If you are someone who believes that drug decriminalization and legalization will be a hugely beneficial advancement for reducing harm and advancing liberty, and if you believe in the narrative of the opioid epidemic, then you have some cognitive dissonance to deal dmt vape australia with. This narrative of a drug “crisis” is a story of how drugs being more accessible to people (even through doctors) creates a dangerous scenario, and it assumes that the causes for addiction are in the drugs themselves, rather than the social conditions that create trauma and hopelessness.
In our third conversation with Columbia Professor Dr. Carl Hart, we take on the contentious subject of the “opioid epidemic,” an endlessly repeated narrative that places opioids and pharmaceutical companies firmly in the villain role, and unsuspecting drug consumers as the victims. Dr. Hart’s views on this subject are highly controversial dmt vape australia because they are nuanced and based on data and common sense, rather than the convenient hysteria of irreconcilable villains and helpless victims who are unable to mediate their use of drugs.
Thanks again for speaking with us Dr. Hart. I’d like to talk about one of the sacred cows you take on in your new book Drug Use for Grown-Ups – the opioid crisis. This is a universally accepted concept, yet you point out how the conversation around this is overblown, non-precise, misleading, and it continues to reinforce harmful drug stereotypes. dmt vape australia
There’s a trick that’s played by anyone writing about opioids, and that is you are nebulous about what you mean. Are you talking about overdoses, or addiction, or opiate use in general? You don’t have to be precise, even in the most critical publications. And that really bothers me. Because if you are really concerned about overdoses, great, let’s dig into it and find out what’s going on, then we could probably save some people if we really cared. But I saw that wasn’t being done. So what are we really talking about? dmt vape australia
Most of the people who use these drugs are not addicted. In fact, these drugs bring a lot of people a lot of relief. I saw that we are changing our policy to restrict opioid prescriptions and use, and that means all these people who have been suffering for years and dmt vape australia have been finding some relief with opioids and been doing so safely, they are cut off, and we’re ok with that.
And we’ve seen this play out before, this played out like any other drug crisis. When I see this I say stop, let’s just stop this shit. But it turns out society is still offering incentives for people reinforcing this narrative, so it is still prevalent.
I recently watched the documentary Crime of the Century that covers this subject. Watching that, and then integrating your perspective on this, is definitely some mental gymnastics. They paint a picture dmt vape australiaof the Sackler family behind Purdue pharma juicing up their marketing campaign in order to sell more opiates. Of course they are a corporation, so they are incentivized to sell more of these opioids and downplay the risks and get doctors to prescribe them more.