[alkonaut]

Medication is thruroughly tested and there are plenty of good painkillers that aren't as addictive. Many are synthetic of course, and still have known side effects.

The evil here isn't that the drug is addictive but that doctors and pharmaceutical companies prescribe it despite the known side effects. It's almost unheard of outside the US.

[andreasgonewild]

They're tested by the same psychos that created the drugs and their bought fan club, otherwise things like Oxy would never have made it to market. It's worth repeating, big pharma is all about creating return customers; nothing that comes out of that mess is ever going to solve problems.

[alkonaut]

If it was the case that these people somehow rigged the testing to make it seem less harmful (which isn't that far fetched), then that would be the scandal. But it isn't. This is known, even in the US.

This thing is known to be this addictive. That's basically only prescribed in exceptional cases elsewhere in the world. Basically it's not prescribed to otherwise healthy people who only suffer from pain (back pains, surgery pains etc). It's only prescribed to terminally ill people. Because it's better to use a slightly less potent painkiller and be in slightly more pain, than to be addicted to an opioid.

[sooheon]

So what does that say about the medical practitioners on the front lines prescribing this shit at these insane levels? Hippocratic oath means nothing? Kickbacks from the pharma companies too sweet to ignore?

[pas]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15522455