How Has Europe Managed to Avoid an American-Style Opioid Crisis?

A new synthetic opiate has killed dozens of European heroin users. Nitazenes, which are up to 300 times more potent than heroin, are increasingly showing up in the continent’s drug supply, sparking fears that they could fuel a surge of overdoses, on par with North America’s fentanyl crisis.
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[@evs251]

Because Europe never went through a prescribed opiate problem like USA. No problems with things such as purdue pharma

[@a-aron2276]

No, we have the same drugs but far different controls around them.

[@ivareskesner2019]

Yes. But that fact is exactly what is being stated here. They're asking why.

[@evs251]

@@a-aron2276 That's my point

[@derfvcderfvc7317]

The US had an opiate issue before that. The US is just the number 1 user of all explicit drugs. Always has been, always will be. American life require drug use to get through the drudgery.

[@stargazeification]

@@derfvcderfvc7317dude Russia were the number one user of heroin and opiates for years. It’s not just America, it’s a malaise that effects every first world country.

[@robertkopp4918]

The REAL Drug problem has come from the LEGAL pharmaceutical companies. Imagine that?

[@Arltratlo]

but not in the USA, they working for the people, right??

[@krzysztofmclean6208]

distribution is done by same people

[@sirich7751]

Eh, heroin has been around 60+ years. Oxi's certainly didn't help

[@OsirusHandle]

no its fentanyl causing all the deaths these days

[@keetykeetymeowmeow]

The problem lies in the complex reasons for the decades-long evolution of consumer demand.

[@devanman7920]

Because my GP isn't a sales rep for big pharma

[@Me-ri2ke]

It is literally that simple 😊

[@mesiroy1234]

That simple

[@benjaminscott3025]

opioid/opiate analgesics have all been off-patent for years. drug companies only make any real profit in the US market while the drug is still on patent. every other country strictly regulates a cap on what companies can charge. It sounds like you are UK-based. I know many people with the same medical condition as me in the UK and they are all on strong pain meds like morphine. In Canada we just have to live with pain and the same thing is happening to Americans. a lot of people in pain are suffering greatly because doctors have been made to feel afraid to treat legitimate pain.

[@XxXMrSisterFisterXxX]

​@@benjaminscott3025 yeah idk what OP is trying to say. has nothing to do with the fentanyl epidemic. it's pretty difficult to get any opioid prescription in the US, let alone fentanyl. most on the streets is smuggled from China

[@sirllamaiii9708]

Because the CIA doesn't operate to the same extent as they do in America ;) who do you think was funding the Italian Mafia to ship heroin to the USA? Operation GLADIO.

[@aw4610]

The US aggressively pushed opioid prescriptions for pain treatments in the 90s and 2000s.

[@baronbrummbar8691]

well yes becosue you can sue the ass of a doctor becouse he let you live in pain

[@dirkdiggler8794]

Honestly think Iraq was the made up reason for us to be in the Middle East, Afghanistan n it's Poppy fields was their goal. The explosion of prescriptions of Oxy's led to this new epidemic. The time lines of us going to Iraq n the beginning of the Opioid epidemic coincides. Crack for the most part took over Heroin as the drug of choice buy the mid 80s. The older club scene was always popping pills, but the Rave scene started the pill popping craze for kids in the early 90s. The Bay Area Thizz scene made it somewhat "street" cool in the mid to late 90s, not just a "white people" drug. Fast forward early 2000-2001 is when you started hearing about Oxy's n how easy it was to get a prescription. Fast forward, they got so many people hooked, heroin on the streets became cheaper then a script. And when was the last time you've heard of a Heroin "ring" ever being busted, or tonnes of Heroin ever being caught or confiscated by law enforcement? .

[@alystero8838]

​​@@dirkdiggler8794 this is russian propaganda. The US went into Afghanistan to save the afghans. They cried when we left.

[@asdfgheuehh864]

@@alystero8838crazy how u call him out for “Russian propaganda” only to respond with your own heavily biased pro-America take 💀💀💀

[@YBM2007]

​@@dirkdiggler87949-11 never happened in this alternative reality?

[@teoengchin]

By the way, the opium production actually grew while the US were there

[@ukmary1968]

It’s because prior, the taliban would destroy the crops and punish the growers harshly. It was a big risk to grow it.

