“Correct Use Doesn’t Equal Abuse” Is A Problematic Statement And I Wish You Would Stop Saying It

If you say this tagline because you take opioid pain medications as prescribed, you still aren’t better than people with opioid use disorder. Instead, you’re perpetuating the stigma that harms you. Let me explain.

As a matter of grammar, the statement “correct use does not equal abuse” is unfalsifiably true.

Ok, so then how can a true statement also be problematic?

Enter, stigma.

A person may use such a statement as a form of self-advocacy. For example, this statement may come from a patient with chronic pain trying to make the argument that they deserve ethical and appropriate treatment with pain medications including opioids because they are person who has a history of using their drugs “correctly” and not “abusing” them.

On the surface, that’s a reasonable position. A patient with chronic pain might utilize this position to try to reassure a clinician that they aren’t going to take more than the prescribed amount of medications or otherwise “abuse” their medications such as to “get high.” That is a form of self advocacy to seek the ethical…