U.S. - The real numbers behind Nevada's opioid deaths

S.J.B.

S.J.B.

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I-Team Exclusive: The real numbers behind Nevada's opioid deaths
George Knapp, Matt Adams
LasVegasNow
May 17th, 2018

LAS VEGAS - You've probably heard political figures make the claim that at least one Nevadan dies every day from an opioid overdose. That figure of more than 360 opioid deaths per year in our state has been repeated over and over, but is it true?

The answer -- not really.

The I-Team obtained the records on which the claim is based.

In Nevada, statistics show that 99.98 percent of all opioid prescriptions do not result in overdoses, but the crackdown on pain medicine has continued to intensify anyway. Like most pain management physicians, Dr. Dan Laird has been overwhelmed by the rush of chronic pain patients who've essentially been abandoned by their doctors.

"Thousands of patients, their doctors have said, 'I'm sorry, I can't prescribe opiates anymore. You're going to have to find somebody else,' and there just isn't anybody," said Dr. Dan Laird, pain management physician.
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Read the full story here.

Full list of opioid-related causes of death in Clark County, Nevada, 2017.

Full list of opioid-related causes of death in Clark County, Nevada, 2018.
 
People simply are not dying from taking their prescription drugs, whether as prescribed or in excess. Polydrug intoxication is almost always the culprit, mixed in with chronic illnesses, as the full lists of causes of death above make clear. This gets lost all the time in the "opioid epidemic" rhetoric. I'm glad to see a story like this.
 
Thank you for posting this! This kind of thing always reminds me of the funny, but not so much in this case, quip - Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. I always knew this was the case with pain patients who religiously take their medication as prescribed, for the most part. Why this group, which includes myself, is being targeted is beyond me. Other than the fact that it's the easy way out. And maybe because it helps to further their agenda and requires very little work to alarm the masses. Personally, it makes me absolutely sick to my stomach!
 
Pain patients have never been the problem they where just low hanging fruit so the government could say look we are doing something. In reality the heroin epidemic is just another drug trend in society that will burn out on its own.
 
cj said:
Pain patients have never been the problem they where just low hanging fruit so the government could say look we are doing something. In reality the heroin epidemic is just another drug trend in society that will burn out on its own.
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Very well said :)

Best we can do at this point is damage control (then again, reducing the population of jails and prisons and number of new HIV/HCV infections isn’t a small thing at all).

Seems like some locals are starting to get the message, but nationally we’re still more or less fucked.
 
Kratom has kept me off opioids for 5 days now, and I had developed a 120-160 milligram per day addiction. If it works for me I think many could benefit. Sadly, Big Pharma and Uncle Sam don’t want it to work for me, and they’re coming for it full speed.
 
toothpastedog said:
Very well said :)

Best we can do at this point is damage control (then again, reducing the population of jails and prisons and number of new HIV/HCV infections isn’t a small thing at all).

Seems like some locals are starting to get the message, but nationally we’re still more or less fucked.
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the entire reason the heroin epidemic is being created is to fill the prisons. the people behind this need to be slain like animals
 
^while I don't disagree that there are certain interests vested in the private prison industrial complex at work here, I think it's actually a little simpler than that:

This is just another in a long line of drug scare "epidemics," the only major change is that now there are lots of privileged white kids being affected that it's really hard to ignore.

In terms of the hysterical epidemic language, I see that more as about media hype/profit, politics (those vested financial interests again) and, well, sacred suburban parents who never got past Nancy's Reagan's shtick or DARE when it came to drug policy and their communities.
 
^ i secretly hope that other bad shit happens so that the media stays off of the opioid coverage. good thing trump is president in the US, otherwise they would probably be talking opioids a lot more.
 
I'm of a similar persuasion. But my hypothesis is that the whole opioid thing is going to continue to get worse before it gets better, so time will tell.

LOL first time I've been grateful Trump is such a narcissist with the media ;)
 
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