[nicoburns]

> The opioid epidemic was largely caused by the idea of them being non addictive being heavy pushed by the pharmaceuticals industry.

I definitely think the pharmecuetical industry pushing drugs is a big problem. But that doesn't mean we should deny people treatments that work. Instead we should fix the actual problem: innapropruate presceiptions. Note that opiods are mostly not a problem here in the UK for example. We're much stricter about when they're used.

In any case, I think there's much less risk here. Ketamine is a somewhat addictive, but nowhere near as bad as opiods, and cannabis and especially psychedelics are pretty much not addictive.

It doesn't seem too good to be true to me. It seems obvious that the chemicals which clearly affect the mind are the ones which are likely to have some use for... affecting the mind in a positive way. They've at least cleared the first hurdle!

[pitaj]

The US has been cracking down on opioid prescriptions to the point that a lot of people can't get opioids for when they really need them for chronic pain and even after surgeries!

In the meantime, opioid overdoses have continued to climb. Turns out that forcing people into the black market to deal with terrible pain is not a good policy.

[lumost]

No one has had a good approach for opioid addiction since the first cases of morphine addiction a century ago.

Banning opiate use results in deaths, restricting prescriptions moves addicts to the black market, the status quo results in more addicts.

[nicoburns]

Portugal seems to have found a decent solution: addicts can get easy access to legitimate supply, but non-addicts can't. Seems to have dramatically improved the situation there.

[bserge]

I'm sure it works as well as described. /s

[herbst]

Swiss here, it does for us. Most if not all heroin addicts I know had jobs and a normal life, no other opiods ever been a widespread problem here