[DrScientist]

> but disagree the issue is the doctors themselves

Who's fault was the opioid epidemic in the US?

I know a lot of blame has been levelled at the pharma involved, and rightly so, however every single one of those patients that got hooked via prescriptions had them from their doctor.

Those doctors aren't suppose to be automatons, just blindly follow Pharma marketing materials, they are suppose to be highly paid experts who's overriding concern is a duty of care to the patient.

There are many reasons the opioid epidemic was an almost uniquely US experience, but the private incentives for doctors was one of them.

Purdue was telling everyone around the world the same thing - but apparently only US doctors were fooled.

[maerF0x0]

There's a cluster of issues and, as an engineer, I've learned to focus less on the final actor and more on the roots that lead to that outcome.

1. Why are high risk drugs not a multiparty sign off? (think like company financial controls)

2. Why are doctors saddled with such intense debt that they then are financially pressured to make unethical choices? (School seats not scaling with population, and doctors organizations lobbying for supply side restrictions)

3. Why are people turning to opioids? (Globalism that sent their jobs abroad without care, poverty/familial/societal degradation in regions -- basically the anti-rat park scenario, in some populations it's exacerbated by the idea a white person cannot be poor/oppressed such that their issues are exacerbated by their denial)