Drugs are inanimate entities.
They are not good or evil, and do not inevitably cause harm. Drugs are not contagious. Drugs cannot destroy will power or decision making ability. Drugs have no inherent powers and are incapable of acting on their own. Drugs do not attack individuals or infect communities.
Some try to reason: "No one as a child ever aspired to become addicted to drugs, therefore addiction is a disease, it's something they catch from drugs, they must be helpless and unable to control themselves"
To this I say: No one as a child aspires to become a janitor; this does not mean they don't make the choice to accept the job, and does not make "janitorialism" a disease. No one as a child dreams of becoming obese; this does not mean they don't choose to overindulge in food, nor does it make gluttony a disease. No one as a child aspires to becoming a felon; this does not mean they couldn't help but rob, steal, or kill.
US Population 2007: 301,231,207
Overdose Deaths for All Drugs 2007: 27,600 (Over 1/2 from opioid RX drugs)
To generously overestimate and assume 2/3 these deaths were from prescription opioids, the grand total for annual RX opioid deaths comes to 18,400. So considering the following:
That 1 in 16,371 died from an RX opioid overdose, and 1 in 10,914 died from a drug overdose;
...creating mass public hysteria by claiming that overdose deaths of opioids, or any drug for that matter, is a national crisis, is nothing short of alarmist, sensational and delibrately misleading.
And interestingly enough, seeing as that americans consume 80% of the world's pharmaceutical opioid supply, we're actually seeing the very worst of the issue (that is, assuming one were to even consider it a significant "issue").
Let's compare some other deaths from 2007, also related to lifestyle risks:
Heart disease: 616,067 (Most caused by eating habits, i.e. food addiction)
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924 (Smoking causes many cases)
Cancer: 562,875 (Often largely brought on by various carcinogens present in foods, sunlight, smoke, preservatives)
(Compared to 27,600 drug overdose deaths & 18,400 of these related to opioids)
All overwhelmingly outnumber opioid abuse related deaths. If we were to legislate away lifestyle risk associated with these conditions; fast food, high fat food and smoking would be illegal.
The mass hysteria and bureaucratic crackdown seem yet further obsurd when considering that the vast, vast, majority of these opioid deaths are a result of delibrate & grossly negligent, non-therapeutic opioid use; A majority of these cases are not even caused solely by opioid use, but rather the concurrent abuse of alcohol, benzodiazepines, illicit drugs, and other intoxicants. Deaths related to medically sanctioned opioid use for the treatment of actual pain are extremely rare.
And to those perpetuating the pseudoscientific claim that opioid abusers are victims and can not help themselves; such mindless rhetoric has been adressed many times here before, and is not even worthy of being acknowledged. The notion that "drugs themselves addict users" and addicts cannot control their behavior is nothing more than the product of religious propaganda, age old superstitions & voodoo pharmacology.
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