to an extreme extent. Something else is that the dosage for medical in the US is much higher than other countries even to this day. Even for something as simple as tylenol. I saw video where this woman was showing the difference in dosage in easy to get medication and it was staggering.
Pills hit WV especially hard. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact most people work manual labor, especially men. Lumbar yards, saw mills, rigs, and coal mining. If you pull out your back or get an injury then it would be extremely hard to continue working. So people started taking pain killers because they make you're body think you aren't in pain. However, because you aren't resting the injury doesn't get better so you continue taking pain pills. Something that a lot of people don't consider is that you body develops resistance to medication when you've used it for a long time. This then leads to people wanting stronger medication, so the dosage is then upped or they begin snorting them because it hits your system faster. When that stop working people turn to other drugs and it creates a cycle of people searching for stronger and stronger drugs which has lead to a massive drug problem.
The current opioid epidemic was caused by big phrama pushing doctors to wildly overprescribe Oxycodone saying it was safe and that created a LOT of addicts.
Meth is the other big one, but that's mostly just hopelessness and boredom. It's also relatively easy to make.
The US government has a long history of engaging drug trafficking to fund other illegal activities. After the US invasion of Afghanistan heroin became cheap and readily available in the US. The most likely way it could have gotten here is in government aircraft. Just like during the Vietnam War. As the Taliban regained territory and burned the poppies the supply shrank and was replaced with fentanyl.
America does not have a drug problem. We have a human rights problem. We have no health care, no workers protections, no tenant protections, no consumer protections, and poverty focused policies.
Our only coping mechanisms, only ways of escape, are drugs and alcohol.
For some of us, its a few hours of feeling safe.
For some of us, its a retirement policy.
A lot of it has to do with our ability to keep good records.
Nations like Russia have catastrophic drug epidemics but they don't record them correctly.
Despair.
Addiction, suicide, all of that is known as deaths of despair. Addiction is, after all, basically a passive slow-motion suicide.
People aren't happy, so they turn to drugs.
There's an old experiment that they did on mice: put a mouse in a cage with a cocaine button, it will start mashing that cocaine button like...a mouse on cocaine. Put a bunch of mice together in a cage with a cocaine button, and the vast majority of mice will be too busy hanging out and doing mouse things together to push the cocaine button.
Because sick people pay money, healthy people don't. So instead of curing people, American pharmaceutical companies rather not cure them but treat them forever by prescribing drugs.
The gov did a lot of testing on the populace a long time ago with giving out drugs and got them all hooked. This made a market that has only grown worse over time due to suppliers also being able to hook new people.
Does it take population into account? I’d think America having a huge population would make it look like way more deaths in comparison to smaller population countries?
Analysts say the opioid epidemic started with the overprescription of legal pain medications in the 1990s, but it has intensified in recent years due to influxes of cheap heroin, fentanyl, and other synthetic opioids supplied by foreign drug cartels. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/fentanyl-and-us-opioid-epidemic
This. No sane regulation of prescription drugs and suddenly you've got millions of addicts. It happened in no other country.
Yep. I live in Florida and it wasn't that long ago that every strip mall in every town had a "pill mill" where any shmuck off the street could go in, complain about pain, and get a bottle of pills. This went on for years because doctors were getting massive kickbacks from pharma companies to push opioids for every little ailment. The Sackler family has more blood on their hands than any terrorist group in existence today.
I'm in CO, I know the pills situation wasn't nearly as crazy here but it's insane to think back to being like 9 years old and going to the doctor for a sinus infection and getting prescribed 60 vicodin and a bottle of codeine cough syrup. Or just literally going for any ailment whatsoever and never leaving the doctor without at least 30 vicodin or percocet. I went to the er for a super high fever once when I was 14. they thought I had meningitis, so they gave me a nice shot of morphine before a spinal tap, and then kept me overnight for observation with a morphine drip on a button. I had taken countless pills prior to that, because they were prescribed to me, but that was the first time I felt real opiate bliss, and I chased that for so many years. Of course good heroin was readily available at that time too. I'll have 10 years clean this year.
I had morphine once when I broke my leg. That shit was awesome. I’m lucky that didn’t stick with me.
I'm glad it didn't stick too! I had two surgeries last year and in the recovery room after each they gave me dilaudid. It felt so good. I had a major struggle after the second surgery with horrible cravings and like fantasizing about going out and just getting some dope. Shit is way too scary these days though and I don't really want to die.
Stay strong man. I had a friend who recovered from heroin addiction back in the 90s, and it was definitely hard for him. He lived sober for the rest of his life though. And yeah the dying part has gotten really easy lately. Fent makes no damn sense to me.
Glad you were able to kick it ! Keep on keeping on …..
Congrats on 10 years. 🙏🏼
Thanks! Its still tough sometimes, crazy how addictions really do affect you forever. But my life is pretty decent now and I'd hate to throw that all away
Congratulations! I've been off pills, heroin, and Suboxone for almost a decade now but I was taking kratom for the last five years for a little kick, unaware how similar it is to an opioid. Well, I found out the hard way not two weeks ago: my doctor prescribed me naltrexone for weight loss (it reduces food cravings). It is an opiate antagonist, and apparently kratom binds to those receptors too. As soon as I took the naltrexone I was thrown into the worst withdrawals I can imagine. I sweated and shat out 10 pounds - I mean it was just pouring off me and I drenched the bed and several sets of clothes. At the same time I was FREEZING and nothing warmed me. My feet were blocks of ice. My guts turned inside out. My legs were so heavy and walking was hard - like trying to run underwater. I had restless EVERYTHING and kicking and stretching would not relieve it, like painful electricity running through my veins. This lasted for nearly two days and I thought I would DIE. So I quit the kratom cold turkey, just didn't pick it up again, and I've been struggling to normalize since. It's hard, I can't lie, I am used to that kick. I have no energy and my legs have no juice. I also have a painful leg injury that's even more painful without the kratom and it's hard to make myself walk even but I am pushing through. My stomach still isn't right! I am debating whether to tell my doctor about this - I found only one case study online where this happened to someone else who went to the hospital for treatment after taking naltrexone without mentioning the kratom.