[@KenmeriCaptain]

it's almost like that's what the US were there to do 🤔 how odd

[@ukmary1968]

@@KenmeriCaptain I’ll never underestimate the BS my government gets into. I’ve never been a conspiracy theory gal, but these folks have issues

[@lewiswood1693]

​@@ukmary1968exactly the Taliban are brutal and conservative. So that means no drugs and heavy penalties for breaking that law. Another example of how no one is 100% bad everything is shades of grey.

[@V-so9lj]

​@@ukmary1968 yeah thats why US Marines patrolled those fields, to protect the opium crop to America for all the junkies

[@rektorsown]

there is no explanation in this clip ... wtf

[@john2g1]

This clip is meant to get your attention. Press the play button ▶️ at the bottom of the video where the title is.

[@ivareskesner2019]

Who said there is an explanation? At least, that it is known? If there was an easy explanation, the problem wouldn't be so out of control.

[@pip00]

⁠@@ivareskesner2019 everyone knows what caused the opiate crisis though. When narcotics hit the scene in the states, pharmaceutical companies were pushing that it was non addictive because the very short study at the time did show that. Combine that with nearly the majority of the population that struggles with some form of chronic pain being told that these new narcotics will be the replacement for physiotherapy in the years to come nobody really had any hang-ups about trying them initially

[@mess7355]

I think it meant to imply that restricting the herion supply in Afghanistan just made the problem pop up somewhere else. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@wabbling1]

That's Vice for you 😂

[@peterharms3851]

No Sackler family, for starters!

[@s.t.8346]

Because in Europe the doctor chooses the prescripted drug appropriate to your treatment and not the patient. Also there is a ban for advertising for prescripted drugs, so we never knew that there is something like oxycontin.

[@bbravoo]

I have seen videos of a Spanish citizen explaining how hard it was to leave the drug. But that was for treating very painful cancer. The drug was there but used sparingly when before knowing the addictive side effects. Especially in the public sector that tends to use well tested drugs And we do not subcontract the regulation of drugs to consultant firms.

[@dylanlawson9097]

in the usa you have absolutely do not choice on what medicine you are given. especially when it comes to opioids like oxycodone, hydros, and morphine. doctors here dont even like giving out opioids anymore unless absolutely necessary so i dont know where you got the idea that we get to choose what medicine we are given but its 100% wrong.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

to be fair it is a potential reason for why i am accused of rape (i didn't do it) we were both drunk for sure but she claims amnesia the thing is that there were lacerations due to my fingernails and that was because i couldn't get an erection which is largely due to having no access to erectile medication, it also lead to a long period of taboo pron consumption to try and find out why, I can reach orgasm eventually but for some reason I can't easily gain and can hardly maintain an erection, the urologist i visited was a harrowingly humiliating and cold experience, she essentially told me that it would only be a problem if i got a long term relationship and still couldn't but how does one get one without succesfully engaging in intercourse? it matters more than ever so when a girl asked me to come with her to talk i went with her despite my issues and prior engagements, and even then i didn't really expect sex, when it did happen i did eventually give in and engage and then i wanted to do it right but i just couldn't perform despite her asking so i used my fingers. had i had the medication i need i would have had more confidence to begin with (and i also have autism so that matters a lot i think) and i would not have had to depend on my fingers and the suffering of the last 8 months i endured in university procecution and now supposedly also legal procecution would likely not have ocurred. so yeah doctors being stingy with stronger medication is good but I think to many fail to accept that some people would be better off with them.

[@AAARREUUUGHHHH]

​@@dylanlawson9097 I've heard Americans get antibiotics for things like viruses. Not because they help, because they don't, but because they ask for them.

[@gwantM]

LOL we can't just go to a doctor and ask for a doctor "xyz" medication if it isn't medically appropriate. On top of that most insurances wont pay for medication that isn't medically necessary. You Euro's have such a bizarre view of how things work in the US

[@Kroesecontrol]

Not getting an opioid prescription if you stub your toe might have helped as well

[@hollybug-76542]

The US actually woefully under prescribes pain medication. The lack of appropriate pain management is a problem.

