"I mean, that's what happens, people get started on prescription drugs because they have some pain, and then when their disorder is supposed to be over, and the doctor stops giving them opioids, they just move on to heroin..." My POLS professor told the class.
Okay, it happens. We know the vast majority of heroin addicts start with prescription opioids. Fair enough. But what is misleading about this statement is that the pain patients aren't the ones getting addicted in the first place. It's the people who steal/borrow pain pills from family members and friends. They get hooked and then move on to heroin (the CDC has research on this).
At the beginning of the argument, I said, "The 'opioid epidemic' is overinflated, especially when you consider that hundreds of thousands die from alcohol abuse and tobacco." The class room suddenly got very noisy.
"Would you like to talk to the sheriff here in [blank] county?" The POLS Professor challenges me.
I could. But he's not a medical doctor nor a researcher, so I'm not sure why his opinion or what he think he observes in the community is really all together that fucking important.
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