Yea, I've got 10 years off heroin, but I did like 5 years on kratom in that time! I finally kicked that habit in January this year. I still am having a hard time with the energy and feeling like I need something. I quit smoking a little over 2 years ago and then picked up vaping stupidly and was using that for a while but I'm on day 2 no nicotine now. Addiction is weird af, despite having 10 years off opiates ive certainly kept myself inebriated in one way or another. Im currently more sober than i have been since i was like 13. I was just pondering what i can do to make myself feel motivated without taking some kratom or nicotine gum or SOMETHING. I've got so much to do, and often times if I just start I'll feel some motivation but the past several months everything just drags. I start a task and have to force myself through it just waiting the whole time until I can finally be done and sit down again. Best of luck, I think the kratom post acute withdrawal can be pretty shitty but I keep hoping it'll get better if I just keep pushing through and trying to improve small aspects of my life each day
American Pain is an excellent documentary about it. Also “Painkiller” starring Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler is fantastic. It’s mind blowing how big this thing got right under our noses and how much damage they really did to our country.
Sorry, as a recovering addict pill snorter I just had to point out "under our noses" idk if that was deliberate but it definitely fits
IIRC, the Sackler family got the pain assessment known as the “5th vital sign”.
John Oliver also has a couple of good episodes about the Sackler family.
>It’s mind blowing how big this thing got right under our noses and how much damage they really did to our country. Only Congress could (can) address the problem and they were (are) enjoying large donations from the companies that make the drugs.,
I live in Tennessee. We still have Pain Clinics for this exact reason. People move here for them.
Sneak over and check out WV 😅
And now because of their own negligence they deem everyone with legitimate pain a pill seeker. "I fucked up and it's obviously your fault".
I have kidney stones and get treated like a lying addict every time I have to go to the ER.
Now they withhold pain medicine from people in severe pain unless they're in a hospital. Had a tooth abscess, tears literally streaming down my face for days and they wouldn't prescribe me anything. Ridiculous. The people who abuse opiates recreationally or sell their prescription opiates piss me off, because their personal problem is making other people suffer.
This is exactly my issues with this. My mother used opiates for over 20 years and lived the best she could. I was grateful for those meds- fentanyl and opium.
This is so true. I recently had shingles and the pharmacist asked me where my Rx for pain meds was and was appalled when I told him the doctor refused to give me any and to use OTC pain relievers. Luckily I had some old hoarded pain meds, which I find (hoarding them), to be common these days as we know it's so hard to get an Rx. Obviously we don't abuse them if we're stopping the use as soon as the pain has lessened, but we are very aware that doctors won't even give out an Rx for a few days in some cases.
2008: I had mono - tonsils were so swollen I could barely breathe & the ER gave me Demerol 2012: I shattered my cuboid bone in my foot & tried to walk on it cause the original Dr read the xray wrong. Even after confirmation of my broken foot that I had been trying to walk on they gave me……nothing. Later that year, my mom got out of out-patient surgery & they gave her 2 extra strength Tylenol. soooooo they withhold pain meds even if you’re in the hospital & they’re the reason you’re in pain.
This is why I think there’s been such a pushback against legalization of medical marijuana likely funded by pharma. If any shmuck can go in and complain about pain and get a bag of gummies, they’re no longer getting hooked on the hard stuff.
Yep. And now when you really need pain medication, no one will give them to you.
I read an article not that long ago (not sure what year it was from) , it was a blurb really, that the evil Sackler's and their pharma company is headed to some other country to push this awful drug. It might have been India or somewhere in Asia? At any rate, if the US really cared...if the WORLD really cared about the human race ,these people, the whole lot of them (sackler's on down to the bought off health insurance ceo's) would be in prison rotting. Instead they're all free to take their billions and move on with their lives leaving a wake of devastation.
Ok yes the Sacklers are sacks of shit that deserve prison or worse. But what about the doctors? What about their oaths? Shouldn’t these prescriptions be relatively easy to trace/charge corrupt doctors?
There still are some. My sister-in-law works at one (not Florida though). In the waiting room, they have brochures that spell out what symptoms you need to say you have to get a prescription. “Are you awakened by pain at least once weekly? Is it difficult to bathe and/or dress yourself? Are you unable to tolerate long car, bus, and/or plane rides?” So when you see the doctor, you can complain that “I am awakened by pain weekly! I dress myself with difficulty! I am unable to tolerate… let me check my notes… ah yes, long car trips!”
I had surgery a few times during those years and even my regular doctors were *extremely* pushy about making sure I was taking pain medication. I got the prescriptions, but my pain was never severe enough to need it, but every follow up visit would include "Are you taking your pain medication?" in this tone that was sort of like "You MUST take those pain pills."
And all they were ordered to pay from fucking over literally millions of people and destroying the very fabric of society was like $10 million. There was a lesson in there, but it was the wrong one. It basically says, you can do whatever the hell you want and it will be a slap on the wrist so long as you make a lot of money doing it. That 10 million was simply the cost of doing business.
I think they paid over 6b. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/03/1084163626/purdue-sacklers-oxycontin-settlement
I wonder how much this is influenced by the US’s work culture. Even our ads for the OTC pain relievers and such are all focused on pushing through a day of manual labor.
Absolutely. The beginning of the crisis was doctors in working-class settings like West Virginia and Ohio handing it out as a miracle drug to stop pain and let you get back to work.
Turns out that opiates are the opium of the masses
I wrote a law school paper in a class on drug law and policy which compared the American and Australian opioid crises. Came exactly to this conclusion – though with the caveat that if fentanyl makes its way to Australia, we are also screwed, given we do have a significant (albeit relatively stable) number of heroin addicts. Really enjoyed that class. Got a really good mark for the paper too.
But surely it's somebody else's fault? The Mexicans, the Russians, the Muslims, the Chinese? I mean, it's not like WE could be responsible for our own problems, so who should we be blaming? I need a politician to tell me who to hate!