[@baronbrummbar8691]

@@hollybug-76542 look at germany if you want to se how under prescription looks like - in the US the totaly over prescribes it compared to the rest of the world - here having chronic pain ussualy gives you and ibuprofen prescription

[@fillsbury8304]

@@hollybug-76542 The opioid epidemic started with doctors prescribing opiates for every little ailment. Purdue Pharma literally sponsored thousands of doctors to prescribe Oxycontin to their patients for even the smallest of issues. Purdue was even held accountable in court, for having started the epidemic with their business practices.

[@stuff12342]

That's just what pushed people to start using opioids. Fentanyl is prevalent for different reason bei g that there wasn't enough heroin and pills in the supply and that fentanyl was much cheaper so dealers profit margins increased a bunch for sometime. So fentanyl came from lack of supply of other opioids aswell as being cheaper for dealers.

[@REEbott86]

Cracking down on heroine is part of what started the fentanyl epidemic in the US and further crack downs have led to the common use of worse and worse drugs in the US and other places. I never heard of drugs like Flakka or Tranq when I was younger but now as it gets harder and harder to find normal stuff people start taking more dangerous and life threatening drugs. Cracking down on drugs has to my knowledge never succeeded in reducing drug use or even drug deaths in a population that already has excessive drug use.

[@witoldschwenke9492]

Nah. Fentanyl is because China wants to damage the US. The other drugs are because it's profitable for US pharmaceutical companies to get people addicted. Tranq and synthetic cannabinoids etc exist because the government can't figure out how to write laws and because other drugs are very expensive. The reason cocaine is a banker drug is because it's expensive.

[@ivareskesner2019]

To be honest, *everybody* has managed to avoid an American style fentanyl crisis. This problem (as are many other societal calamities) is unique to the US. There is some great, as yet undiagnosed, underlying societal ill that makes the US a champion of gun crime, drugs, homelessness, social and racial division, and constant angst and political cult warfare. I personally think an effort needs to be made to identify what exactly the contributing factors are that make the US stand out so much amongst the rest of the developed world. Because for something to change, something gas to change..

[@toolguyslayer1]

It's Cher green people taking over the system that shouldn't be there and they have a lack of education or they have been made an offer that they should and could not refuse by threats and coercion and or plain ol outright greed

[@himda3481]

Identify the contributing factors? Corporations are benifiting from each and every one of these "problems" If you were a weapon manufacturer or you had stocks in such a company, you whole business model is based on selling more and more weapons, peace would drive you out of business. So you were a pharmaceutical comoany and everyo e is healthy, you would be out of business. If you were well informed about eating well, winternational fastfood chains would be empty and out of business. If you could grow your own food, or if each community could grow its own food then.. Oh wait someone is driving farmers out of business and buying their lands!!!

[@ivareskesner2019]

@himda3481 True, those are some of the many forces either contributing to the situation or downright causing it. Either by creating a problem, then selling the solution, or by just hijacking an already existing problem, monetising it, and then keeping it going. But these forces are global. The question is what allows them to function *and prosper* in the US (virtually) exclusively. Why nowhere else in the developed world? Why there?

[@himda3481]

When a politician's worst fear is to lose their "sponsor", and their whole campain is based on funds. It is not a democracy. You can have the looks and theqtricals of a democracy, but who really runs things and affect policies?

[@toolguyslayer1]

@@ivareskesner2019 it was all started by wars false imprisonment slavery the flat out of every kind genocide the blatant loss of elders and mentors education taken away from the people of the land not to mention the things that land their money any type of inheritance and any other thing that could possibly get and I mean ANY other thing essentially speaking it is like taking a child molesting them until they have a child and then molesting their child and so forth etcetera etcetera etcetera and all that may come along with it because of all the aforementioned I don't think anyone has ever been to any like anything like that and it wasn't taken during wartime it was taken while they sat in their houses like you imagine somebody just busting your house and tell you to get out leave your everything don't take your keys don't take your wallet don't take your family don't take your car don't take anything just get out oh yeah leave your wallet also how do you think life will go for you and your situation if you were that individual restart to figure things out after a little while and then they start sending people in from other countries that look like you to the things I messed up gangs to make one gang look like it is threatening the other gang add some drugs and alcohol on every corner a few gun shops along with all the aforementioned and you have a recipe for disaster when you need to have something fixed when you need to learn something who would you go to it ain't going to be those people the crooks/agents made sure of that they are foreigners and they live in the hills in three-story houses fully paid for how is this 😳🙄😳

[@pblogger9065]

No Sackler family and no corporate medical system for such people to take advantage of.

