Opioids have an important place in the treatment of many conditions. I use them as prescribed and my quality of life is much, much better than when I am in constant pain (spine and other issues). I'm gratified to see that the new CDC guidelines attempt to go toward fixing some of the hard and fast rules the 2016 guidelines insinuated. This led to a very large drop off in opioid scripts and many people cut off or down suddenly by their doctors and left suffering. The new guidelines attempt to correct this rigidity and restore more compassion and options to the doctor-patient relationship. It does seem to counsel overreliance on NSAIDS, which carry almost as many risks in some populations as opioids do. I for one can't take them because of GI issues.

Anyhow, you'd expect a concurrent drop in ODs with a drop in scripts; that did not happen. ODs, in fact, increased dramatically. Why? In a word, fentanyl. It has infiltrated the illicit drug supply and is killing people. It's the iron law of prohibition--the harsher the prohibition, the more concentrated the substance becomes. The war on drugs (people) is killing the vast majority, not prescribed opioids. In fact, research says far less than 10% of people misuse prescribed opioids.

America needs a new approach to regulating drugs, period. What we're doing now is killing people, filling jails and prisons (mostly with black and brown people), and stigmatizing anyone who uses drugs, including pain patients.