The Internet Is Not to Blame for Opioid Epidemic
The Internet is the last place Americans look to when they want to get high on prescription narcotics, according to government data. One-tenth of 1% (.1%) of Americans who obtain prescription opioids for non-medical purposes (to “get high”) say that they obtain them over the Internet.
This data is based on the latest survey, published in 2015, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Compare that to the main channels people use for prescription opiates for getting high:
50.5% from friends
22.1% from their doctors
10.9% buy them from friends
4.8% from a drug deal or other stranger
4.4% took or stole it from a friend
3.1% from more than one doctor
0.4% stole from a doctor’s office, hospital or clinic
3.6% some other way not asked in the survey
This information is important to the community of companies, organizations and consumers that support online access to safe, affordable medication and personal drug importation. Groups funded by the pharmaceutical industry use the tragedy that is the opioid crisis in America to oppose legislation and regulations that would otherwise help more Americans safely import lower-cost medication. They do so by naming the Internet the culprit for the epidemic. The data indicates that this blame is seriously misplaced. (more…)
