Prescriptions for painkillers in the United States have nearly tripled in the past two decades and fatal overdoses reached epidemic levels, exceeding those from heroin and cocaine combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
At the same time, the first-ever global analysis of illicit drug abuse, published this month in the British medical journal The Lancet, found that addictions to heroin and popular painkillers, including Vicodin and OxyContin, kill the most people and cause the greatest health burden, compared with illicit drugs such as marijuana and cocaine.
High-income nations, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, had the highest rates of abuse, 20 times greater than in the least affected countries, according to the Lancet study.
In the United States, enough painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult around the clock for one month.
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, told Al Jazeera that the U.S. is facing a dangerous epidemic of overdoses and addictions related to painkillers. “According to the CDC, this is the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history,” he said. “CDC has data demonstrating that around the same time doctors began aggressively prescribing these medications in the late 1990s, there have been parallel increases in rates of addiction.”
The Food and Drug Administration, Kolodny said, is “failing miserably” at curbing the epidemic.
Drug abuse is also difficult to define, let's take a survey that says 10% of Americans abuse illicit drugs.
That's another 10% of gun owners who need to be disarmed for drug abuse.
Perhaps that needs to be upgraded already?
Sooner or later we'll end up at "MikeB's famous 90%"
ReplyDeleteBut your famous speculation is based on no evidence whatsoever and on faulty logic. You have to show the following for your numbers to be true:
ReplyDelete1. You have to show that your categories--alcoholics, drug addicts, wife beaters, felons, etc. are all discrete groups with no overlap. That's how you add up to the total percentage you claim.
2. For this latest article to be correct, you have to show the number of prescription drug addicts who are also gun owners. And no, you don't get to multiply the estimated percentage of addicts in the total population by the estimate of total gun owners, especially since you've already claimed that gun owners aren't representative of the general population.
3. You also have to show that prescription drug addicts tend toward dangerous behavior. This one's the most probable of your claims, but you can't expect us to take it on faith.
I've allowed for the overlap.
DeleteGun owners are just like everybody else when it comes to addictions.
Drugs and guns don't mix anymore than alcohol and guns.
By "allowed," you done guesswork. You have no evidence.
Delete“Mix” as in prescription drugs are not allowed to be in the same house as guns, like you say with alcohol? What do you do with a gun owner who has to have surgery? “Sorry, no pain meds for you. You’re just going to have to ‘tough it out’ for a few months. Or, you have to sell off your entire gun collection if you want this 30 count plus refill of Vicodin. What’s it going to be? Because we know you can’t possibly resist the urge to fire off your Mosin Nagant m44 carbine after having a surgical procedure.”
DeleteThat should be "you've done."
DeleteTS, when I had surgery on my wrist after an accident--no firearms involved, Mikeb--when I wasn't sleeping, I lay on the couch and watched documentaries. Oh, and two seasons of Top Shot. And I didn't even come close to using the whole allotment of Percoset, since it's nasty stuff. It's funny how I felt not the slightest urge to do anything with firearms.
Your allowance for overlap was 1%. For all forms of overlap. That's completely laughable.
DeleteYou claim that gun owners are representative of the population when it comes to drugs, but to nothing else--your claims and opinions don't make it so, and you have presented no proof.
Ah, proof by vigorous assertion. I doubt you'll find much disagreement in principle, but as TS points out, your personal definition of "mix" is likely to cause some disagreements.
I've heard of "recoil therapy" as a form of stress relief, but not so good as a physical therapy post-wrist surgery. Ouch!
Delete"You claim that gun owners are representative of the population when it comes to drugs, but to nothing else"
DeleteT., in what is it that I claim gun owners are not like other people?
TS, drug testing for gun owners would solve that problem.
DeleteYup, TS, it took a while of struggle to get over that.
DeleteWhat do you consider the problem to be? Is it a problem for a gun owner to use prescribed pain medication while recovering from surgery?
DeleteSince we would presume half of the painkiller addicts are women and we know no women are gun owners, then at most this would be 5% of gun owners right?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, you may be on to something there.
Delete