On: What Historians Wish People Knew About Drugs, Part II: Isaac Campos

[wireprotocol]

"All of this leads to my final big point: “drug problems” are really “society problems.”"

Drugs are both a symptom of other problems and a cause of new problems.

Presciption opiates are an example where the drugs were clearly a huge cause, not just some symptom of a social problem.

[mcguire → wireprotocol]

Not necessarily. Wasn't there an article recently about prescription drug abuse being more of a problem in areas of economic instability, higher stress, etc.?

In fact, the previous article in the blog is looking at the correlation between drug abuse problems and areas of the country that voted for Trump---a hypothesis being that poor social outcomes are linked with both political upheaval and addiction.

[wireprotocol → mcguire]

So you are saying that the opiates did not cause problems? And we shouldn't look critically at the way they were marketed and distributed?

No, you are just saying that they are also a symptom. Which is exactly what I said.

[mcguire → wireprotocol]

"Presciption opiates are an example where the drugs were clearly a huge cause, not just some symptom of a social problem."

[wireprotocol → mcguire]

Right. "Not just" means something similar to "not only" and both are different than "not".