British Columbia

1841 readers

33 users here now

!britishcolumbia@lemmy.ca

News, highlights and more relating to this great province!

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

TruckBC@lemmy.ca

LimpRimble@lemmy.ca

Landmark study finds prescribing opioids dramatically reduced deaths, overdoses for drug users in B.C. (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 2 years ago by CaractacusPotts@lemmy.ca to c/britishcolumbia@lemmy.ca

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/14052947

The analysis found the cohort who were prescribed pharmaceutical-grade opioids had a 61 per cent lower risk of death from any cause the following week, and was 55 per cent less likely to die of an overdose the following week.

It also showed the protective effect increased with the number of days opioid medications were accessed. People who received four or more days of prescription opioids were 91 per cent less likely to die from any cause, and 89 per cent less likely to die from overdose in the following week.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] psvrh@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The problem is how this is sold to people who, and I hate to say this, don't care if addicts live or die.

That's the missing piece: you can talk all day about things that save lives, but a lot of people don't care. They care about property damage, personal safety and order. A lot of people--a lot--will actually see an overdose death as a positive thing.

If you want to change these people's minds, you'll need to explain the benefit to them, like that it reduces crime, or will result in their Amazon packages not getting stolen as often, or that they won't have to deal with people passed out on the sidewalk in front of their business.

Is this callous and not a little bit sociopathic? Yup. Is it the truth? Also yup. But if you want save lives, you have to explain how this benefits people who aren't addicts or their families.