“If you are dying, you get morphine.”
If you are dying in pain, you _hope_ you get morphine. This is the problem.
Because recreational addiction & abuse is such a huge problem it bleeds over into the legitimate use realm. Consequently people who need “pain management” or whatever may not get it, or in the quantities they need.
Then there’s the problem of pilferage or theft. Hiring low quality individuals as nurses and techs generally means things like the hired help become addicts themselves and start skimming off the medications. Gramps won’t mind a sugar pill in lieu of his prescription meds will he?
“...Because recreational addiction & abuse ....”
I just moved back into the state I grew up in and not too far from my little WV hometown. I’ve been gone for close to 40 years but that’s a separate story. I have been quite taken back by stories of opioid use here. In reconnecting to many of my old friends I find they all have a story of a child, grandchild & niece\nephew, etc. of opioid abuse in their family. However none of the stories start out with “ Oh so-n-so couldn’t find a job, got laid off etc and was so psychologically distraught they put themselves into an opioid haze & died or came close to it.” NONE OF THE STORIES! All of them were “So-n-so had a great job good education and were using drugs essentially recreationally (booze, pot then something better - opioid!)....” ALL STORIES WERE STORIES OF ABUSE & TRADGEDY FROM RECREATIOAL DRUG USE! Basically these incidents were the fruits of the 1960s-1970s where recreational drug use went mainstream into the culture!
Not a scientific study but an anecdotal one, still it makes me look at claims that regarding evil drug companies & local doctors were somehow responsible with skepticism! Sounds to me that people who say this are more like making excuses for the local cultural change. Which they might bear some responsibility for!