Just because a doctor prescribes opiates doesn’t make them less addictive than buying heroin on the street. If you take opiates on a regular basis, you will get addicted. Whether or not they were originally taken for pain is irrelevant. Once addicted, the addict will take them to get high and to stave off withdrawal. That modern medicine pretends people will not get addicted to opiates because they are taking them for pain and are legally prescribed is criminal and in defiance of reality.
One-third of adults in Utah were prescribed opiates in 2014. Many of these prescriptions are not for physical pain but for Mormons who feel they can’t follow LDS strictures, rules, and that they aren’t perfect. I’m confused. Why are doctors prescribing opiates for emotional pain? Shouldn’t they lose their licenses for this?
In 2014, the year Hairup died at age 38, one-third of adults in Utah had a prescription for opioid painkillers, most notably a powerful opiate at the heart of the crisis, OxyContin. Many of them were among the 65% of state residents who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. Sometimes, opioids take hold of several members of the same family. Hairup’s father is dependent on prescription painkillers and her brother’s addiction to prescription opioids set him on the path to heroin.
I think my sister found the medication helped with the physical pain but it also eased emotional pain,” said Vincent. “In Utah we have a phenomenon known as toxic perfectionism. There’s a belief amongst members of the LDS church that you need to be perfect. It’s keeping up with the Joneses times 10.”