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Portman argues that since business and industry will directly benefit, they should take an active or even a leadership role in this effort.

In the absence of complaints, the prescriber can be tempted to assume things are going well, when in fact they aren’t.

That industry will do everything in its power to create and sustain the biggest possible population of chronic stoners.

After all, you can’t afford to stop selling it. That’s not how you get promoted. What you need is science that seems to confirm your biases.

The theory is that the more users we put in jail or prison, the fewer left out on the street. So why hasn’t that substantially reduced arrest and overdose statistics?

They qualify for the diagnosis, but have not yet experienced the sort of problems that are usually required to motivate a serious attempt to abandon drug use.

Of course, if you work in addiction treatment, you probably see some of these same meds being abused by young adults, often beginning in college or grad school.

We may be stuck relying on the soft stuff– therapy, support, behavior change, even spiritual growth– all those icky-squicky things that neuroscientists struggle to quantify.

…if this type of strategy didn’t succeed 30 years ago, what makes us think it’ll be a success this time around?

When they get sick with diseases related to substance use, they’ll avoid going to the doctor or hospital, until their illness is advanced and more extensive and expensive care is involved.