From NBCNews.com
“Unlike in the U.S., opioids have never emerged as a front-line medical treatment in Germany.”
HAMBURG, Germany ― In 2016, 10 times as many Americans as Germans died as a result of drug overdoses, mostly opiates. Three times as many Americans as Germans experienced opioid addiction.
Even as the rates of addiction in the U.S. have risen dramatically in the past decade, Germany’s addiction rates have been flat.
That contrast, experts say, highlights a significant divergence in how the two countries view pain as well as distinct policy approaches to health care and substance abuse treatment.