The Family That Built an Empire of Pain (2017) | Hacker News Reader

The Family That Built an Empire of Pain (2017)

newyorker.com

45 pointssova16 comments

As much as the pharma industry and medical practitioners were irresponsible in their contribution to opioid addiction, there is a dimension to this problem that does still does not get enough attention: that people may really be in pain. Over the past couple decades economic conditions have stagnated at best and for many declined causing a lot of people chronic stress, depression, and anxiety. The food industry has raised generations of people on abysmal nutrition causing a rash of chronic health conditions, many of them inflammatory in nature. Whole cities have gone into decline and precarity because their core industries have laid off workers in droves and left. ... and so forth. The backdrop of the "opioid epidemic" has been a population that had arguably been already been declining in physical and mental health for decades. It is not too much of a stretch to suppose people are actually in more pain. This does not mean that the right thing to do is to allow the pharma industry to push pills on people, but if the underlying issues that cause this pain are not addressed people in pain are just going to move on to more alcohol and street drugs.

Also cultural issues like weakening of family ties, death of community around the church etc. Increasing alienation from the “coastal elites” and the culture that is broadcast on mass media. Fall in sense of belonging to the country.

The left tends to ignore these and focus solely on the material aspects.

>It is not too much of a stretch to suppose people are actually in more pain. This does not mean that the right thing to do is to allow the pharma industry to push pills on people, but if the underlying issues that cause this pain are not addressed people in pain are just going to move on to more alcohol and street drugs.

Then by all means, let the sweeping political change commence, deconsolidation of the economy occur, unwind a few decades of M&A's, and let's get to fixing the social problems.

Throwing drugs at the issue won't make it go away, I'm stuck on one. I know where that road leads if you don't take due care in management and listening to the impact of your behavior on those around you. The fact is, these drugs may be good for some people, and I welcome them to use them, but due care needs to be exercised in not using them unwisely.

Six large previous related threads, if anyone's interested:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

It's not that I don't acknowledge the addiction problem, it's that I fear in our quest for addicts we will forget the real good these drugs did. There are a lot of people in pain.

Here are some alternative facts not often discussed:

  most opioid abusers were never prescribed the drug
  most people prescribed opioids never become addicted

do you have a source on the first?

on the second, some studies put the rate of addiction from a prescription at 8-12%, a full 4-6% transition to heroin [1]

Sure 50% of everyone who gets an opiate script doesn't end up sooting heroin. but it's a damn high scary number.

And the main point is Purdue directly lied in their marketing about the abuse and dependence %.

[1] https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/opioids/opioid-overdos...

Many people who get opiates do not live long enough to become addicts. Think of terminal cancer patients.

Also, mind that there is the inverse problem in some countries. Doctors are afraid to prescribe opiates and pharmacies to distribute because of the risks of prosecution. Russia is a notorious example that lets cancer patients die without access to opiates.

Yeah that's obviously horrible. But I don't know anyone in the US who is advocating taking away pain management meds for terminal, cancer, etc patients that are suffering greatly.

"alternative facts" should never be used without irony and derision.

(2017)

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