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> societal hysteria about opiates.

I don’t think hysteria is an accurate term here as the danger and massive negative impact of opiates is very real. It is not imagined.

I like the word hysteria but am careful in its use because historically it has been used to discount and ignore very real problems with large chunks of the population [0].

I think to help patients and to help people suffering from addition and at risk for addiction it’s important to understand the problem. If people dismiss the problem as imaginary or happening to “them” and not “us” it is much more difficult to not have tons of people die.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria



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