There's a newly published study on The Effects of Opioids on Labor Market Outcomes and Use of Social Security Disability Insurance which purports to find that increased opioid use led to both more employment and more disability claims, which is a surprising if not confounding result.
One problem with the study is that the author did not attempt to measure the actual use of opioids. The author measured "marketing payments from opioid manufacturers and distributors to physicians as an instrument to predict opioid prescribing."
I wonder if the study has cause and effect backwards. Wouldn't a population with more disabled people than average be one that an unscrupulous opioid manufacturer would want to target? Aren't disabled people an obvious market for opioids? Don't you intensify sales efforts in a geographic area where your marketing campaign seems to be paying dividends?
9 comments:
"Wouldn't a population with more disabled people than average be one that an unscrupulous opioid manufacturer would want to target?"
Sure. But this is hardly a "surprising" or "confounding" finding. I doubt anyone who's had significant contact with opioid addicts would find it even slightly surprising that they often have difficulty finding and maintaining employment. And while the Sackler family would love for you to believe otherwise, no one with a serious understanding of the issue believes treatment of pain with opioids isn't a major driver of addiction.
Have always said LEGAL drugs have caused way more damage in this country the past 100 years, mainly alcohol and nicotine. But in the last 20 years, it has been opioids or prescription drugs. Crack cocaine was a huge problem in the 1980s.
It is why I am for legalization. Opioids like oxycontin or vicodin can be way more potent and addictive than something like cannabis.
But in reality, the worst drug continues to be alcohol when you factor in drunk driving.
Pharmacists already treat patients (this one at least) like an opioid addict. I'm not, but when a doctor digs through your bellybutton to get to your spine, they're kinda needed. It's already hard enough for patients to get them without stigma. Being disabled, just out of surgery, one would think there'd be some compassion. No... not at all. Maybe it's more paperwork for them? Anyway, I'm off them now, and smiles have returned to my pharmacist's faces. I understand the crisis, however, it's making it difficult for patients to get them that need them.
@3:02, you're so right, alcohol is the worst of drugs. Between domestic violence, gun violence, and drunk driving, you're absolutely correct. I also live in a state that has a large native population. I watch it daily destroy lives. If they're on both alcohol and opioids, that's very tragic, to say the absolute least! It's a hard thing to watch happen.
Maybe the disabled people started taking opiods because of the pain they were in and perhaps depression as well for having to wait YEARS to be approved.
@ 3:41
Agreed. Alcohol has caused the most problems. But the Feds have always demonized illegal drugs like marijuana or cannabis. I believe it has been partly due to Native Americans use of peyote is why they banned it so long. So Native Americans could not legally get high on peyote so they turned to alcohol. Just another way to the U.S. government could stick it to Native Americans. The negative effects of cannabis were never scientifically shown to be worse than almost any legal drug like alcohol or opioids.
@4:44
Marijuana and cannabis are synonyms.
Peyote is not marijuana, it is a desert cactus.
Also, Native Americans can use peyote legally for religious purposes, and enforcement of laws generally is difficult when there is religious exemption.
As to why cannabis was banned initially, it depends but I suspect it was aimed more at poor african americans and mexicans. Both communities turned to cannabis during prohibition, and the laws followed soon after. Richer communities just continued to drink in secret and paid higher prices for that privileged.
I personally take hydrocodone for intermittent severe pain related to my disability. I've taken the same amount of pills for many years (40 per month) and do not find it addictive whatsoever. It dramatically improves my quality of life when I am in excruciating pain. It allows me to function and get household chores done. I guess it depends on the person.
Everyone who writes about the opioid epidemic should rightly refer to it as the "Sackler opioid epidemic". Full credit should be granted where deserved.
Ya, I can relate to that.
NOTHING doctors would prescribe did anything! I would walk to my car... would be in so much pain that I wanted to die. Thought about killing myself often... Sometimes constantly for weeks. Called the Suicide hotline a couple of times... Seemed pointless. They couldn't change anything any more than I could. Took nearly 6 YEARS to get SSDI. The only reason I didn't kill myself is that I refused to fo that to my family.
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