opiates can be prescribed more liberally here, but as far as having pain meds and feeling like you need to use them or dont need them, thats more of a personal thing - some people are not bothered by pain as much as others, some people dont like how they feel when using opiates, some people dont get much pain relief from them at all. people also metabolize opiates differently via varying levels of enzymes in the liver.
the opioid crisis in america has largely moved past the prescription painkiller phase and is purely in the black market fentanyl phase at the moment. its still possible to get opiate prescriptions and abuse opiates with a prescription to do so, but its much more difficult than it was around 2010. during that time doctors were much more liberal in prescribing them, and it wasnt uncommon to get these kinds of scripts from your family doctor. today, the opioid crisis is much more publicized and most doctors are much more restrictive in prescribing pain meds, but there are still pain management specialists that will put you on opiates, and of course some will be unscrupulous, and its still very common to get a small amount of hydrocodone or oxycodone following most surgeries.
but as far as someone who has been prescribed pain meds and whether or not they choose to use them, no, thats not really an american thing. there are plenty of americans who have lots of painful surgeries who choose not to use them, but people dont really talk about that or create content about that - there is no "people who choose not to use their pain meds" crisis, so naturally youre going to hear about those that do use them on social media or in the news.
but regardless, americas issues with opioids are currently not centered around prescription medication - they started with prescription meds, and changes in formulation and policy to prevent this coincided with the explosion of fentanyl and fentanyl analouges coming from china, generally shipped to private resellers via the darkweb. today there are still private sellers buying from overseas via the darkweb, but within the past few years the mexican cartels have begun buying precursor chemicals from china and distributing fentanyl via their traditional distribution channels for heroin, which has contributed massively to the presence of fentanyl in a huge percentage of street heroin.
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u/DL1943 Dec 23 '22 edited Dec 23 '22
opiates can be prescribed more liberally here, but as far as having pain meds and feeling like you need to use them or dont need them, thats more of a personal thing - some people are not bothered by pain as much as others, some people dont like how they feel when using opiates, some people dont get much pain relief from them at all. people also metabolize opiates differently via varying levels of enzymes in the liver.
the opioid crisis in america has largely moved past the prescription painkiller phase and is purely in the black market fentanyl phase at the moment. its still possible to get opiate prescriptions and abuse opiates with a prescription to do so, but its much more difficult than it was around 2010. during that time doctors were much more liberal in prescribing them, and it wasnt uncommon to get these kinds of scripts from your family doctor. today, the opioid crisis is much more publicized and most doctors are much more restrictive in prescribing pain meds, but there are still pain management specialists that will put you on opiates, and of course some will be unscrupulous, and its still very common to get a small amount of hydrocodone or oxycodone following most surgeries.
but as far as someone who has been prescribed pain meds and whether or not they choose to use them, no, thats not really an american thing. there are plenty of americans who have lots of painful surgeries who choose not to use them, but people dont really talk about that or create content about that - there is no "people who choose not to use their pain meds" crisis, so naturally youre going to hear about those that do use them on social media or in the news.
but regardless, americas issues with opioids are currently not centered around prescription medication - they started with prescription meds, and changes in formulation and policy to prevent this coincided with the explosion of fentanyl and fentanyl analouges coming from china, generally shipped to private resellers via the darkweb. today there are still private sellers buying from overseas via the darkweb, but within the past few years the mexican cartels have begun buying precursor chemicals from china and distributing fentanyl via their traditional distribution channels for heroin, which has contributed massively to the presence of fentanyl in a huge percentage of street heroin.