National Public Radio released an investigative report today showing that doctors and dentists are still prescribing opioids for pain management at “rates widely considered unsafe.”

This persistent focus on the number of pills doctors prescribe defies justification in light of the fact that data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health consistently reveal no association between prescription volume and the non-medical use of prescription opioids or addiction.

And despite the overall prescription volume coming down dramatically since 2012 (the year the volume peaked), overdose rates continue to climb. In fact, the overdose rate climbed as prescription rates came down. We learned this week that overdoses in 2019 are up considerably over the previous year and the situation this year is exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.

Meanwhile, what prescription amounts that are “widely considered safe” is a matter for debate. The CDC in 2019 issued a memo claiming policymakers were misapplying and misinterpreting the opioid prescribing guidelines they published in 2016, and reminded policymakers that they were meant to be suggestive, not prescriptive. Around the same time a Department of Health and Human Services Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force issued a report calling for the individualization of pain management practices, deferring to practitioners to weigh the risks and benefits when recommending medications and dosages to their patients. And the American Medical Association in June came out against governments imposing prescription and dosage limitations.

NPR should take note of the developments over the past nine to ten years since the press and policymakers adopted the mantra that opioid prescriptions must be brought down to end the overdose crisis and change its focus to the real cause of the overdose crisis: drug prohibition.