Carl Jung once remarked, “The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.” When I think about the nation’s patchwork quilt policy toward opioids, I’m reminded of how right he was. In my book “The Painful Truth,” I devoted some space to outline a brief history of opioids, and the sensical and nonsensical polices adopted by government and payers.
Our current path of understanding has been littered with good intentions and unintended consequences. While we’re better off with what we’ve learned about opioids today, we still have a long way to go to address the unfortunate side effects of opioid policy in America.