[Old Teufel Hunden]

"People who are on pain management aren't the ones OD'ing, in general. OD's occur to extremely irresponsible abuse by people in the black market."

To use your phrase, balderdash! A lot of what's happening is that people get legal opiates and at some point, the doctor no longer prescribes them but these people are addicted. So people start going the illegal route to get them. Heroin is a lot cheaper to get on the street than illegal oxy. Unfortunately, the heroin is being cut with the far stronger and cheaper types of fentynal. So you're counting on a drug dealer now to properly mix that fentynal and not give you a lethal dose....

[sargon]

So you're counting on a drug dealer now to properly mix that fentynal and not give you a lethal dose....

Precisely the reason that they shouldn't be criminalized and overpriced. At least if addicts are getting pharmaceuticals, they're not going to get some unpredictable and dangerous from the black market.

Let an addict go to a doctor or a methadone or rehab clinic, if that's what it takes. Maintenance is better than Russian roulette. Just ask Rush Limbaugh...