Internet Perpetuity

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/more-than-47000-drug-overdose-deaths-last-year-122115.html

(12/21/2015) More than 47,000 drug overdose deaths last year

My comment:

(2013) Deaths from:

Prescription Analgesics: 16,235

Alcohol-Induced Deaths: 29,001

Firearms: 33,636

Intentional Self-Harm (Suicide): 41,149

“There were 41,149 suicides in 2013 in the United States—a rate of 12.6 per 100,000 is equal to 113 suicides each day or one every 13 minutes… Based on data about suicides in 16 National Violent Death Reporting System states in 2010, 33.4% of suicide decedents tested positive for alcohol, 23.8% for antidepressants, and 20.0% for opiates, including heroin and prescription pain killers.” (CDC)

“Suicide (+3.2%), unintentional injuries (+2.8%), and stroke (+0.8%) also increased in 2014.” (CDC/MedPage Today)

As far as I can tell, these statistics don’t include the number of suicides in the veteran population. Add these numbers together, along with the high percentage of under-reporting, and the suicide rate has reached epidemic proportions. Yet, all the media can report on is the opioid war — it boggles the mind. Seriously.

You can trace the increases in both drug overdoses and suicides to the increased level of activity in the opioid war. Do those results suggest that we should keep making things worse?

And isn’t it time that everyone stopped blaming chronic pain patients? Because until I can see a breakdown of the medical conditions for all of these overdose victims, I can only assume that the majority of them were suffering from addiction, with only a small percentage suffering from chronic pain. (I wonder if the suicide statistics would say the same, or are the majority of suicide victims chronic pain patients?) Which means that all this enforcement against — and shaming of — pain patients is only making everything worse (as the statistics show).

You don’t have to believe me — all this information will be stored on the internet, so in a couple of years (when everything is worse), we’ll know who was right (and who to blame for even more tragic results).

Sorry for the length of this comment, but if the media refuses to fully report on these issues, I’m left with little choice. (I mean, do you think I enjoy spending my time this way? Typing out apparently useless comments, the only purpose of which is for internet perpetuity?) Merry Christmas, and may you never suffer from chronic pain.