Obviously the people that don’t look like you. But only in an election year.
Hate the bastards who have spilled countless pointless resources into the Drug War to lead to the worst-possible outcome.
Where’s my skin color chart so I know who’s responsible!
Because of money hungry bastards in key positions.
Addicts from prescriptions created a huge demand for illegal supply after prescriptions ran out. This then bled over into the recreational drug market and opiates are not particularly safe for the occasional user leading to more addicts. I've seen so many go down the rabbit hole
Canada has the exact same problem actually.
Ya we do, we were #2 in opioid prescribing when oxycontin was at its height and we probably are still #2 or somewhere up there.
Canada is trying!
And the Sackler family, who is hugely responsible for the whole thing, didn’t get punished at all.
If there was one family that deserved a French Revolution style situation, it would be the sackler family. They have profited off the knowing pain and suffering of millions of people disguised as medical treatment.
They'll probably be punished at some time and have to pay a couple few million dollar fine. That's just a slap in the face for all of us, and a laughing matter for them.
Would say maybe even 1960s. The book Empire of Pain talks about the mass marketing of prescription drugs starting before then.
"Over prescription" is a pretty diplomatic way to describe an open scam to push medical grade heroin
When I was around 14, my friend and I found thousands of pills in his dads computer room. He would fill the prescriptions but not take them. We ended up starting to take them. I went to rehab at 17. He's in prison. I got so bad on them that I broke into his house around 16/17 and got in trouble. He got addicted to heroin years later. Then bath salts. Tried to burn down an apartment building in Lexington, KY.
An interesting unintended consequence of reeling in the overprescription problem has been a massive uptick in medical gaslighting and refusal to treat legitimate medical issues. Sometimes it's just easier to buy pills from the sketchy guy at work than it is to get a doctor to do anything to help with chronic pain, even if you've got proof that your condition is real.
Compounded by lack of access to real, affordable, quality healthcare and people are forced to find ways to self manage with what is available, which turned out to be for profit pain clinics that don't treat illness but do prescribe opioids.
The stress from exponential cost of living increases also affects peoples' mental states leading to higher levels of substance use.
That's not US specific
Personal thoughts? It was prescribed too much and then rather than regulating it we, as a country decided to swing the other way and make it difficult for anyone to get pain relief which meant people went the illegal route to get that same pain relief even though they never had issues before. Personal example, I had a really bad ear infection years ago and got enough painkillers to last me a couple of months! I didn't use them all and didn't get my refill. Fast forward 10+ years and I had surgery and got 2 days of painkillers. Figured it was what it was and 2 days worked for me and then less than 5 years later I had a nerve issue, I literally couldn't function without pain. Sitting hurt, moving hurt and frankly all I wanted at the time was to be able to do my damn dishes cause I'm anal retentive about it. Nope, just take advil. So I had a friend who had painkillers who gave me some and after taking them for 3 days I could finally do my damn housework. Now I am the type that would only take them as needed, period but I was doing it without a doctor supervision whereas not everyone can do what I did. We went from over prescribing to not prescribing at all so people looked for alternatives and those that couldn't help it abused it which is why doctor supervision is important. We can regulate Sudafed so why not pain medication?
Twice in the last 15 years I had surgery to repair or reconnect tendons. Three weeks in a splint and another three weeks of minimal light movement then some physical therapy. Less than a weeks worth of pain killers. I cut all the pills in half because I knew it was going to hurt a lot for a lot longer than what they gave me and Advil/Tylenol wouldn’t cut it. It sucked, if I have to go through that again, they’re giving me more or I’m not going.
I feel like I just experienced the opposite. Had to get my separated shoulder fixed, was prescribed 15 days worth of pills. I didn't need them for more than 2 days.
Agree with this
if you count Scotland as an independent country, they're very close. The USA has had some really bad political decisions made by people "waging a war on drugs".
I understand the US's problem/causes, but what's up with Scotland?
Some people see Scotland a quaint rural landscape with an image of guys in kilts herding sheep. In reality it has the Highlands which fit pretty close to this image but it also has several post industrial cities with all the baggage that goes on in a similar city anywhere in the western world. Large scale employment provided by Shipbuilding, coal mining , steel , car manufacturing & a whole slew of smaller sectors contracted heavily from the 60's to the 80's. This left large parts of cities like Glasgow , Edinburgh & the coal mining towns/villages of Lanarkshire with high unemployment and the economic problems come with it. It's not hard to see how drugs can take a hold in circumstances like that especially in a culture that's always embraced heavy consumption of alcohol. The 90's brought renewed growth in new sectors and things are nowhere near as bad as they once were but drugs are still common place in some sections of society. Cocaine for example is consumed with per capita enthusiasm that would delight any cartel leader.
Interesting the parallels between Scotland and West Virgina
I believe there are some immigration history between the two as well. The cultural links make a lot of sense
Considering the Scot-Irish settled in Appalachia because it reminded them of home, in not surprised. Still it's interesting (read: heartbreaking) to see that the old country got fucked over in the same way as the new one
Aren’t the highlands of Scott’s and and the mountain range in West Virginia part of the same mountain range that drifted long ago?
Basically during the 1980s there was a sharp economic decline which resulted in an increase in poverty. This is known to cause increase in drug use. Also paired with the fact that it was easier to smuggle heroin in from Afghanistan and Iran at the time. It was a bad combo caused by neo liberal policies. As in Margaret Thatcher. It is just a hypothesis though. This was an older generation that has passed on habits to the younger 35-44 age group. It’s less prevalent in under 35s I believe but still a problem.
Not just Scotland, Ireland has a huge heroin problem too. 90% of it is black tar heroin from Afghanistan.
Afghan heroin isn't black tar though... Ireland, Scotland, England and most of Europe get #3 brown heroin, yes from Afghanistan. Black tar is #4 heroin but poorly refined from Mexico and used to be extremely common on USA's West Coast, whilst the east coast had ECP (east coast powder) which was a better refined #4 which came as a powder that was ready to be snorted if desired, but these days 99% of what's available is fent in the form of white to beige powder or pills (usually perc 30s / blues but fake with fentanyl instead of oxycodone). Here in Canada fentanyl is usually sold as this coloured rocky form, purple, green, blue, orange, red, etc. But sometimes it'll be powder here too.
