Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by fulafel 3068 days ago
This WaPo article[1] has references to UN data sources and says: "United Nations data provide one important benchmark against which to judge how much more or less opioid consumption might be appropriate for a given country. And what it finds about the United States is jaw-dropping: Even when the list is restricted to the top 25 heaviest consuming countries, the United States outpaces them all in opioid use."

So it's within reason for the article to say "[US] people abuse opioids en masse unlike anywhere else in the world"

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/15/ameri...
1 comments
peoplewindow 3067 days ago
It's some quirk of how the US handles painkiller prescriptions right? Or something like that. Most opioid addicts in the USA got addicted via their doctor's prescriptions, if I recall correctly.

I found the article to be interesting but the weakest part by far was where he mentioned declining life expectancy as to do with the lack of public health care, and thus unique the USA except for the UK. But wait, the UK has an entirely nationalised healthcare system, it's the literal opposite of the USA. So if the UK is seeing the same thing, that suggests it can't be due to the funding mechanism used. It's more likely that we've hit some sort of life expectancy peak in the most highly developed western nations and if the UK and USA go first, it's very likely that other countries aren't far behind.

link
mcphage 3067 days ago
> It's more likely that we've hit some sort of life expectancy peak in the most highly developed western nations and if the UK and USA go first, it's very likely that other countries aren't far behind.

Except that the US hasn't reached the peak—life expectancy in other nations is up to 5-10 years higher (depending on gender).

link
peoplewindow 3067 days ago
Yeah, but wasn't the highest in Cuba or something like that? There are clearly other tradeoffs involved - probably diet related. If you can eat what you want because you're a rich country, the exact way the health system is run is probably not that big of a deal in comparison.
link