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Comment by ngngngng | Hacker News Reader

I was under the impression that MOST opioid addictions are caused by an opioid prescription. This would have nothing to do with your current job status.

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I think people over estimate that possibility. I (and many people I know) got addicted because the same guy who deals one drug, deals other drugs. In my case I was buying cocaine to party and have sex and it turned out my drug dealer had heroin and offered me some one time for free.

Because drugs are illegal, they are lumped to together, one guy who sells one might/probably sell the other. This is also why people call weed a "gateway" drug, because the dealer might have some MDMA or coke on them as well.

If we just made all drugs illegal, I think we would eliminate this "gateway" effect.

The can see evidence of this grouping effect in the mafia. They sell untaxed cigarettes, stolen goods, drugs, etc. What is the commonality between all of these things? The fact they are illegal of course!

> If we just made all drugs illegal, I think we would eliminate this "gateway" effect.

Did you mean to write the opposite of this?

Yes sorry: legal

~75% of addictions start with people using them _without_ a prescription.

https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-DetTab...

I appreciate the data. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I could see the US government having an extremely strong motive to fudge this data.

But almost all of that %75 comes from hand outs from someone the user knows and 6.48B indicates that person has a prescription for said pills.

>> caused by an opioid prescription. This would have nothing to do with your current job status.

This is still the USA. Healthcare is attached to employment. I think it safe to say that those without jobs aren't visiting the doctor, getting prescriptions, at the same rate as those with employer-provided care.

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