[eletious]

The addictive nature of the substance combined with the body's growing resistance to it leads to users of the substance to use larger doses to achieve the same high, in some cases not exercising any caution about dosage, leading to overdose.

[cookiecaper]

This is a reason to continue to prescribe drugs through a licensed medical professional. Most long-term medications can't just be stopped without serious adverse effects.

By and large, drugs will be a large social problem until going to the doctor to get a monitored, controlled dose is the easiest way to get a fix. If we keep pharmacists and doctors in control, they can ween dependent users off in a controlled, gradual environment.

Prohibition keeps drug abuse firing on all cylinders until the addict slams into a brick wall (which, very often, is simply death), instead of giving them the equivalent of a "runaway truck" ramp that will allow them to gradually slow the pace and return to a normal existence.

[viggity]

wife is a social worker - she has told me that most common reason for overdoses is the first use after being sober for an extended period of time. Someone will get clean, abstain for weeks/months/years, have a personal tragedy, and (this is the important part) immediately use the same dose that they used before quitting. And it is way way too much.