[@JR-ly2pu]

The phrase "pain as the 5th vital sign" was introduced in 1996 by James Campbell, MD, president of the American Pain Society, to raise awareness of pain treatment among healthcare professionals. This and a good amount of doctors pill pushing during the 1990s into 2015. I know now as an adult who lives with severe injuries and pain from the war in Afghanistan almost every doctor I’ve seen will only give me Tylenol or gabapentin. They said having pain is better than running the risk of being addicted. I’m not downplaying the opioid epidemic at all, but there is now a panic to not prescribe opioids in general. Not everyone abuses them. To some it gives us a better quality of life.

[@thetapeloops9522]

Damn straight.

[@madlarkin8]

​@@thetapeloops9522damn not straight. Virtually every form of chronic pain in persons not actively dying and terminal, has an underlying, treatable condition. Opioids do NOTHING to treat any condition. Opioids should be used post trauma, and post-op, so a person doesn't suffer needless agony in a hospital. But if a person is well enough to leave the hospital, they don't NEED Opioids. It's BS that it has become standard of care to give people weekly or even monthly supplies of take-home pills, for chronic conditions... our society has paid a heavy price.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

yep, i have plenty of such stories

[@Mike5Brown]

Yeah snapback has been a bit too harsh, my wife was a bit too enthusiastic when the doctor said she was getting oxy after her C-section and wouldn't refill it

[@CESmith]

They are worried too about those over 80. If you made it that far, give them the drug!

[@LillllyPad]

In the US the medical care benefits from addiction in Europe healthcare is paid by taxes and to create a drug addict is super expensive. To get a prescription for a controlled substance is very hard in Europe that’s why we have less drug addicts.

[@jeffdishong4853]

You apparently have no idea how it “works “ good for a laugh though!!😂😂

[@LillllyPad]

@@jeffdishong4853 Says the person with zero arguments 😂

[@YBM2007]

Yeah they see the patient as a 'customer', a fundamental flaw

[@kurtgriffin4163]

stopping heroin does nothing to reduce deaths from fentanyl

[@jacobclegg1507]

I've always said it, if all drugs were clean and of the same potency every single time nobody would be overdosing. Legalizing drugs and selling them in a controlled manor, which includes constant potency testing and proper dosing, will literally end overdoses

[@WHiT3_SHAD0W]

It would probably stop 75% of them but not all. People overdose on their doctor prescribed drugs too. If alcohol is legal everything else should be too

[@rcg224]

no

[@schumerus6786]

You may not understand drug consumer mentality

[@greenaum]

@@schumerus6786 I think perhaps you don't. Where do you think OP is wrong? He makes perfect sense, and shares the view that most medical experts have on the issue. It's only politicians who still stick to the outdated "prohibition and bogeymen" narrative.

[@gamalfahim3996]

You probably never heard of "drug tolerance"

[@NinjaThatLongboards]

Who would have thought that authentic heroin was keeping overdose rates low

[@realiteatimeforall]

As a recovering addict I say, its true!!! All the death and stuff didnt start happening(where I live) until the fentanyl showed up. When it was just heroin, you didnt have people dropping luke flies everywhere.

[@Justdont693]

I mean doesn’t surprise me. The synthetic version mimicking things is always worse. Weed-spice Cocaine-bath salts Heroin-fentanyl

[@wynwilliams6977]

well not really, it was not an issue as much before that anyway due to Stricker EU laws and a massive difference in health care culture

[@acid6urns]

correct. real heroin while still dangerous is MUCH LESS dangerous than fentanyl. fentanyl can kill you from one single PIECE of a pressed pill, heroin you’d usually have to do it intentionally.

[@iotaje1]

The problem is that there are many different synthetic with different strengths, on a black market they easily get mixed in or mixed up by people who don't know any better, leading to overdoses.

[@edmanning274]

Well… that and we’ve never had an epidemic of overprescribing opiates which when removed need replacing.

