[bawolff]

> They are often talked about as if they have little or no harmful side effects.

Most drugs have side effects, including all the legal pharmaceuticals. E.g. normal antidepressants aren't without risk.

Anyways, that's why its important to study them - see where they lie on the risk-benefit trade-off curve.

> The opioid epidemic was largely caused by the idea of them being non addictive

I don't know which idiots thought these were non addictive. Like there was even the opium wars faught over this point in the 1800s. We've known of the danger since the 1700s.

[acituan]

> Most drugs have side effects, including all the legal pharmaceuticals. E.g. normal antidepressants aren't without risk.

Risk/no-risk dichotomy is misleading in that those categories do not consist of homogeneously comparable members. Nausea from an SSRI is not the same as triggering a first psychotic episode from psychedelic drug use, or pushing your neuroticism a standard deviation higher from stimulant abuse or getting stuck in opioid addiction.

[bawolff]

SSRI's are also linked to hallucinations and suicide. Of course not all drugs are the same, some are more risky than others, but its not like legality corresponds to the risk.

I'm not saying that popular drugs are risk free. They definitely aren't. That's why its important to study them and understand what the risks are so people can make informed decisions about them (under the supervision of a doctor)