Glenn A. Marsch, guest columnist Jun 20, 2019
We are in a blessed time now that the medical profession is more likely to heal us than to kill us by its ministrations. In the ancient world, to go to a physician was a gamble, often subjecting patients to such hair-raising horrors as bloodletting. And snake oil remedies were common. The ancients did the best they could, and we moderns don’t give them the credit they deserve. The general attitude toward physicians was summed up by the Roman poet Martial: “Until recently, Diaulus was a doctor; now he is an undertaker. He is still doing as an undertaker what he used to do as a doctor.”
Arguably, not till the 20th century were we more likely to be healed than hurt by our doctors..........In reality, the opioid crisis is not one crisis but several. According to an article on the American Council on Science and Health website, opioid prescriptions in the United States doubled from 2003-2013, but this increase does not appear to be responsible for the majority of deaths due to addiction and drug overdosing. For example, in recent years the number of deaths per capita due to opioid overdose does not appear to be correlated with the number of opioid prescriptions written by physicians per capita..................If sufferers cannot obtain these drugs from their physicians with whom they have legitimate healing relationships, they will obtain them from illicit sources. It is an act of desperation. This is the real driver for the opioid epidemic — illicit drug use...........To Read More....
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