I cannot understand why the Government is not acting against the pharmas profiting from this crisis. And why people are not revolting. There is a clear nexus between pharmas and doctors. Something should be done.
Between 2006 and 2015, Purdue and other painkiller producers, along with their associated nonprofits, spent nearly nine hundred million dollars on lobbying and political contributions—eight times what the gun lobby spent during that period.
And the revolving door:
He had also enlisted Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and his associate Bernard Kerik to preëmpt any government crackdown.
$$$
> And why people are not revolting.
Drugs are an effective and subtle form of chemical warfare. They keep the people docile and apathetic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War
Opioids are quite effective at coaxing a population into complacency. Unless the government intervenes, I don't see the problem slowing down anytime soon. As someone else pointed out, the lobbyists are very influential...
This crisis is not about pharma in particular, it's about the entire system. In fact, the opioid crisis illuminates a lot of the problems with the system at once.
Pharma benefits because it creates a market for their drugs.
Physicians benefit twice, because the initial prescribers get the seekers and then the "addiction specialists" get to profit when someone tries to come clean and are required to go to them to do so.
There's no oversight because the foxes are in charge of the henhouse. I.e., we say "physicians are the only ones who are really positioned to understand and regulate the system."
The criminal justice system benefits because they get to treat everyone as a criminal. Cause that's the right way to approach the drugs, right? Oh, and cracking down on drugs has really improved society in the US and elsewhere right?
The FDA is revealed to be useless because it's banning harmless drugs like cannabis and kratom while allowing harmful drugs to be used under the assumption that the monopolies they're granting (to pharma, physicians) are selfless, competent experts who only have the patients' well-being in mind.
And I'm sure all this is being charged and reimbursed appropriately?
The US healthcare system is a protection racket enabled by the government.
So many older men are on opioids for chronic pain. They're not going to revolt when their alternative is no solution to their problems.
When they become heavily addicted and it's too late, an American sentiment of personal responsibility kicks in.
The people who use them for dealing with chronic pain have been devastated by this war against them and their medicine. Many are committing suicide rather than face the pain without their medicine, and yes the medicine is being taken away, with "stopping the opioid epidemic" given as justification. It is truly sick what we're doing out of ignorance as a society. I've seen very few profiles of people in the media (beyond the Pain News Network), so most non-pain patients have no idea about this world and what they are doing to their neighbors.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChronicPain/comments/7k34y7/cdc_gui...
Also reading the comments at https://www.regulations.gov/docketBrowser?rpp=25&so=DESC&sb=...
can put things into perspective. I know it's hard for people who have never experienced chronic severe pain to not understand why these medications are needed. the same as I look at normal people and can't remember what it's like to not be in pain.
Why is this not a problem in other countries? Either the number of people suffering from chronic pain in the U.S is way higher (percentage wise) than in other countries (why?) or the doctors are prescribing extremely dangerous medicine as if it were candy.
Due to end user advertising the US a lot of people are tuned into taking drugs. It's just a part of life. I am 50 and people seem to be baffled when I tell them I don't any prescription drugs unless I have something acute. I see tons of people taking antibiotics and pain killers immediately when they have a problem. That starts from childhood on.
Doctors in the US are really quick prescribing hardcore drugs. I have had several occasions when I had an injury like a bruised and got a Cocktail of vicodine and muscle relaxers. They make you feel real good quickly and I can totally see how people can get addicted. In addition people who have withdrawal symptoms get cut off cold turkey and get no help. I guess that's even more so in low income populations that barely get any healthcare.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fuel...
Doves want drugs. A smart business wolf constructs a sophisticated machine (business) that in order to sell drugs, hires genius level lawyers and chemists (techie wolves) to do an end-run around the law, strengthen legal and technical barriers-to-entry, and perhaps make a good side-business with private law-enforcement in several ways (make new addicts, fund recovery programs, sell recovery drugs, and also sell private prison services, which is the most lucrative of all).
It's thoroughly, blatantly evil. The law is clearly insufficient to control the wolves - it may even be that US democracy is insufficient to control the wolves, since doves can't even be counted on to vote in their own interest, thanks in no small part to being mentally disabled by the wolves.
"what federal officials Thursday called the “largest ever health care fraud enforcement action” by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, 412 individuals, including 115 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, were arrested in a nationwide operation that involved more than 1,000 law enforcement agents in at least 30 states."
this past July. Not a shabby start.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/07/13/d...