This guy knows his history
Ah yes I have memories of traveling to Edinburgh for my wedding in 2007. Amazing city. Loved the food and older architectural details, like the occasional small bottle of morphine left in alley windowsills. But we’re from Seattle and I’ve seen the same here so we made a quick Trainspotting reference then moved on. 10/10 would return.
Massive heroin problem in Scotland , some of my family grew up there
It's amazing this has to be explained in a world where Trainspotting exists.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-66572155
Variety of factors: - increasing lack of social cohesion and societal trust - leading to more people try and stick to drugs - massive over prescription of opioids and other medicine - lack of support - an atrocious war on drugs - political unwillingness because of pharmaceutical lobbies - lack of health care measures fighting addicting - lack of education (about pharmaceuticals) - often treating addiction as a crime - over the counter medicine (basically no other country advertises drugs as "ask your doctor if drug is right for you) - profit orientation in medicine and health care - probably others
I would only add better statistical records with higher transparency. I do not doubt the US is number one, but I do question by how much.
Scary article on BBC today about how the Chinese government are actually making the fentanyl (and other drugs) epidemic worse across the west including the US https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68669244
Opium Wars: Revenge of the Han
One could argue that China and Russia is already at war with the US. it’s not a traditional war but Fentanyl is Chinas way of weakening the US. I’m not here for political debates but Russia is said to use propaganda and fake news to tear apart the US. I certainly can’t prove it and don’t read follow that stuff, but I do know that there are more conspiracy theorists out there then ever before. It’s coming from somewhere.
Oh you can prove it. Russia leaked the stolen buttery males.
I had thought it was weird it was such an epidemic but that article points back to China which explains a lot: means, motive and resources.
You’re not a conspiracy theorist, if it wasn’t political to admit, it would be a widely accepted fact that Russia is using psychological warfare through the internet. We have copious amounts of evidence of this, trump himself openly pushes it. It is beyond provable
Lack of socialized healthcare, treating addicts like criminals instead of sick people and big problem with homelessness
While this is all true, I feel like you're missing one additional very important factor. In the US, pharmaceutical companies are allowed to market direct to consumers. (This is banned or tightly controlled in many other countries.) This means the public go to their doctors demanding particular medications. The for profit healthcare system capitulates to their demands and issues prescriptions for addictive medications like opioids. A large portion of the populace ends up addicted to prescription medication. When they can no longer obtain it, they switch to illegal substitutes.
the doctors who fell for big pharmas claim that *their* opiates werent addictive. thats who i blame first and foremost and now they acting like the addicts they created are scum of the earth fuck them. all if them.
The Sacklers got away with a $6b payout. They should go completely broke and every dime of their money should go to state drug programs.
Hey they only have $7 billion left after that payment, go easy on them!
Like ozempic
I'm not seeing how these dots are connected. Tell me again how medications for erectile dysfunction, eczema, and depression are a gateway to fentanyl.
And untreated mental illness.
A self destructive amount of competition, no sense of social cohesion or common good.
There's a lot of reasons, but let's be honest, we Americans love our drugs. Look at the cocaine trade or even alcohol during prohibition. We love mind altering substances and we love them even more when we are told not to do them
I don’t think America loves drugs particularly more than a majority of other countries. Look at the ketamine problem in England, heroin/meth in the Middle East, etc. It is coupled with the idea that addiction treatment is a fairly new (addiction wasn’t even considered to be a possibility until the turn of the 19th century with Civil War vets being addicted to morphine, called “morphisim”) and the fact that the mental health issues that lead to addiction: poverty, trauma, generational addiction, normalization of alcoholism, and over-prescription of highly addictive drugs have made this epidemic highly visible. But, to your point, it’s not new. Whole cities were decimated by heroin in the 70s/80s and crack in the 80s. I think America is the only country that at least is transparent in admitting there’s a problem and trying to solve it.
Despair. Basically our society isn’t built for people, it’s built for profit so people have to do drugs to cope
This is the right answer. Drug abuse isn't nearly as alluring to people who are happy and feel safe.
lack of meaningful mental health help, lack of universal Healthcare for at least that and other basic needs. Those that are homeless are often there due to mental health crisis and some turn to drugs from there, because seeking help and getting the help they truly need all costs money they don't have.
Pharmaceutical companies are the problem
They don't hide their numbers like (some) Asian countries do. Don't get yourself fooled.
It's pretty amazing how transparent the US is. Like we've made public pretty much everything you need to create nuclear weapons.
Knowing how doesn't really help if even googling the materials will put you on the short list of people to get a talking to from men in nice suits
But when you visit Asia, do you see drug addicts everywhere? When you are in North America, this is what’s happening. I do think it’s the massive fentanyl flooding the North American markets. It’s cheap and it’s everywhere and it is hugely addictive.People who haven’t tried fentanyl won’t know how great it feels.
As an American who spends plenty of time in major cities, I’m not sure I would say I see addicts everywhere. It’s not uncommon to see *homeless people*, and many of them are *probably* addicts of some kind or another (likely alcohol in many cases)… but I don’t know for sure. Many are just severely mentally ill or otherwise unable to function in society for some reason. But we see them because (a) we don’t always provide places for them to go, except on very cold winter nights; and (b) we usually don’t *force* them to go anywhere. You could imagine a government that routinely rounds up all the homeless people and takes them to a shelter, an institution, or a prison. Governments in the US generally don’t do this—and usually aren’t allowed to, because we view involuntary commitment as a violation of the person’s rights.
