The danger posed by abusing narcotic painkillers is disputed by nobody. The issue being discussed here is the practice of making the abuse more dangerous to 'discourage' abuse.

I know it is hard for a lot of people to identify with drug users/addicts/fiends, so imagine we tried to apply the same sort of 'solution' to, say, speeding. Make all cars disable driver-side airbags once you go, say, 15% over the national speed limit. Speeding sometimes results in the death of the driver, news at 11.

How does that sit with you?

They don't put acetaminophen in opiates to poison people, they put it in because it's an effective painkiller and the natural check for abuse makes the powerful opiate more easily available than it otherwise would be.

"Make all cars disable driver-side airbags once you go, say, 15% over the national speed limit."

I'll suggest a better analogy. People have to wear seatbelts/motorcycle helmets. Unfortunately this does kill some people but on the whole it does far more good than harm.

> They don't put acetaminophen in opiates to poison people, they put it in because it's an effective painkiller and the natural check for abuse makes the powerful opiate more easily available than it otherwise would be.

> They don't put acetaminophen in opiates to poison people

> natural check for abuse

The "natural check for abuse" is a threat of poisoning. If acetaminophen did not poison, it would provide no "check for abuse".

Seatbelts are not a deterrent to anything. Your analogy is terrible.