Also the bulk of the people on here are younger Europeans, and recreational users of drugs, this site was originally set up for discussing rave parties. In recent years there have been a large influx of slightly older people especially from the USA who have perhaps been attracted by a misconception that “drug use is tolerated/decriminalised in liberal Europe”, and also a lot of US-market meds are illegally diverted to Europe because border control agencies can’t be as suspicious about “legit looking” blister packs of meds as a bag of white powder or non-corporate pressed pills.
The reality is drug use was begrudgingly put up with especially in better economic times, there is more sympathetic treatment of addicts by taxpayer funded authorities in some countries and a public funded healthcare service in all of Europe, but nowhere openly encourages recreational drug use and addicts are still judged harshly by society, especially those who feel they are paying taxes to support the addicts.
When it comes to painkillers, if you really are suffering from bad pain you can get opiates prescribed legally but our health services are careful of loose/overprescribing as they want to get people better, not feed or promote addiction. Also pain is mentally hard to deal with so the health service is concerned over OD/suicide risks. This does mean that younger people sometimes find it hard to get meds or they even end up having to go to a residential home for treatment where everyone else is double their age, but if they really need them they can get them.