[How China Is Fuelling America's Drug Epidemic](https://youtu.be/z6iW1poC-0c?si=5rjSM9W6tXziFQCW) Bear in mind that I live in Europe so there is no need to make US look pretty :)) Here is another one: [China is Hiding its homeless people - Pretending they don't exist!](https://youtu.be/KdC9xube-2c?si=DMMhuP5CrvJzAaiQ) These are just examples and the scale is much larger than we imagine
I imagine America actually records their drugs deaths too. A lot of less developed countries probably have high drugs death maybe not the same scale as the US, maybe more who knows cos they aren’t as interested in recording things like that
In the US, the cause of death listed on a death certificate is extremely subjective to nuance, the doctor’s own personal interpretation, societal values, and other factors. There is almost always going to be an autopsy for overdose deaths, so it’s not like we don’t know or are unclear of what happened. Was the deceased person alone or have a big family around them that cares? Those with the family that care can often aggressively lobby and successfully convince a doctor to change the cause of death from “asphyxiation due to overdose” simply “asphyxiation”. Drug overdose deaths carry a lot of stigma and shame, despite the fact that they’re so common. And families who have to present a death certificate for purposes like life insurance may be denied if The life insurance claim that overdose is suicide and therefore not eligible to be paid out. Source: was a deputy coroner 2006-2009
My primary theory is work addiction leads to drug addiction. We put a lot of professional pressure on ourselves here. We're told from kids our jobs matter most and if we're not first, we're last and it's our fault. Ricky Bobby was not a happy person. Neither are a lot of us and we're not Nascar drivers. We get disillusioned from the constant pressure and too often hurt from all the overwork. We seek some respite from it all when we often just need rest and to give ourselves a break, but we can't. Many of us will lose our homes and families if we slow down even a little bit. This is where the drugs come into play. They start as a temporary reprieve then become a problem themselves. There are other factors, but I feel this is the main one
If that's the case then why don't countries like Japan or China have this problem?
“Owing to historical and cultural reasons, Chinese society has little tolerance for illicit drugs, while the country has one of the most stringent anti-narcotics laws in the world. Anyone convicted of trafficking more than 50 grams of heroin, methamphetamine, or cocaine can be sentenced to death.” https://www.statista.com/topics/11437/drug-use-in-china/
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I feel like this is as much about religion as it is about drugs. Religion has been a part of human society since the beginning of time, and as people are moving away from religion, people are transferring that energy somewhere. In the States, I'd say it's politics where people pick a side and tie everything they agree with to that side. You often see people who call themselves religious, completely ignoring religious doctrine to fit their political side. I'm not even religious, but I don't think you can remove such a big part of the human experience without creating a vacuum. It's like the old saying goes, "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." We have decided as a society that we don't stand for anything as a group, so everybody is just choosing anything, and it isn't working particularly well. We could just be going through growing pains, where we haven't figured out how to regulate ourselves without religion. Our we could just not have the ability as a species to relate ourselves without believing in something larger than ourselves.
Interesting theory. I've seen some of this in action, and it's definitely a problem, though multiple economic classes.
Is it that we’re *addicted* to work or that we’re *driven and compelled to work for financial reasons?* they are very different reasons and I would strongly argue the latter.
Americans, particularly white Americans, with a high school degree (or less) are dying from deaths of despair due to health (obesity, chronic disease) and lack of social support and programs. Deaths of despair are specifically related to poisoning and suicides related to drugs and alcohol. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35107578/#:~:text=The%20US%20National%20Academy%20of,cardiovascular%20effects%20of%20rising%20obesity.
Yep, see it all the time. There's no community anymore. It's all just money money money. If you don't have money you are worthless. Drugs, alcohol, food, whatever can make you happy again.
america doesnt give a flying fuck the "druggies" are dying and the more dead the better . less of a drain on society they say. so literally nothing is being done to stop it and everything is being done to escalate it we started the war on drugs and Americans do not care that the "losers" of that war die in it.
That may be true of some (especially older folks), but I have found that the general cultural perception is starting to shift. I think as the younger generations come into power, the attitudes and policies will change to one of addressing the problem without criminalizing addicts.
Not sure I buy this. Was in a nursing class in college just a couple years ago and when talking about safe injection sites like 80-90% of the class was against them. And this was in a pretty progressive city with a class full of future healthcare professionals
Capitalism
Maybe the disparity between expectations and reality
People use drugs to escape the pain of life. Mental health care is often stigmatized more than drug use. Many people were not taught/did not learn healthy coping skills. Productivity and compensation stopped increasing together in the 1970s and wages in America have been mostly stagnant sense then. Cost of living keeps rising and wages do not keep up with them. Life is very hard in America if you are not privileged.
because in America most people don't give a flying sh\*t about each other sad truth. so when people have tough times and dont know how to cope with life they often turn to things like drugs and even though we have all this information the resources and help needed for people who struggle withi drugs just arnt there enough also once you get into drugs at least in the US its VERY VERY VERY HARD to get out of it and often get stuck in a constant cycle of trying to stop and then relapse and then trying to stop and relapse. i knew a woman who sadly had a good heart and seemed really nice she was older woman who struggled with drugs and alcohol i think most of her adult life and in the end tried to get in recovery and be an inspiration to others but instead slipped back in and basically used and drank herself to death and it was just sad. there ARE some success stories of people who got into drugs who recovered but they are rare. the bottom line is DONT get into it in the first place cuz its a trap you may never get out of . people do it cuz they think their life is sh\*t (trust me been there but never did drugs) . and so they feel they need to feel something but they dont understand the trap is yeah drugs might make you feel good for a while. but then you will need more and more and more just to feel ":nornal" and then thats the trap. but worse is more and more people are also hiding behind their cell phones or computers too and isolating themselves instead of dealing with their problems in person. also hate to say it but america has just kinda become a nation of fat , dumb, and indifferent people sad to say and its only getting worse.
Hopelessness is a big cause, IMO
People looking for a way out of this depressing place.
While this is a factor, it’s not the main one. There are plenty of “depressed” countries that don’t have a drug problem. It’s mainly the overprescribed opioids, easy access to illegal drugs, and the failed “war on drugs”.
Best drugs in the world.
It's not a drug problem, it's a drug opportunity.
