Prescription Opioids

[Dedbeet]

Been hearing a lot in the media about prescription opioid abuse and addiction, and how dangerous they are. Yet, I was under the impression that opioids, prescription or no, are among the safest of all substances. Also, the media associates prescription opiate addiction with overdoses, yet aren't addicts *less likely* to OD, given that they can take large quantities of drug without severe adverse effects due to their dependence? I'm having difficulty seeing where the actual danger is in prescription opioid addiction. You can get severe constipation, have sleep problems, trouble getting more, etc., yet how likely are they to kill you?

 

[belligerent drunk]

Not really the appropriate sub-forum (this one's for posting news articles related to drugs).

To answer your question, however. You're right about opioids being non-toxic to organs. It is safe to take them as far as the body (organs) is concerned. However, that doesn't mean they are safe overall. Opioids tend to have a somewhat narrow therapeutic index, as in an overdose is not hard to achieve. That still doesn't mean a regular user who knows what they're doing and has their DOC in known concentration is going to overdose. Typically overdoses happen due to, for example, the user taking a break, losing tolerance, but not realizing that and taking a usual dose, which is too high for them. Another common reason is combining opioids with other CNS depressants like benzos and alcohol. One of the worst results of the war on drugs is the uncertainty in the purity of heroin. Worse yet, it is sometimes mixed with stronger opioids like fentanyl, and due to the powder being unevenly mixed, it can have "hotspots" of extremely potent powder, which can result in an overdose.

 

[HeadHigh]

Also, the main problem with prescription opioids is really the psychological toll once someone becomes dependent/addicted. A lot of the time, people taking prescription pain meds are taking them daily for long periods of time which obviously causes dependence and might lead to addiction. Then the patient becomes psychologically troubled by the fact that they cant go on living without this medication that the government has made almost impossible to get on a regular basis. This also leads, for a small few, to them needing to buy something like heroin or other opioids to satisfy their needs that the prescription doesnt. The other situation is the fact that its such a massive problem. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people are taking prescription opioids and with people becoming dependent and addicted left and right, it becomes ALMOST and epidemic.

The media may make it seem worse than it is, but you should go look up the statistics of people dying from opiate/opioid overdoses, and the rates of addiction...theyre insane.

 

[slimvictor]

I agree with Belligerent Drunk that DiTM is not such a good fit for this, so I am moving it to BDD.

 

[dopemaster]

I think this topic has been covered over and over on here.

Just my two cents.