[@GodLovesYou828]

Keep growing poppies, i have been growing them for 20 years and its been great

[@universeslap]

Most people are too lazy and scared for that. Discouraging laws also doesn't help. If people grew themselves, which is really super easy, it would solve most drug-related problems. Of course, growing not only poppies, but also other herb medicine locally, could be part of the solution, but I'm afraid, that it's not in the interest of certain greedy people profiting from the whole situation...

[@emekaosisi1288]

@@alwaysinspired123Milk of the Poppy

[@universeslap]

@@alwaysinspired123 Dried milk/latex is the Opium. What more do you need?😄... Heroin is popular, because it's easier to hide and smuggle and easier to create dependency on. It serve purpose for dealers only really, if yours health is what you care about. Also you don't need to make opium to use poppy as medicine. All of the plants parts can be used for making tea, but always be careful with amount of the herb. "The dose makes the poison". In case of Papaver somniferum (poppy) its especially true.

[@universeslap]

@@alwaysinspired123 also what ailment do you need poppy for? There're safer options

[@Konarcoffee]

Hey if you do, don't talk about it online like this!

[@The31st]

Addiction is a social issue. Unless people's lives improve they will always find something else to get hooked on.

[@xilj4002]

We're also using a wider range of non-opioid painkillers that actually work even for post surgery recovery so people don't end up needing to buy street drugs to replace or supplement their prescribed ones

[@marlon7806]

That is completely wrong. Actually the time from harvesting until it’s in Europe can take up to 2 years. So supply is still on and will for a while. That is when we will see problem because addicts will have to find a different high. Difference between us and Europe is less prescribed drugs and an efficient health care system.

[@adriaandeleeuw8339]

Up until the 1950's Australia had the highest per capita consumption of Heroin..... it was in most cough medicines..... people took it when they had their cough and stopped taking it when they were better..... My step father was an old school Apothecary (manufacturing Pharmacist) It wasnt until the US decided that no one around the world should be able to use Heroin that there were significant troubles with Heroin in Australia!

[@Meta_Myself]

China is not flooding European drug market with cheap fentanyl.

[@R37ARD3D]

& Mexico

[@Ziptie258]

Ummmm yes they are

[@SodaPrezsing]

No one makes you take it. The reason US has a problem is because they already had a problem of over prescription, Europe less so

[@ivareskesner2019]

They most certainly are. Deliberately. There is a trail of evidence linking Chinese manufacturers to a plethora of under-the-table deals with anybody wanting to buy it. No questions asked. They have often even delivered it for free if it's being sent to the US. This is their payback for the British part in the Chinese opium crisis of the mid 19'th century...although I suspect they would do it even without that history simply to undermine their biggest rival.

[@Meta_Myself]

@@Ziptie258 How?

[@AntoineADubai]

Not diminishing the real hard subject, the presenter really has Jay Foreman's voice.

[@alternativewalls4988]

We should adopt the Singaporean way of dealing with frug problems

[@fgerstm2069]

It's because of the better healthcare system. In Europe you get treatment instead of just supression of the pain, as it is the case for the under-insured mass of us workers. So much less prescribed opiods.

[@Blazedreptile]

Its really not the case. Uk drug treatment is arguably worse

[@Asn-xh9nq]

@@Blazedreptile how?

[@fixedguitar47]

Define “Crisis” cause punishing pain patients is the real issue

[@keithb3989]

The US is one of 2 countries that allow advertising for pharmaceutical products. They also started the opioid epidemic in our country to make a dollar. Disgusting

[@minigrande1939]

The captilist ideology at its most extreme is profit over people

[@nono_noxx]

I can tell you opioids are prescribed very sparingly. Also for example in portugal we have decriminalized drug usage and have centers where people can have clean material/test their drugs.

[@tdawes33]

I like my news sources to avoid eye contact with me

[@3.6Roentgen]

What people also seem to forget is pharma actually buys opium from Afghanistan on the legal market as well for use in the production of opioid based products.

[@tracymichaelsen493]

Yes it took a while to find someone in the comments who knows the truth

[@neverfeltcloser]

I’m thinking the same thing. Like talk about monopoly. Now the. US is going to move to lab grown synthetics or just have their own fields there in the states or elsewhere.

