What the media gets wrong about opioids

[jesse_the_k]

Columbia Journalism Review is a trade magazine for journalists. Maia Szalavitz's article on "What the media gets wrong about opioids" opened my eyes wide—

The “relatable” story journalists and editors tend to seek—of a good girl or guy (usually, in this crisis, white) gone bad because pharma greed led to overprescribing—does not accurately characterize the most common story of opioid addiction. Most opioid patients never get addicted and most people who do get addicted didn’t start their opioid addiction with a doctor’s prescription. The result of this skewed public conversation around opioids has been policies focused relentlessly on cutting prescriptions, without regard for providing alternative treatment for either pain or addiction

[… snip …]

It’s important for journalists to understand that criminalization is not some sort of natural fact, and laws are not necessarily made for rational reasons. Our system does not reflect the relative risks of various drugs; legal ones are among the most harmful in terms of their pharmacological effects. With the exception of the legislation that resulted in the creation and maintenance of the FDA, our drug laws were actually born in a series of racist panics that had nothing to do with the relative harms of actual substances.

https://www.cjr.org/covering_the_health_care_fight/what-the-media-gets-wrong-about-opioids.php

Comments

[sasha_feather]

Fascinating!

[muccamukk]

That is really interesting. I wonder if there's a difference in US and Canadian coverage. I've been getting the it's a street drug but the problem is partly that pharma is overproducing story here, and have been having a bit of a "wait what?" reaction to posts from the US complaining about the racist coverage. Which this essay explains finally.

[staranise]

Maia Szalavitz is so damn good. She writes well, but she also writes about the stuff that is exactly my shit.

[jesse_the_k]

I hadn't encountered her before, and now I've got a stack of her waiting for me at the library. Anyone I should read first?

The clarity she brings is a) helpful and b) total satisfies my competence kink.

[staranise]

The books she co-wrote with Bruce Perry, especially The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, are absolutely foundational to my corner of psychology. Like, if you want to treat and understand trauma, you have to read them. Born for Love is basically the same thing, but a little softer and less focused on abuse and trauma.

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks!

[mdlbear]

Thanks! Some solid research to back up what all the pain patients among my friends know already.

Too damn true.

[jesse_the_k]

...it's scary, really. My GP encouraged me to use mild narcotics (Propxyphene) when we first met (1990s) and now he's all "those drug-seekers!"

[ironymaiden]

Thanks for sharing this.

[jesse_the_k]

You're most welcome!

[dirty_diana]

This is a great write-up! It is tough in conversation because whenever I try to bring up whether doctors should be focusing on my care over the addiction bogeyman, everyone of course knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone, whose addiction started with a prescription. Or they think they do; I'd never thought of those factors like is it their first addiction, etc. Not something I can point out/that's any of my business, anyway and it brings all discussion to a standstill.

[jesse_the_k]

It's wicked hard to talk about, and yet it's our fucking lives (or lack of them, depending on the pain control available).

[bibliofile]

I know so many people who manage their pain with opioids, among other things. And who have these conversations with their providers. Thank you for this link.

[jesse_the_k]

<3

[untonuggan]

thank you for talking about this. I don't rely on opioids (I actually can't really tolerate them) but a TON of my crip friends do, and this is a really important point.

I also saw something recently about how we count deaths from opioids is wrong,b ut I can't remember what it was.