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Does Cracking Down on Prescription Opiates Lead to More Heroin Use?

Does Cracking Down on Prescription Opiates Lead to More Heroin Use? - The Huffington Post

Oxycontin (thankfully after my time) is such a messy situation.  There’s a lot of evidence that people around the world are undertreated for pain because governments are afraid of drug abuse (and the US and the UN).  But the solution was not a shock and awe big pharma media campaign with ridiculous lies about their new drug not having any potential to be either addictive or used off-label (not to mention the overdose risk).  There’s a lot of evidence that these drugs are overprescribed for back pain.  But, from a harm reduction perspective, a pharmaceutically pure narcotic of a known dose is way better than street heroin.  And any time you start adding anti-injection ingredients (like talc and gelling agents), you are going to do a lot of damage to the veins of people who are still trying to shoot it.  And of course, the people who give up on shooting pills are going to switch to heroin.