Opioids, depression and drug prices: 9 readers share the health crises on their minds
Lee Hockstader's May 22 online column, 'Europe has so far dodged a U.S.-style opioid epidemic. Here's why.,' attributed the lack of an opioid crisis in Europe to that continent's universal health-care systems and stronger social welfare safety net. If those were true protections, then Canada, which has both of those systems, would not have an opioid crisis. But, as has been documented in many readily available reports, including the Stanford-Lancet Commission on the North American Opioid Crisis, of which I was chair, the opioid crisis in Canada is one of the worst in the world.
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