How do we fix the opioid epidemic?

>>131669693
Let junkies die instead of saving them, restrict emts from working opiate overdoses and have emergency rooms turn away drug addicts. Simple as that.

It's funny I used to care about junkies until I had to live around them. Let them die, even niggers are worth more than a junkie fuck up.

>>131669693
By giving me your oxys

Just kill off all the junkies / stop supporting them they only cost a lot of money anyways

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>>131669693
Glass the Middle East.
>no more opium poppy fields
Problem solved.
>among many others

>>131670122
This.
t. ex heroin addict

Let them die.

>>131670122
Even if the junkies are White (trash)?

>>131669693
Legalize weed and come down harder on opiate abusers.
Force them into prisons and keep them on suicide watch at all times. Many of them want to die. They'll hate if the power to end their own lives is taken from them.
Just make life a living hell for them while removing any ability for them to end it. Then start feeding them philosophy. I guess my idea is for a harsh reeducation.

>>131669693
Weed.

>>131670122
Funny, most of the people I see ODing these days are young middle class white males.

>>131670122

^this. The only ones that are worth saving end up getting help on their own volition and saving themselves.

>>131674734
Weed is a good painkiller for mild stuff, but not for serious pain.

>>131669693
So I sorta work in this field (I'm an attorney for a state dept of health and deal with controlled substance regulation/pill mills/etc), it's something that's going to take decades to "fix." I mean really it will never be fixed because it's looking more and more like addiction is an actual brain disorder-- so until we figure out what causes it, and unless we institute some sort of Gattaca-like regime with designer babies or hold some sort of junkie genocide, there will always be addicts.

Letting people die generally turns out to cost the state (or at least my state) more money than reviving them, and jailing them costs us more money than putting them through drug court. Medical marijuana will help a little, but what really has to happen is a fundamental change in the way pain is treated by doctors. We need to have far fewer opiates prescribed in the first place. There are certainly people who need them, though, and it's very tough to decide who really needs them and who doesn't. American lifestyle also contributes to this problem a lot. If people actually exercised and took better care of themselves they wouldn't develop as many issues that can be easily dealt with by opioids.

Government can really only do so much, though, there needs to be wider social change. I do think govt should try to make rehab cheaper. I'm normally very against price controls and heavy intervention, but the costs have gotten out of hand. We save more money in the long run by putting people through rehab, even if it doesn't work for everyone.

>>131676795
So insightful.

If this was reddit you'd get an upvote from me.