589. Why Has the Opioid Crisis Lasted So Long? | Freakonomics Radio

[@X9523-z3v]

No one makes more money off addicts than the judicial system. It's not about justice, the community, or individual rights. It's about piracy

[@Mainbusfail]

Truth spoken. They have the gambit set and locked.

[@austenopolis]

Just want to say about the teaser clip for the next episode: boiling down the AIDS epidemic to "being an issue of stigma" is horribly wrong. AIDS and HIV treatment was blocked by full scale discrimination and a desire from politicians, the general public, and medical professionals alike to see queer people dead. Saying that the barrier for treatment was simple stigma is woefully inadequate and I hope that gets addressed in the episode.

[@bradfordsmith3203]

I don't think methadone is really a viable and safe option, it's a direct replacement for heroin and fentanyl and addicts can still use those substances together. It also gets them almost as high as the heroin and fentanyl. Im three years clean with monthly injections of now brixadi and before I was on sublicade monthly. Suboxone also isn't that great orally because there's still constant up and down feeling and addicts can just wait a day or so to use again if they want. Just my 2 cents. Im trying to wean off and get completely clean in the future.

[@mironbarteczko730]

Amazing insight, thank You for this interesting topic. I've been an alcohol and tobacco user since my early teenage years. It's been just in recent years I've been able to stop both at once with the help of AI. Facing the change and seeing positive outcomes has been important to me. I do feel a bit like an alien now in the town where I live. Just walking to the shops getting groceries gives me a sore throat from people in the streets smoking tobacco. 👍✨

[@Job.Well.Done_01]

Availability of drugs, economic instability, generational issues.

[@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts]

Social disapproval exists for a reason, it serves a good purpose.

[@maynardjohnson3313]

Sounds like maybe decriminalization heroin and methadone and have it available and standardize dosage. Stigma is bullshit.

[@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts]

Then you're left with a much, much worse version of smoking, forever. It's all trade offs, trading a violent, lethal problem away for a slightly less dangerous but more widespread, unsolvable problem. The only real solution is getting people to not take drugs in the first place, which means solving the problem drugs don't solve but pretend to. Take the example of Solomone Tonga, I think his life story is a good one.

[@X9523-z3v]

​@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts People have the right to their bodies regardless. We should have laws against deception and advertising addictive substances. And, if the government distributed and regulated instead of criminalized, with available health care, we would see a difference in a week.

[@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts]

@@X9523-z3v Some countries have already legalised, it hasn't solved their problem, only shifted it. It might be the lesser evil, but it's no silver bullet. Either way, you still have parasites addicting others to poison in order to steal from them. The suffering, death and economic and environmental loss remain, though other externalities may change. I'll add a link to an article about the experiences of places that have leagalised:

[@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts]

@@X9523-z3v Edit: I apologise, I simply cannot find the article I was thinking if. I should have saved it at the time. If I do find it, I'll add a link. Good evening.

[@JaredFarrer]

Yeah don’t suck and don’t spread misinformation