Illegal markets will keep rising

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For the first time, deaths from synthetic opioids have surpassed the number killed by prescription opioid painkillers.

So opioids cause more deaths than guns, should we ban them? The government already regulates them. More regulations won’t help people who choose to put drugs in their body; it just makes drugs more expensive for those who use them correctly. David Desser

Big pharma are the ones making millions off of this. Take the handcuffs off the Drug Enforcement Administration and let agents do their job. Big pharma is worse than street dealers. Sally Voorhees

Shame on states attorney’s general for thinking this opioid issue was caused by the legitimate pharmaceutical compa- nies who made Food and Drug Administration-approved opioids. This is an underground illegal synthetic opioid problem.

Todd Gaci

These narcotics have a very important role for many patients. Getting mad and blam- ing the corporations that make them will accomplish nothing. Jeff Hengel

I take OxyContin for cancer pain. I have to jump through ridiculous hoops now to get just a 30-day supply. Yet, we now have an addiction problem to a deadlier drug. It’s an addict problem, not a big pharma one. Ray Flores

Big pharma sold billions of opioids and got a big chunk of our nation addicted. Then the crackdown came and all of these people, who just needed pain relief, were addicted and had to look to illegal drugs. Ramona Rodriguez

We continue to make it harder to get prescription drugs and then, of course, more deaths come because people turn to illegal ones.

Stop treating this like a criminal matter and treat it like a medical one. More cops won’t help. Mathew Andresen