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Comment by Balero | Hacker News Reader

> 75% drug addiction rate

Are you saying that 3 out of 4 people in the US are addicted to one drug or another, or am I misunderstanding.

> there was 70%+ opioid prescription rate

This I can completely believe. I broke a bone, and when the doctor was asking how much pain I was in out of 10. I said 0, when I don't move it. They still prescribed me opioids. I asked if they expected the pain to increase, and they said they expected it to actually get less painful to move overtime if anything, and if it started hurting to get seen by another doctor. When asked about the painkillers then the answer was "Just in case".

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That does seem way too high, unless they're including caffeine and alcohol, in which case I guess I could believe it.

I would add sugar too.

Let's throw in "high on life" just to make sure.

In a discussion of life expectancy, excess carbohydrate consumption in a nation with 75% overweight/obese population seems pretty relevant. Surely, sugar is the single biggest source of excess carbohydrate consumption.

And the way people thirst for their sweet treats and drinks, it certainly looks like addiction. Not that it removes any culpability of other excess carb consumption like alcohol and breads.

While I agree sugar addiction is a serious issue the USA (and much of the world) faces, caffeine and alcohol are both technically drugs :)

if you think thats ridiculous I once got a two month script for opiate painkillers after my wisdom teeth were removed. "just in case" was the excuse as well. pretty pathetic when most of the discomfort was easily controlled with half an aspirin and some rest.

When I got my wisdom teeth surgically removed, the pain was quite bad and I was glad to have something stronger than over the counter. My prescription was only for 1 week. When it ran out, I still had some pain not fully controlled by over the counter pain meds.

Well you were pretty lucky then. I've had pain for weeks after a surgical extraction that was hardly touched by 800mg ibuprofen. It depends a lot on how well it heals, IIRC. And other considerations like whether incisions were required.

I think when you need it you need it quickly because if the pain starts to get out of hand the pills will no longer have any effect. Is it so hard to not take them if you don't need them?

For me, no. But judging by the numbers in the opiate crisis it is for a lot of people.

They have substantial resale value, if you know the right people.

I wonder if this has changed since then though. I had surgery on my shoulder a couple of years ago, and had a one week prescription for opioids, then it was as much Tylenol as I could eat but nothing stronger.

To be fair regarding the pain, I was in approximately 0 pain when I first broke my wrist, to the point where I didn't even realize it was broken until I realized that I couldn't move my hand. I definitely got worse over the next 24 hours or so, after they had set it back and sent me home with a soft plaster half-cast thing.

But I definitely didn't need opioid painkillers, acetaminophen did just fine. Same goes for my wisdom teeth.

This was a couple of days after the break. I definitely knew I broke it at the time! Luckily I didn't need anything setting or really anything at all.

70+% of what though?

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