Jonah Goldberg in National Review makes some sense:
Think of the opioid crisis as the fruit of partial legalization. In
the 1990s, for good reasons and bad, the medical profession,
policymakers, and the pharmaceutical industry made it much easier to
obtain opioids in order to confront an alleged pain epidemic. Doctors
prescribed more opioids, and government subsidies made them more
affordable. Because they were prescribed by doctors and came in pill
form, the stigma reserved for heroin didn’t exist.
When you increase supply, lower costs, and reduce stigma, you increase
use. And guess what? Increased use equals more addicts.
A survey by the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation
found that one-third of the people who were prescribed opioids for more
than two months became addicted. A Centers for Disease Control study
found that a very small number of people exposed to opioids are likely
to become addicted after a single use.
The overdose crisis is largely driven by the fact that once addicted to
legal opioids, people seek out illegal ones — heroin, for example — to
fend off the agony of withdrawal once they can’t get, or afford, any
more pills. Last year, 64,000 Americans died from overdoses. Some 58,000
Americans died in the Vietnam War.
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