Do people die from prescription opioids that often? I assumed that most of the deaths occur when people who are addicted lose access to legal sources and are forced to buy illegally (so risk of overdose and other complications is much higher)?
That is exactly why legal sources which are prescription exists, because it is easy to kill oneself by taking a illegal pill of unknown quality, such risks are not common with tobacco.
The regulation is a function of that, not how many people are killed by one item or other, it is merely just how easy is it die of OD with a poorly sourced drug, is why we have FDA and regulations etc is my point.
Interesting theory. I would guess that's rare and that more often than not, people are overdosing on prescriptions that they lied to obtain and then abused, or purchased on the street from someone who received the prescriptions but didn't need them.
I'm speaking from personal experiences, but of course, it's anecdotal.
