The pill supply has to lowered ... in the past.
However now the US made that mistake, what's the problem with continuing to give out the pills "like candy", although with tighter controls to make sure that they don't go to create new addicts?
However now the US made that mistake, what's the problem with continuing to give out the pills "like candy", although with tighter controls to make sure that they don't go to create new addicts?
For people with short term pain, or who are at the end of life, opioids can be a good choice.
For people with long term pain opioids can, rarely, be a good choice, if other things have been tried first, and if there's a careful package of care.
Most people with long term pain need variations of / combinations of:
1) Access to evidence based pain management specialist clinics
2) Graded strength building exercise (for musculo-skeletal, not for nerve)
3) Medication that isn't opioids
Giving opioids to people with long term pain isn't a good way of controlling their pain (they develop a tolerance) and risks severe harm (on top of addiction).
Here's a website from the English Faculty of Pain Medicine, which is part of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. They explain it far better than I can.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/tweaking-fentanyls-c...
I learned an important lesson, however. Doctors will frequently use the amount of pain someone is experiencing as a diagnostic aid when determining a patient's diagnosis. I had a ruptured eardrum that I saw a doctor for and that doctor misdiagnosed it because I wasn't showing any signs of pain and that injury is supposed to be excruciating. The doctor explained to me that if it was ruptured, I'd be near tears and screaming for pain medication.