Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
There are times when I wonder if people have any idea what causes an overdose, any opioid will kill you, vast numbers of people have died from prescribed opioid's, there are some reasons for decriminalization but preventing overdoses isnt one of them
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The issue is complex and unprecedented which makes prescribing solutions chaotic where it's impossible to draw clear lines.
However, I disagree with you a bit here. The vast majority of overdoses here are due to either tainted supply or doses being way more potent than expected. Pharmaceutical grade opiates are at least a known quantity. Almost 90% of overdoses are from substances containing fentanyl or a potent derivative. The issue with these synthetic opiates is they're so potent you have to have very sensitive and expensive equipment to accurately allot doses. Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin mg to mg, so making a dose you can give someone makes it difficult because it's such a small physical quantity that you have to mix it with other stuff because you can just hand someone a bag of microscopic powder. But making sure you have the correct dose is difficult and made more so when you consider there are other analogues like carfentanyl which are up to another 100 times as potent as fentanyl. Then, add that we're now finding benzodiazepines in over 50% of tested samples. Benzodiazepines are sedatives that multiply the Royal of respiratory depression and the dose is completely unknown every dose you get.
This is what's killing people. Accidental overdoses. These people are trying to get to the line with really imprecise drugs that sometimes even just have toxic byproducts from chemical production.
Now, whether you support the public paying for it or if you want to argue offering free controlled supply has other detrimental effects you certainly can. But you can't claim safe supply doesn't prevent overdoses