[@Hobbyrepubliken]

We dont give kids and adults heavy drugs for normal dental procedures like they do in the US. Or give opioid subscriptions for headaches

[@DanDanDoe]

I’m in my late twenties in the Netherlands, and a year or two ago was the first time a dentist even offered a pain killer for filling a tooth, while I’ve had to get fillings occasionally since my early teenage years. Hell, the injection hurt more than the actual filling would. Not a fan. My mother did get morphine when she was operated for cancer, and afterwards she told me she’s glad doctors hardly ever give you that kind of pain meds, because it felt too good. If you didn’t need surgery you really are unlikely to get anything stronger than paracetamol or ibuprofen.

[@MizTheDonGargon]

Lol what? I'm a 35 year old American and never got anything stronger then ibuprofen for dental procedures

[@nickjones3793]

Well if America had a safe and clean supply like most of the UK and Europe does our OD death numbers would be way down….

[@AhJodie]

In nursing school, we were told that a person in pain does not become addicted..... I have seen many pictures of USA soldiers guarding the poppy fields in Afghanistan. At one time, a lot of heroin came through Vietnam.....

[@winzyl9546]

Because Europe has a government with regulations for the people, America has a government with "regulations" lobbied by the corporations.

[@AwesometownUSA]

pretty strange that US dependence on opioids steadily rose while we were there (just like when we were in Vietnam, another big producer in its day). hmm…

[@blive4k732]

Europe avoided opiates by getting heroin from Afghanistan farmers who produce 85 percent of heroin? And Europe avoided that because the taliban stop farming, and the final point is you can never stop supply of drugs. This edit is garbage. What the hell is it saying.

[@Anastasio777]

Poor Swiss Sandoz has no supply anymore... the CIA flew it with US military C130 directly to Switzerland for opioid medical based production, hence strong painkillers.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Libertarians have been saying this for years. Heroin is less dangerous than fentanyl.

[@float_sam]

my friend was in the army.. they protected the poppy fields.

[@randomdams9179]

Yeah as an Afghan the Taliban has been against Drugs and opioids since the 90s, as it is against Islam. The different Anti-Taliban alliances that America funded were effectively drug lords. The majority of these groups agreed with the Taliban on everything, many of them even thinking the Taliban's alliance with Osama was an extreme and necessary measure against the NAA. The disagreement came down to the drug trade, which the Taliban was against. So USA soldiers needed to defend the poppy fields in order to install their desired dictators in Afghanistan. IMO whether we got the American-Flavored dictators or the Anti-American-Flavoured it doesn't matter.

[@Gallalad1]

He’s also acting like it’s not currently happening as we speak. Synthetic heroin is slipping into the system and it’s a problem nobody is talking about yet.

[@myboysd5772]

I thought from the thumbnail this video would be about shovel handles

[@Philip5478]

Because no matter how bad our governments are, they aren't as bad as Americas yet. So they dont help companies sell them to the population to poison people for profit. Give it a few years in the UK, once the NHS is privatised we will no doubt have one.

[@grapetoad6595]

It's weird saying the Afghan heroin production stopping in the mid 2010s stopped Europe having an opioid epidemic in the mid 2000s

[@ApexMX530]

We’d like to thank drugs for winning the war on drugs.

[@some_dude1234]

Here in Finland we had pretty serious heroin epidemic in the late 90's but it just pretty much vanished in the early 2000's. And after that we have had bubrenorfine abuse everywhere. Mostly those subutex pills come from france as long as I now. Used quite a lot of them in my past, allthough it all started for me with oxycodone and here I am, still being in this opioid treatment thing where I go and get my bubrenorphine injection once a month. This countrys drug usage is weird. I in my past even desperately tried many times to get some heroin, but no. Never got it. Allthough I live basically in the middle of the country so some distance to the capital area where it maybe could've be possible to get that. And at that time there was no such thing as just ordering drugs online. Maybe now I could get it, but thank god I dont want it anymore. Those other things fucked up almost everything in my life already. One thing that doesn't run out here is amphetamine. Literally amphetamine in every little town you go.

[@wynwilliams6977]

This is highly inaccurate, the EU has laws in place to stop over prescribing and pill factories, we even specifically targeted opioids in educating patient and pain control, the US members of government however bend over to pharma companies and their lobbyists

[@EverybodyhatesChris98]

It’s because drug companies generally don’t have European politics in their pocket. There was no Purdue company to sell to doctors, no tv commercials for opiates and thus no huge spike in opiate prescriptions. If you don’t prescribe opiates people don’t get addicted to opiates.