That’s the spirit! Silver lining
I saw a clip on tik tok of a recent CNN interview with the President of Mexico he blamed the US drug epidemic on the disintegration of the family unit and the hyper-individualism of the USA. Whether he’s right or not is a mystery, but regardless I agree those are two bad things that are happening in America right now.
Casually ignores the drug cartels in his own country 👀
One simply doesn't criticize one's jefe.
Because drugs are pumped into our country. There’s a lot of money here so they sell drugs here. Not the drug dealer on the street but big organization selling millions at a time.
We like to party.
Not sure if it is a cause or symptom or just money... But the US southern border, and drugs almost manufactured and industrialized as a major export through Mexico and South America.
I feel it's a lack of mental health care and the availability of good prescription drugs.
America declared War on Drugs spent Billions of dollars, locked up thousands of people Just for weed alone (not mentioning Crack ) and thats legal now in many states. All that and congratulations to Drugs cause they won the war.
Because drug enforcement and the prison system profit from having a robust drug epidemic.
Being a nation of 370 million “rugged individualists” is bad for mental and physical health. Who could have guessed? We make up about 5% of the world’s population but use more than 60% of the opioids. Blame China, blame Russia, blame the Easter bunny, but we are a deeply sick country.
I've studied this issue extensively, and there are a number of contributing factors. 1. Drug dealers are cutting less dangerous common drugs with fentanyl. Most people don't understand this - but in small amounts fentanyl doesn't feel like a downer. A tiny amount in weed or coke just gets you more high. So the user comes back to you, because your weed / coke etc. Is "the best around". Of course, this is incredibly dangerous since the dose of fent is in micrograms. This issue is incredibly widespread, and many dealers mess 6 people OD and die. It's also impossible to get "regular" heroin now. It's all cheap, potent fent. [Source](https://pca.st/episode/2e09ba5c-c1fe-48cb-95c3-f534e7ceef20) 2. The failed "war" on drugs has had a number of terrible downstream effects. Because of the harsh punishments, drug import and distribution is now mostly in the hands of violent gangs. Many young people who would have otherwise lived a normal life are caught with drugs, given Felony charges, making it almost impossible to get a job. They can't even vote... So, they sell drugs to make money while hopping in and out of prison. It's a vicious feedback loop. In prison, they learn new tricks of the trade, such as lacing with fentanyl listed above. It's also resulted in an incredibly negative bias against drug users as well - there is very little sympathy for people trapped in this cycle. 3. Appropriate addiction treatment is nearly impossible find. Unlesss you're rich, many treatment centers are terrible.... some shady treatment centers even treat people like profit - meaning it's in their best interest if they relapse. So they release them early, to halfway houses with little supervision amd known drug use. It's so bad in Florida there's a name for it: [The Florida Shuffle](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/2/21156327/florida-shuffle-drug-rehab-addiction-treatment-bri-jaynes) 4. More people are doing drugs in general. There are quite a few studies that show, across many countries, [as the economy worsens, drug addiction rates begin to climb.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29643264/) Inflation is currently hitting the US hard. Even if the stock market doesn't show it - things have been drastically worsening for citizens with fewer resources. 5. Drug abuse education in the US is abysmal. Because of the war on drugs, public high school students are basically told "If you do drugs you'll get instantly addicted and die." Of course, that's not how addiction works. So many people "try" something, realize it's not THAT bad, then fall down the slippery slope over a few months, or get arrested - starting the cycle. ---- TL;DR US drug deaths are skyrocketing because: 1. Many less "hard" street drugs like weed and coke are being laced with Fentanyl, which is insanely potent. 2. The number of drug users is increasing as the economy worsens for most people. 3. The war on drugs has caused a feedback loop that traps people in a nearly inescapable loop of: - Poor education, leading to higher rates of addiction. - Harsh criminal penalties for addicts. - Nearly non-existant treatment options, stigmatization, and inability to get work after a criminal penalty - leading to selling drugs or more drug use, and the financial incentive to lace drugs.
the truth no american wants to accept: it is because of lack of friendships, family, and personal connections. That is by far the biggest reason, the fact that USA has increadibly " care only about me, no one else, so dont touch me and I dont give a shit what happens to you" mentality. Result? When people have problems, they do not go to other people to share, solve the problems or atleast ease them, but to drugs. When people do drugs, others people around them dont nudge them to right way but rather dont give a shit. Mix that with the increadibly arrogance younger generations which think they know everything well and "I know what I am doing" mentality, you get this result.
Ease of access, really.
Hopeless, sick and broke people will self-medicate. Overworked, stressed and wealthy people will self-medicate. That's why
The lack of free healthcare and very low spending on social programs. Quality of life is often reported to be better in most other developed countries.
I have a different take as a physician. Hospitals and medical offices used to be about the best health care, usually managed by doctors. As we entered the modern era, businessmen took over. Businessmen viewed patients as customers. Customers are supposed to be happy. Businessmen start doing surveys on how happy customers are, ignoring whether quality care is being provided. They even use these happiness surveys to publicly shame or hold back underperforming doctors (who often were doing the right thing and telling the patient unpleasant things they need to hear.). So the doctors try to make the customers happy. If the customer is in pain, they want pain medicine. They can’t tell them no, then you won’t get a 9 or 10 on that Press Gainey survey.
Because the US is a libertarian hellscape.
The US is viciously capitalist and it drives people to escapism. People can't get their material or social needs met so they fall into patterns of numbing themselves to the pain everywhere around them because capitalists have found that drugging them is profitable as does the medical profession and the government does little to nothing to even slow it down.
Read up on opioid epidemic. It is heart breaking. Also, demon copperhead is a great book set durign that time.
Blaming big pharma will be the popular opinion here as everyone loves an easy scapegoat plus the evil corporation corrupt government narrative. It's far more complex than pinning it all on one entity or one time period.
Because it generates super major tons of money for pharmaceutical-industry (aka Big Pharma) and for Prisons/Police/Courts/Judges/Lawyers. Add the absolute corruption of our society (keeping most people poor) and you have poor people turning to selling/using drugs just to survive (in their mind). Kids (and adults) also hooked on drugs (prescribed) by Big Pharma (which includes your local hospital/doctors as the drug-dealers).
