Data From Germany Provide More Reasons For Policy to Shift From Prescription Pills to Harm Reduction

In February of this year, I co-authored a  paper in the Journal of Pain Research  explaining why there is  no correlation  between the amount of opioids prescribed and the incidence of non-medical use or prescription pain-reliever use disorder. That same month my colleague Jeffrey Miron and co-authors revealed similar findings in this Cato Institute  Policy Analysis.Now researchers in Germany have provided  more evidence to pour cold water on the idea of any relationship between the volume of opioid prescribing and the incidence of opioid use disorder. Publishing in the German Medical Association’s international science journal, they found that “the number of persons addicted to opioids in Germany has hardly c hanges over the past 20 years,” with an average of 3.1 persons per 1000 inhabitants across Germany. This compares to data from the US National Survey on Drug Use And Health showing no significant change in “pain reliever use disorder” in adults age 12 and above from 2002-2014.Germany  ranks second only to the US in opioid prescription volume. Canada and Australia rank third and sixth respectively.  An international group of investigators recently compared the opioid prescription volume per capita of Canada, Australia, Germany, and the US, from 1980-2015 using data provided by the International Narcotics Control Board and the World Health Organization. In the US, opioid volume (measured as morphine milligram equivalents per capita) began to in...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs