The War On Drugs And
The Rising Tide Of Suicides
The suicide rates rose significantly in
America in the last 15 years while they declined in England Sweden and Germany during the same period.
The annual suicide rate jumped from 10.2 per 100.000 people in 2000 to 12.9 in
2014.
Neither England nor Germany and Sweden have
declared war on drugs but we have. There are some 110 million Americans with
chronic pain and millions with addiction. They are highly vulnerable to depression
and suicide.
The war on drugs has caused havoc for
people with chronic pain and addiction by seriously limiting access to
treatment and shrinking the number of
pain physicians and psychiatrists. Some 24,000 and possibly more physicians
have been delicensed.
When my colleague Billy Hurwitz M.D. was
shipped to prison in 2002, seven of his patients committed suicide. I lost as
many patients when my practice was shut down in 2012.
I'm not an epidemiologist but it seems our irrational war on drugs and
doctors has been deadly for thousands of Americans.
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