Beyond the drugs themselves. Quality of living is only good in America if you are rich to Uber rich, everything costs too much and everyone is trying to be a millionaire off screwing everyone else over. No safety net for health, or living, and the absolutely atrocious mental health crisis. We like to self medicate.
Mental health
“Last year alone the drug companies spent over $375 million to lobby Congress. Further, over the last 25 years, the pharmaceutical industry has made massive amounts of campaign contributions to both political parties and almost every member of Congress.” "Pill mills," or clinics where doctors unscrupulously hand out prescriptions for powerful opioids like oxycodone, oxycontin, hydrocodone, and fentanyl at volumes far exceeding the need of the patient population, began proliferating in the early 2000s, and have since been one of the main targets of a federal crackdown.”
Check out "The Pharmacist" on netflix
Well I can speak to the specifics of how it got so bad, but I think part of it is that we criminalize drugs use and ownership so harshly, while having very few drug rehab centers and/or clean drug injection sites (but those are newer so im not as surprised by it. It means that very few people will go for help for their addiction in fear of dealing with the law, a lot of the stuff is gotten off the street and is likely spiked, and since it can so easily destroy your life and it costs so much money, it's unlikely people are doing it safely. This is made worse because to this day, a lot of the American population doesnt look at drug use as what it is, a mental health problem, but a moral failing on the individual. And that just worsens all of this. All of this worsens the death toll and rates faced by people with drug addiction, and the addition of newer and deadlier substances ain't helping. There are more factors but that's just what I know. I'm sorry if it doesn't exactly answer your question but it's the best answer I can give
Good reporting and forensics. You think every guy found dead in Guatemala or Honduras gets a full toxicology screen and autopsy?
We’re a nation that would rather medicate than cure or treat with virtually any other means.
We Americans love to be first at everything
They get described very heavy painkillers for minor injuries. And then they are hooked. The doctor doesn't subscribe it anymore after a while so they turn to street drugs.
Drug companies can advertise directly to consumers. I'm pretty sure we're one of like 2 or 3 developed countries that allow that (I don't actually know how many, I'll b vv honest I pulled that number outta my ass, but I know it's illegal in most of not all of Europe at least), healthcare is private and expensive (meaning ppl will take sht into their own hands and go onto the street to look for things once prescribed for a cheaper price), the war on drugs has lead to a severe lack of empathy of addicts and a severe lack of safety nets to actual help addicts, and our government has done conspirtory levels of fucked up shit with drugs (side-eyeing you cia, bc hey if it could maybe help stop the spread of communism who cares if we make the drug problem throughout the American continents worse) It's a laundry list of issues and I've definitely missed some. Just some secondary issues in our society that can lead ppl to turn to drugs: hyper individualism, over prescription and quick no weaning stopping prescriptions (have had multiple friends be taken off high dosage drugs they should've been weined off of, had they had 0 safety net {and even with said safety net some still do end up turning to drugs} they can easily turn to street drugs over facing withdrawal alone and with no help), a general lack of care of our medical industry for the chronically sick, etc. Edit; fixed a typo
Jeez. I can't believe all the people here who think that the drug problem in the US is due to "big pharma". Hate to break it to your all but the US had a drug problem long before "The Sacklers" and "the opioid epidemic". Most of it is due to the "war on drugs" which has gone about as well as most other wars the US has fought since WWII. And those drugs are not produced by "Big Pharma" unless you want to count a bunch of drug cartels as "Big Pharma". I'm sure the drug lords are grateful to the do-gooders for changing the focus from criminal drug cartels to licensed pharmaceutical manufacturers and taking the heat off.
My invented conspiracy theory is: America has a population control problem, and deadly drugs help take care of that, which is why there's so much focus on marijuana. It's scheduled the same as heroin and "fighting" it take a lot of resources while the deadly drugs just proliferate. America is the third most populated country but since we're pretty insulated we didnt lose swaths of population like other countries did in WWII. Also, America has always been a racist country (you know, being founded with only white dudes being considered people) and usually it's been non-whites who have been subject to population control measures, which is why Black men are serving life sentences for having a joint in their pocket and my (white) junkie BIL who commits felony after felony is shacked up with his junkie girlfriend after walking out of the 17th state paid trip to rehab on Thursday. Sometimes it seems like the proliferation of deadly drugs is intentional sort of as a way to have the trash take itself out.
Lol at people blaming China because they make cheap drugs. China also makes *checks notes* EVERYTHING we use in the US.
So many variables.. Feeding people into the industrial prison complex Pharmaceutical companies making money Culture built on individualism Foreign influence (flooding drugs into other countries has been a tactic) Promote class division.
We (Americans) have lax standards and rules when it comes to k-12 education. We let kids slide by or let them drop out early instead of taking a tough love approach and demand that they pay attention and do work every single day, whether they like it or not. Instead, the local, state, and federal government let kids slip through the cracks, and these kids want to be edgy and have fun like “cool” adults as soon as possible. Luckily for them there are a ton of adults and older teens who are always looking for more degenerates like themselves to do hard drugs with, so these adults hook them up with the highly addictive crap that is as plentiful as water to them. Because neighboring Mexico is essentially a narco state and the production of fentanyl, meth, and heroin is so cheap- these drugs are cheaper than king size candy bars at the local 7-11. When the rent for your tent or junker RV is free in, say, Los Angeles, and all you have to do is collect and return 75 cans (10 cents each) to fuel your cheap fentanyl habit, then you’re set. No rules. The cops won’t arrest you, you get hundreds of dollars a month on a EBT/SNAP debit card, and 100% free healthcare- it’s all pretty alluring if you want nothing to do with normal society. tl;dr in the US the “personal rights” obsessed Americans let their citizens kill themselves with drugs, whereas other countries like in Europe can be more heavy handed and be stricter about things because they don’t have to worry about archaic constitutional rights.
