Waking Up from Dreamland: Opioid Addiction Precipitance and Support for Redistributive Drug Treatment

Motivated by the historical components of the ongoing U.S. opioid epidemic, this study examines how public support for redistributive drug treatment changes with awareness that someone's opioid addiction started with a legally acquired prescription. Using different versions of a vignette, we vary in a randomized design whether someone's addiction to painkillers started with a legally acquired prescription or with the decision to take pills from a friend. After reading the vignette, participants expressed their level of support for a policy that uses income redistribution to fund a program that provides the person in the vignette with drug treatment. We find that participants are less likely to support redistributive drug treatment when a prescription precipitates the addiction. The results imply that emphasizing the medical establishment's role in the opioid epidemic may actually make people less likely to favor using redistributive drug treatment to provide support.