[@jnc07res]

Every person who went t a 'pill mill' (circa 2010) knew what they were doing, problem is they didn't think/consider they were lethal or addictive. Turns out they were, and by the time authorities both local and national did anything about it all these people (and those they sold them to) were hooked. Since those being more regulated, Chinese mfrs via Mexico filled that hole with Fentanyl, which has no regulation and is completely illicit from mfr to misuse. And way more deadly. Don't do drugs kids.

[@timpauwels3734]

Laws tightly regulating the prescription of opioids were more important imho

[@marvolom787]

Politicians don't understand most of the problem of normal people.

[@potatoproductions4098]

Y'all remember when vice was a respected news agency?

[@Omdaro]

No, they never were

[@holyelliw]

They actually did that to massive up the demand/price so when they began growing it again they made insane profits.

[@maximsofvalor5960]

In 2016, studies conducted by Stanford University and The DEA yielded a method of heroin production from yeast.

[@user-ok1el9mg4h]

Different healthcare system. People can afford to be treated and do not need painkillers to avoid getting fired for being sick at work or avoid getting the real treatment for their health issue because they cannot pay for it.

[@argonauth]

Mostly because in Europe we have learned to deal with addiction as a public health issue and not as a crime.

[@McShag420]

*the CIA disliked this*

[@Bobalini1]

Are we all just FORGETTING that Britain STARTED THE OPIOD CRISIS like 4 centuries ago???

[@AroundnBackAgain]

The American drug crisis is fentanyl, not heroin. Almost all "heroin" in America is fentanyl, with a smaller percentage being actual heroin adulterated with fentanyl. This video does not answer the question.

[@nunya2814]

Us politicians commend them for it? That's rich coming from a government that literally had our troops protecting those fields 10-15 yrs ago.

[@ishanchegu]

Asked a question, more people asked questions, some people added useless information, and we looped. Without getting an answer. Now I'll never know why Europe doesn't have an opioid crisis

[@Huly241072]

This guy looks like Ian Curtis from Joy Division

[@rifqitaqiuddin]

You dont short the supply. You short the demand.

[@vbgsantander]

Well we have much problems here aswell we don’t use fentanyl as much but man do many ppl here in Sweden use heroin or other over prescribed opiates and opiods

[@badkeiser]

This is a big step toward solving the problem. I remember when Afghanistan had a fungal infection in the crop and UK heroin dried up. Lots of people got clean brcause they had no choice. I took drugs for 20 years abd have been clean for 8.

[@jerloxcool6671]

Its called social healthcare and regulation of big pharma

[@jaydubcee_]

“We actually have Afghan-grown heroin to thank for that. Actually, we don’t. This double-speak was said in a posh accent, so you didn’t notice I didn’t give you any relevant information to the actual question. Engagement, please.”

[@basyachana]

And that's it? The Talliban gets out of the heroine market, and no one swoops in with synthetic opioid product to satisfythe market's need? Just like that, Europe is opioid free?

[@Rezin_8]

😂 synthetics "hold my beer"

[@tawuquoiquoi3673]

Because no European country allowed the prescription of addictive opiate to the general public. And the taliban didn't help in that.

[@arielaariel4497]

If they make 85% and they destroyed most of their crop then wouldn't America have a huge decline too? Did big pharma madw this bs story? Us has an issue due pharmaceutical companies.

[@whatsgoingon71]

The US opioid crisis did not begin in 2021. It has been festering for years being fuled by big pharma companies and legal prescription drugs. The reason why Europe has none of these Zombies taking drugs on the city streets is that there is no unrestricted US style of capitalism in Europe.

[@jvsjoranjvs]

Interesting. The moment the us left afganistan they stopped producing opium........ how wierd.

[@martinbruhn5274]

One big difference between the USA and every other country on earth is, that it wasn't so much other countries being so successful in doing something about drugs, but that the USA has a unique failure in its use of pain killers. A reckless and destructive use, like in the USA, especially of oxycontin, just doesn't happen anywhere else in an even nearly as extreme and widespread way, as in the USA.

[@HungryLoki]

So basically, while the US allowed heroin production to go on unimpeded during their occupation of Afghanistan, the Taliban stopped it just like that?

[@awesomesause]

In all fairness, europe was asking them to get rid of a huge source of revenue and eat the loss as a favor.😅

[@user-jap84tlv24sq]

Crazy how invaders left and immediately opium production went down.

[@xM2theA2theXx]

Its because 90% of time oxy is prescribed in the usa , we use something very harmless calle Ibuprofen.

[@jacobe9187]

Probably all due to America having some boof subscription system and way too expensive version of europes free, way way less expensive, or even free, and amiable healthcare systems.

[@chrisbarber2084]

One of the major reasons being Europe has approved other painkillers that are effective and non addictive.... How many addicts would've been saved by a damn green whistle...

[@rahallde]

I thought that due to a very special pharmaceutical company and its "distribution model", a great many doctors in the USA were now prescribing fentanyl even for pain that was previously kept at bay with half an aspirin. In Europe, it is almost impossible to find doctors who deliberately drive their patients into a later addiction. In the USA, on the other hand.

[@WHiT3_SHAD0W]

That was a problem 20 years ago that started everything. then people got cut off and went to street drugs. doctors don't want to even give people pain meds that need it anymore, they aren't handing and fent to just anyone. 99% of the fent used is illegally made

[@baronbrummbar8691]

well + assholes sueing doctors for "letting them live in pain" so many doctors went the save route and prescribed them with strong pain killers

[@gallant439]

It is because your pharmacies didn’t introduce it to the public on a large scale

[@ericrhinehart9155]

Really glad we spent trillions fighting to keep the heroin fields open.

[@SolutionsSolved]

That was part of the Cia bankroll tho😢

[@eman7282]

Explanation is this: when Afghanistan was occupied the drug trade flourished...

[@TititoDeBologay]

Because Doctors still have integrity, medical lobbying is highly monitored, healthcare is still a public service.

[@fatboyRAY24]

Because a continent of alcoholics doesn’t mix with opiods

[@edwardkasalovitz7186]

It's not Taliban, it's us, Europeans, who don't take drugs (but drink). It's our culture and low popularity of drugs in it.

[@Rydonattelo]

Scotland does have a herion problem on par with any state in the USA. The difference is we have the NHS which unlike America did not give out super strength opiate painkillers on anything like the scale the private system in America did. Sure a lot of people in the UK might have a codeine prescription 30mg or a Tramadol prescription but the NHS are always careful about it. You had tv adverts in America telling people with back pain to ask their doctors for oxcontyn. As far as I know the only people with prescription of the strong an opiate in the UK are people coming off herion or people with illness like cancer where you may get some like Oramorph ( liquid morphine). So the herion problem is has bad but we don't have meth or opiate pill problem in the UK. In Scotland thr problems are herion and benzodiazipens

[@LittleBananaJoe]

What a vid. Ask a question and then yap about something completely unrelated. The reason is European doctors aren’t allowed to prescribe a metric ton of oxi for the sniffles. There. Question answered. One sentence.

[@thesoul2sqeeze]

Literally lol

[@wasterangler]

They stopped it to creat a demand and work up the price. Fact check that!

[@xander2964]

Is that why morphine has been getting more expensive..? Alkaloids are used for more than just heroin.

[@alcapone9550]

US kept the opium production level high af for almost two decades 😂😂😂😂 🤦🏼

[@jiahturner8122]

Well, that and Europe actually has healthcare that doesn't cause you to go bankrupt.

[@Evereghalo]

This reporting is deceptive. Afghanistan has switched to producing more expensive drugs that cost less to produce. They are treating it like OPEC does oil, artificially raising the supply

[@PappaLezlie]

The real answer is in Europe we don't stuffing the population with drugs from birth.

[@TheCrimsonfluf]

Yeah the taliban whacked their crop to gain favor and legitimacy on the international stage. BUT they did that when it wasnt a harvest season AND they switched instead to producing meth lol

[@shlagnoth2172]

They control the market, and have been doing so for a while. Supply and demand cycles are the reason. They can say they stopped production for the UN, but it's just to raise the price. OPEC does the same thing.

[@jakebarnes28]

What has happened in Portugal?