CMV: Operating a "pill mill" is not an inherently unethical decision

Pill mills overprescribe in order to supply street dealers who aren't doctors. Once they're in street dealers hands, the doctor's expertise goes out the window, and so does the "pharma grade" drugs argument: dealers like to cut or replace drugs with cheaper imitations. You might get a dose of real vicodin this time, but the next time you buy 'pharma grade drugs' from that dealer, it might be a pressed pill made with some weird fentanyl derivative because the margins are higher.

Pill mills give out opioids for conditions that opioids aren't indicated to treat or the conditions flat out don't exist. Patients with serious problems like chronic pain or addiction will be harmed by doctors whose sole incentive is profiting from selling prescriptions for highly addictive drugs.

Pill mills tend to give out more than what's necessary, in higher doses and combined with other abusable substances, like benzodiazepines. Benzos + opioids are a combination that top the charts in prescription drug overdose deaths.

In the end, doctors are supposed to be looking out for the best interests of their patients. Pill mills perverse profit incentive overshadows a patient's well-being.

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