<story><title>Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/sacklers-who-made-11-billion-off-opioid-crisis-to-pay-225-million-in-damages/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bananabreakfast</author><text>While you&amp;#x27;re clearly in pain and vindictive for lack of access to effective treatment, putting &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot; in quotes like it&amp;#x27;s a manufactured epidemic with no real impact is extremely disingenuous.&lt;p&gt;In 2018 ~130 people died every day in the US overdosing on opioids[1]. I&amp;#x27;m sure they&amp;#x27;re effective for you but if people are not responsible enough to be trusted taking them without killing themselves then you might as well be arguing to legalize heroine for treatment as well. It would probably be even more effective.&lt;p&gt;And for the record I do think it probably should be legal for treatment anyway.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.drugabuse.gov&amp;#x2F;drug-topics&amp;#x2F;opioids&amp;#x2F;opioid-overdose-crisis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.drugabuse.gov&amp;#x2F;drug-topics&amp;#x2F;opioids&amp;#x2F;opioid-overdos...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>BaronVonSteuben</author><text>I know everybody loves to hate on the Sacklers, but my life was dramatically better when I had access to opioids.  Because of the &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot; it has gotten really difficult to get them, even for people who need them.  There are days when it&amp;#x27;s difficult to do much more than lie in bed in agony, but nobody beyond a small community of other pain sufferers seems to care.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m at least grateful for the few good years I &lt;i&gt;did&lt;/i&gt; get thanks to opioids, before they became radioactive.  I hope some day we can swing the pendulum back toward compassion a bit.&lt;p&gt;Everybody seems to want politicians and cops (DEA) deciding who should get them and who shouldn&amp;#x27;t.  That may be an impossible mindset to change.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bredren</author><text>Just so this doesn’t come off like too radical an idea: legalization of all drugs has been a position of The Economist since 1989. “Legalize, Control, Discourage.”&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.economist.com&amp;#x2F;leaders&amp;#x2F;1989&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;hooked-on-just-saying-no&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.economist.com&amp;#x2F;leaders&amp;#x2F;1989&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;hooked-on-just-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/sacklers-who-made-11-billion-off-opioid-crisis-to-pay-225-million-in-damages/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bananabreakfast</author><text>While you&amp;#x27;re clearly in pain and vindictive for lack of access to effective treatment, putting &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot; in quotes like it&amp;#x27;s a manufactured epidemic with no real impact is extremely disingenuous.&lt;p&gt;In 2018 ~130 people died every day in the US overdosing on opioids[1]. I&amp;#x27;m sure they&amp;#x27;re effective for you but if people are not responsible enough to be trusted taking them without killing themselves then you might as well be arguing to legalize heroine for treatment as well. It would probably be even more effective.&lt;p&gt;And for the record I do think it probably should be legal for treatment anyway.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.drugabuse.gov&amp;#x2F;drug-topics&amp;#x2F;opioids&amp;#x2F;opioid-overdose-crisis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.drugabuse.gov&amp;#x2F;drug-topics&amp;#x2F;opioids&amp;#x2F;opioid-overdos...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>BaronVonSteuben</author><text>I know everybody loves to hate on the Sacklers, but my life was dramatically better when I had access to opioids.  Because of the &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot; it has gotten really difficult to get them, even for people who need them.  There are days when it&amp;#x27;s difficult to do much more than lie in bed in agony, but nobody beyond a small community of other pain sufferers seems to care.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m at least grateful for the few good years I &lt;i&gt;did&lt;/i&gt; get thanks to opioids, before they became radioactive.  I hope some day we can swing the pendulum back toward compassion a bit.&lt;p&gt;Everybody seems to want politicians and cops (DEA) deciding who should get them and who shouldn&amp;#x27;t.  That may be an impossible mindset to change.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brandonmenc</author><text>&amp;gt; In 2018 ~130 people died every day in the US overdosing on opioids&lt;p&gt;Alcohol kills literally twice that number of people per day and is a factor in nearly half of all violent crime and is a quarter of a trillion dollar market, and yet we seem to fine with that trade-off even though it has absolutely ZERO therapeutic application.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; putting &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot; in quotes like it&amp;#x27;s a manufactured epidemic&lt;p&gt;The epidemic might not be manufactured, but given the numbers re: alcohol the outrage certainly seems to be. It&amp;#x27;s a moral panic, imo.</text></comment>