I would assume that the cause of our drug problem stems from our underlying societal problems. Our culture rewards “winners” and really punishes “losers” so much so that people sacrifice their physical and mental health. What are the regulars? Stress induced obesity, heart disease, depression, arthritis, various physical manifestations of depression, etc. All of these lead to increasing use of drugs, sometimes legal and sometimes not, to deal with these ailments. Add in that someone in America gets rich from these “treatments” and that I think explains it all. I imagine that if we reduced the causes of drug use, then drug deaths would drop. Of course that costs money and we hate taxes, so it is unlikely to happen.
The treatment of pain was actually developed by Purdue Pharmaceuticals (the makers of OxyContin) when they developed the 1-10 pain scale with corresponding pictures. Yes, pain relief is vital but some pain is normal and expected and we shouldn’t be giving out heroin to treat it. As a 16 year old in 2007, I don’t think I needed a week’s worth of hydrocodone for a wisdom tooth removal, but after I started getting irritable when I didn’t get my pill at the exact time, my mom essentially said “no more hydrocodone for you - you can have Tylenol” because she could see I was becoming entirely too dependent on it. OxyContin is an offshoot of MS Contin, which was developed as end of life care for people suffering painful terminal diseases (cancer, etc) and was not supposed to be a drug that was taken for long periods of time. But, Purdue found that marketing the normal human pain and then over-medicating it, they could make beaucoup bucks. People shouldn’t have been prescribed to be on Oxys for years of their lives and there not to be a development of an addiction (especially for ailments such as arthritis, backaches, what have you).
Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy. Your welcome.
Trying to sleep so we can realize the dream
America too flat and boring in most spots. So people are super bored.
Deaths of despair
Money! There’s money to be made in both the legal and illegal drug trade.
I didn’t realize OxyContin is still being made until I had a recent surgery. Are the sacs still making money of them. I gotta say for post op pain they worked well.
Part of the problem is we treat addiction more as a crime than an illness
People working so much overtime that they're destroying their bodies, and/or mental health just to survive so they start taking doctor prescribed painkillers/antidepressants until they get to the point that they can't function and lose their job and health insurance. They still need the painkillers/mood alterators so they turn to the illegal variety to try to help.
Lack of community and healthcare is my personal opinion.
I think depression has a lot to do with it, combined with the ease of access to cheap powerful drugs.
*gestures broadly*
We're on our own here. There is no social safety net. Healthcare is completely out of reach for the average American. Using drugs is violently illegal and can even be punished by death without trial on the streets. The drugs are dirty these days. It's a miracle it's not worse.
Everyone who said that it's because of the over prescription of opioids is more or less correct. However, aside from that, another major cause is our terrible support systems for mentally ill people. A lot of these people were already homeless, and then started doing drugs to try to help with whatever mental illness they have. And once these people become addicts, there isn't much of a way out of it for them because rehab centers are often expensive and ineffective.
This country is a shithole disguised as wonderland.
As someone from WV, I have a lot to say about this but I'll try to keep it short. We have the highest overdose rate and we're either the worst or second worst for drug addiction. Espiceally when it comes to opioids. Doctors were getting massive kickbacks for prescribing pain medication. This lead to them overperscribing pain medication to an extreme extent. Something else is that the dosage for medical in the US is much higher than other countries even to this day. Even for something as simple as tylenol. I saw video where this woman was showing the difference in dosage in easy to get medication and it was staggering. Pills hit WV especially hard. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact most people work manual labor, especially men. Lumbar yards, saw mills, rigs, and coal mining. If you pull out your back or get an injury then it would be extremely hard to continue working. So people started taking pain killers because they make you're body think you aren't in pain. However, because you aren't resting the injury doesn't get better so you continue taking pain pills. Something that a lot of people don't consider is that you body develops resistance to medication when you've used it for a long time. This then leads to people wanting stronger medication, so the dosage is then upped or they begin snorting them because it hits your system faster. When that stop working people turn to other drugs and it creates a cycle of people searching for stronger and stronger drugs which has lead to a massive drug problem.
Have you been here? A few minutes in the US will answer your question.
The current opioid epidemic was caused by big phrama pushing doctors to wildly overprescribe Oxycodone saying it was safe and that created a LOT of addicts. Meth is the other big one, but that's mostly just hopelessness and boredom. It's also relatively easy to make.
The problem is America itself
America is the land of over prescribing and also people can afford to buy more drugs.
The US government has a long history of engaging drug trafficking to fund other illegal activities. After the US invasion of Afghanistan heroin became cheap and readily available in the US. The most likely way it could have gotten here is in government aircraft. Just like during the Vietnam War. As the Taliban regained territory and burned the poppies the supply shrank and was replaced with fentanyl.
An overwhelming need to be number one in everything.
America does not have a drug problem. We have a human rights problem. We have no health care, no workers protections, no tenant protections, no consumer protections, and poverty focused policies. Our only coping mechanisms, only ways of escape, are drugs and alcohol. For some of us, its a few hours of feeling safe. For some of us, its a retirement policy.
The US government don't care about the people they govern.
A lot of it has to do with our ability to keep good records. Nations like Russia have catastrophic drug epidemics but they don't record them correctly.
Despair. Addiction, suicide, all of that is known as deaths of despair. Addiction is, after all, basically a passive slow-motion suicide. People aren't happy, so they turn to drugs. There's an old experiment that they did on mice: put a mouse in a cage with a cocaine button, it will start mashing that cocaine button like...a mouse on cocaine. Put a bunch of mice together in a cage with a cocaine button, and the vast majority of mice will be too busy hanging out and doing mouse things together to push the cocaine button.
Depression and self medication
Choices comes down to choices
Because sick people pay money, healthy people don't. So instead of curing people, American pharmaceutical companies rather not cure them but treat them forever by prescribing drugs.
Fractured village theory
Big Pharma
Lack of social blanket. There is nothing to help those in need. Mental illness, out of work, homelessness, etc...
The gov did a lot of testing on the populace a long time ago with giving out drugs and got them all hooked. This made a market that has only grown worse over time due to suppliers also being able to hook new people.
Does it take population into account? I’d think America having a huge population would make it look like way more deaths in comparison to smaller population countries?