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by trimbo 2472 days ago
75% of opioid/opiate addicts started with pills.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24871348

3 comments

And if they had continued access to those pills they wouldn't be hitting the black market, getting fentanyl, and dying. Eventually, with support and help, they could start to wean off directly or with methadone or suboxone. But no, we can't have that. Instead our government and society prefers to let people die and then pretends like dismantling one company and taking their money is going to help. It's not going to help a single addict.
True, but I added a little more nuance here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20981382
Those conversion rates are not low.
They're not zero, but single digit percent times single digit percent is generally considered a small percent. The math works out to 0.32-0.72% total, taking either the low end of both ranges or the high end of both. I think anyone should agree that in an absolute mathematical sense, 0.3-0.7% is a "low percent."

In this specific context? Sure, it's subjective and reasonable people can disagree.

Note, most were not actually prescribed those pills.