Opium and Heroin are not nearly as lethal as Fentanyl.
Plus there is probably a cultural difference, China and India might have different outlets for desperate people down on their luck.
this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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That's a rosy view of both China and India.
Not necessarily a good thing. In some places people might choose immediate suicide instead of numbness and addiction. Not saying this is the case in China and India, just mentioning that dealing with pain doesn't follow the same rules in every society.
Maybe they just prefer Meth.
Fentanyl-related deaths in the US have exceeded 70,000 annually, with synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) driving the surge in overall drug overdoses. Recent data estimates over 73,000+ fentanyl-involved fatalities in 2022, and though totals fluctuated, fentanyl remained the primary cause of the over 100,000 annual overdose deaths. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/16178)
I wonder if doctors in China have more scruples about prescribing opiates. Here in the U.S. they give them to you for just about any amount of pain, weather you asked for them or not. They have given me opiates after I specifically told them I won't take them because of the side effects.
My personal experience -
I met with an accident while riding a bike in India. I described my pain as 7/10 and I was told "it'll go away in a few days". That was it.
After immigrating to Canada, I had to get a tooth extraction done. The dentist prescribed acetaminophen with opiates "in case it hurts too much".
It did hurt, but nowhere close to what I had previously experienced. 🤷♂️
It depends on what state &place you live , I myself lived in ernakulam kerala and government hospitals here were good and my doctor never said to me “it’ll go away in a few days”. He instead prescribed non opioid medicines and my pain went away . I don't know which hospital you went to or in which year this happened.
Also I would like to know that is there any truth to the claim that in canada , because of freehealthcare , hospitals have huge waiting period and doctors inorder to finish their jobs simply prescribe medicines with opioids.???
I mean, I was told to take ibuprofen for the pain too, not like they sent me home without any treatment lol. 😅
Waiting periods - I'm in Toronto, so I may be biased as the situation varies dramatically from one place to another. Yes, there's some waiting period compared to private hospitals in India.
If I have to see my family doctor, appointments are 1-2 weeks away. If you go to an ER for something that doesn't need an ER you'll end up waiting for over 12 hours while people who need immediate attention get priority (think heart attack, stroke, road accident etc).
There's no viable in-between, so non-emergency urgent requirements fall through the cracks and lead to a ton of frustration and annoying wait times. Eh: broken bones, high fever etc. where you're not actively doing so ER deprioritized you but you can't wait for 2 weeks to see your family doctor either.
I don't have experience with major issues like biopsies, mri etc and I've heard mixed opinions about timelines for those - a lot of the negative reviews were from the covid restrictions era though.
All that said, dentists are not a part of ohip. I paid using a combo of private insurance and cash. My dentist (55+ y/o - semi retired) works five hours a day, three days a week. He is not under any pressure. He prescribed opioids for pain because that's the norm.
Lol meanwhile when I got stuck by stingrays (twice!) all they would give me is a bucket of hot water.
Myanmar is now one of world's top producer of opium post-Afghanistan decline. Despite myanmar having direct borders with China and India , I can't find any drug crises there unlike fentanyl in US?
So to rephrase: "Why aren't there a bunch of drugs getting into China/India and causing a drug addiction problem?"
Idk about India but:
Lmfao, you'd get disowned and kicked out if you got a drug addiction in a Chinese family... and then nobody would wanna associate with you...
Plus... a lot of surveillance cameras
Instead, people (usually males) go drinking alcohol and gambling (illegal in mainland, so they go to Macau (and maybe HK? idk if they have casinos)), also apparantly smoking (tobacco that is, since weed is illegal btw) is widespread... I'm so lucky that my dad doesn't drink or gamble, oh btw I heard from a Fujianese classmate (in the US) that (if I remember correctly) apparantly his dad got into a fight in a bar and so that got him deported...
Also, if someone dies of drug overdose, that's very shameful for the family so sometimes they get the person doing the autopsy (the coroner? mortician? or whatever you all it) or some government official to label it as "accident" or maybe "accidental poisoning" (via connections (GuanXi) and/or via bribery)
Suicide is also shameful so sometime they also get labeled as "accident" to avoid shame to the family.
(I'm Chinese Diaspora)
Right now they're a litle busy with a civil war.
i guess this is partially because chinese opoid users die from bullets and not from overdoses