Stumbled upon an interesting and thorny story of opioid crisis advocacy that involves @amyklobuchar using a false story. Klobuchar says in a press release that this young woman’s death was an overdose. But it was actually a suicide after an “aggressive” Rx opioid taper.

Two months before this young woman died by suicide, she underwent an “aggressive” opioid taper after her Chron’s diagnosis led to opioid prescriptions. After tapering, she tried to find relief on the illicit market.

But it gets even sadder from here: “Autopsy results showed that Schulte hanged herself.” Her boyfriend found her in the garage and was later sentenced to two years in jail for failing to report her death. https://www.inforum.com/news/4367045-man-sentenced-over-2-years-not-reporting-fargo-womans-deat

It’s an all around sad story. But the reason I point out the discrepancy between what @amyklobuchar said and what actually happened is because the policy implications lead to a very different place if you take in the full story...

Her “aggressive” opioid taper left her in untreated pain, and probably withdrawal. So she went to the illicit market to find pain relief. Then, she died by suicide. Somehow, this story became used by a politician, and former prosecutor, to further restrict the legal Rx market.

The autopsy also found no drugs in her system.

I believe Klobuchar also mentioned this anecdote in the debates. https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/the-last-word/2019-08-01-msna1259946

And here's the clip: https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1156418634018938880?s=20