Topic: prescription medications

The field is getting accustomed to patients arriving in addiction treatment complaining of problems with prescription opioids, stimulants, sedatives, etc, while actively enrolled in medical cannabis programs.

In the past, we’ve flung opioids at the problem, and haven’t developed alternatives.

…tolerable when we’re talking about window fasteners or computer mice but surely not when the product in question directly affects our health or even our survival.

Not everybody wants to remain dependent on pain medication. But at present, we offer few if any alternatives to doing it on your own.

Once a problem such as opoid overprescribing is widespread, entrenched in practice, good luck eradicating it with new laws.

Once such substances get a foothold in a region, they’re extremely hard to eradicate.

Maybe they reasoned that even if they were caught out, they could avoid the worst penalties.

In the absence of complaints, the prescriber can be tempted to assume things are going well, when in fact they aren’t.

I’d feel better if I knew some in our brilliant science community were working hard on ways to taper patients, if just the most highly motivated, off the medications with a reduced risk of return to heroin.

A number of experts pointed out the risks associated with a dramatic increase in opioid prescribing. They were ignored in favor of others who downplayed those risks.