#HookedRX The Medical/Pharma Connection

January 10, 2017 — #HookedRX, addiction, drugs, opioids, pain

opioid facts

The Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU has produced an important documentary about Arizona’s opioid addiction crisis.  I live in Tucson where an obvious uptick in junkies all over the place has everyone concerned.  From the petty theft to the mental illness caused by addiction to opioids destroys neighborhoods, families, and individuals. The routine overprescribing of pain killers began as a marketing strategy for drug makers. They promoted studies that concluded their products were not addictive, and provide a needed level of pain control.  Now we know they are highly addictive, and even a short time on this hard prescribed stuff can lead the patient to seek out heroin as a cheaper alternative.

Pain is a relative thing, so anyone who wants to stay high on opiates can go to a medical doctor and say they are in pain, and easily score drugs.  There is also a huge black market in these pills.  Many hop on the addiction train by taking pills from the parents’ medicine cabinet as teens.  Since the drugs are socially acceptable and widely discussed and well known, there seems to be no stigma for taking pills for any reason.  The idea is that no person should ever feel pain, anxiety, confusion, social pressure, or discomfort of any kind.  There are pills to insure that real life does not intrude into the self medication.  I have never been into pills so this phenomena is really bizarre to me.  I understand wanting to get high, but not wanting to feel nothing.  So, what is the gateway drug for feeling nothing?  A visit to the doctor? This has gone south in the worst possible way.