That coupled with the drastic reduction in opiate scripts helps. The hardcore have died or are finding treatment, the interested are finding little supply to start the habit, it’s all around a good thing to have fewer opiate painkillers in use. They absolutely have a place in society but that place should be “everywhere”.
I’m pretty damned sore (heh) about the tightening of opiates. It’s gone so far as to be ludicrous.
Sliced a good chunk off my thumb couple of years back. It was late so my wife bandaged me up best she could, the bottom layer being gauze. By the time I got to the ER the next day, that gauge was embedded in the wound. Jesus, it was hell just getting the edges a little loose and you could see where the wound was perfectly flat. That bad.
We soaked it in H2O2, didn’t do much. I was all but begging for a shot of lidocaine and they treated me like I was “seeking”, refused and refused. Finally got a little, not nearly enough. Ended up bent over the table while the doctor ripped it off. Jesus Christ, blood came pouring. And FFS, this was wound was in a major nerve concentration! Again, this wasn’t a scratch, doctor even said I’d be deformed for life. (Modern wound care grew almost all of it back with very little pain!)
And don’t start me on Xanax. Because of the addicts I can no longer have the one drug that ever worked for my depression.
That coupled with the drastic reduction in opiate scripts helps. The hardcore have died or are finding treatment, the interested are finding little supply to start the habit, it’s all around a good thing to have fewer opiate painkillers in use. They absolutely have a place in society but that place should be “everywhere”.
And the increased availability of naloxone to emergency responders, opioid users, and the general public.
This is likely the largest impact IMHO
Its worse than that, the prescription model for opiates for quite a while was to maximize two things:
And this was because those two things going up meant profits went up.
When health is for profit, this is what happens.
I’m pretty damned sore (heh) about the tightening of opiates. It’s gone so far as to be ludicrous.
Sliced a good chunk off my thumb couple of years back. It was late so my wife bandaged me up best she could, the bottom layer being gauze. By the time I got to the ER the next day, that gauge was embedded in the wound. Jesus, it was hell just getting the edges a little loose and you could see where the wound was perfectly flat. That bad.
We soaked it in H2O2, didn’t do much. I was all but begging for a shot of lidocaine and they treated me like I was “seeking”, refused and refused. Finally got a little, not nearly enough. Ended up bent over the table while the doctor ripped it off. Jesus Christ, blood came pouring. And FFS, this was wound was in a major nerve concentration! Again, this wasn’t a scratch, doctor even said I’d be deformed for life. (Modern wound care grew almost all of it back with very little pain!)
And don’t start me on Xanax. Because of the addicts I can no longer have the one drug that ever worked for my depression.