Judge rules Walgreens contributed to San Francisco’s opioid crisis

It's actually not even all that recent, it's been worsening for several years. It is now very difficult for patients to get enough pain medication after undergoing serious surgeries (or experiencing grievous injuries) -- hospitals, doctors, and pharmacists are afraid to approve the pills, so you just have to lay in your bed in agony because hey, you might be faking it for more pills.

But with the increase in cases and increase in penalties across all sorts of industries (did you see the recent Visa/PornHub case?) it's getting increasingly problematic. We will not like the results of making every company into the private police force watching what their customers do with the products/services they get.

That's how you get credit card companies profiling you and blocking you from transactions that they don't like (not that they don't think you'll pay, just that they don't like the product you're buying/profile you match now/who you're doing business with), and all sorts of other terrible busybody-company outcomes.

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*unforeseen by many of those pushing for these rulings, anyway.

Without doc's prescription, it should be made really difficult to get that pills. It should be made really difficult to prescribe those pills. The doc prescribing that should have an allowance or to fear the lost of his license to practice as an doc.

Aside of this, I don't know a solution. People won't say "I'm growed up. Don't need this". We've natural curiosity which can be amplified by the social surrounding. So i see absolutely no chance for self responsibility within humans.