OxyContin goes global — “We’re only just getting started

[boutons_deux]

OxyContin is a dying business in America.

This is the third part of a Los Angeles Times investigation (http://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/) exploring the role of OxyContin in the nation’s opioid epidemic.

With the nation in the grip of

an opioid epidemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives,

the U.S. medical establishment is turning away from painkillers.

Top health officials are discouraging primary care doctors from prescribing them for chronic pain, saying there is no proof they work long-term and substantial evidence they put patients at risk.

Prescriptions for OxyContin have fallen nearly 40% since 2010, meaning billions in lost revenue for its Connecticut manufacturer, Purdue Pharma.

So the company’s owners,

the Sackler family, are pursuing a new strategy: Put the painkiller that set off the U.S. opioid crisis into medicine cabinets around the world.

A network of international companies owned by the family

is moving rapidly into Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and other regions, and

pushing for broad use of painkillers in places ill-prepared to deal with the ravages of opioid abuse and addiction.

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-oxycontin-part3/

http://www.forbes.com/profile/sackler/

[boutons_deux]

the heartland is Trashland, and it's narcotizing, killing itself

Report: DEA records show W. Va. flooded with painkillersCHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in just six years, a period when 1,728 people fatally overdosed on these two painkillers,

That amounts to 433 of the frequently abused opioid pills for every man, woman and child in the state of 1.84 million people.

They disclose the number of pills sold to every pharmacy and drug shipments to all 55 counties in West Virginia between 2007 and 2012.
Four of these counties — Wyoming, McDowell, Boone and Mingo — lead the nation in fatal overdoses caused by pain pills,

https://apnews.com/31faf7fd0bea4d4bb1d74c0a3bc3e06b/Report:-DEA-records-show-West-Virginia-flooded-with-drugs?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP

.... but .... but .... but Marijuana is Schedule I ! :lol

And that's justs the documented opioid sales. I assume the illegal opioid traffic is also extremely high.

America is so fucked

BigPharma and corrupt, over-prescribing docs slaughtering Americans is not even on Repugs agenda. BigPharma PROFITS!

[johnsmith]

I actually agree with you here boutons that the painkiller epidemic in the US is fucking outrageous and was started by the most crooked and fucked up pharm exec's that should all be hung.

[boutons_deux]

painkiller epidemic in the US is fucking outrageous

There's lots of "outrageous" shit in fucked-and-fuckable America.

And it ain't the fault, as the Repug LIES go, of the Dems, ACA, knitters, Mexicans, NOR will the Putin solve America's outrageous shit.

Putin's goal is exactly the same as Repug/VRWC goal has been for decades: make Americans doubt, lose confidence in, and HATE govt and "democracy", while the Repugs/VRWC/NewDemocrats fuck up govt to prove that it's hateable.

St Ronnie The Useful Diseased Idiot mouthing VRWC ideology as if he were delivering movie lines: "Government IS the problem" (and Putin cheers!)

[TheSanityAnnex]

Lost three friends to oxy/alcohol overdoses and have a fourth ex-friend now addicted to heroin after being prescribed and getting hooked on oxys for back surgery.

[Thread]

I got my stockpile. Every time I went to the dentist I insisted. And I went a lot. There is nothing better for tooth pain than that stuff.

[DMC]

Sounds like someone with a cleft palate trying to pronounce oxy cotton.

[CosmicCowboy]

Hospitals are even getting stupid about it post major surgery..."no you get 1 every 12 hours and 3 at the most. You can have Tylenol 3 every 4 hours in between"

Anything over Tylenol 4 the actual doctor has to sign the prescription, they make you sign a copy and keep it on file for the DEA. you can't call it in. You have to hand deliver it to the pharmacy.

[johnsmith]

There's lots of "outrageous" shit in fucked-and-fuckable America.

And it ain't the fault, as the Repug LIES go, of the Dems, ACA, knitters, Mexicans, NOR will the Putin solve America's outrageous shit.

Putin's goal is exactly the same as Repug/VRWC goal has been for decades: make Americans doubt, lose confidence in, and HATE govt and "democracy", while the Repugs/VRWC/NewDemocrats fuck up govt to prove that it's hateable.

St Ronnie The Useful Diseased Idiot mouthing VRWC ideology as if he were delivering movie lines: "Government IS the problem" (and Putin cheers!)

This literally has nothing to do with your own op. Jesus Christ man.

[boutons_deux]

Did Big Pharma Hire Dozens Of DEA Officials To Reduce Scrutiny Of Opioid Painkillers?

It’s not uncommon for folks at federal agencies to cash in on their public sector connections by taking a high-paying job with a company they used to regulate. But when it comes to the pharmaceuticals industry’s hiring of dozens of Drug Enforcement Administration officials, the question is whether these former DEA staffers were being hired because of what they could contribute, or because it was better for the industry to get them out of law enforcement.

According to the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/key-officials-switch-sides-from-dea-to-pharmaceutical-industry/2016/12/22/55d2e938-c07b-11e6-b527-949c5893595e_story.html),

more than 40 DEA officials have been hired away by the pharmaceuticals industry (and their associated law firms) since 2005.

Three-quarters of these hires came from the DEA’s Diversion Control Division — the section of the agency tasked with stemming the flow of prescription drugs onto the black market.

Among those who’ve left Diversion Control to do work on behalf of the pharmaceuticals industry are

a former division deputy director,

a deputy chief of operations,

a chief of investigations,

to policy chiefs and

two associate chief counsels who had been tasked with enforcement actions against pharmaceutical companies.

A decade ago, as opioid painkiller addiction and overdoses began to become a nationwide epidemic (https://consumerist.com/2016/05/26/in-denial-about-americas-opioid-painkiller-problem-this-map-might-change-your-mind/), and certain drug companies turned a blind eye (https://consumerist.com/2016/07/18/report-oxycontin-makers-ignored-internal-warnings-of-organized-drug-ring-pill-mills/) to pill mills that prescribed the drugs to anyone who could pay, the DEA stepped up its efforts to address the issue.

A crackdown on clinics and physicians who overprescribe opioids — and the pharmacies that looked the other way as they filled these prescriptions — means fewer sales.

Some industry watchers believe that the pharmaceuticals companies hired away the DEA Diversion Control staffers as a way to slow down or curb agency actions.
“The number of employees recruited from that division points to a deliberate strategy by the pharmaceutical industry to hire people who are the biggest headaches for them,”

John Carnevale, former director of planning for the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, tells the Post. “These people understand how DEA operates, the culture around diversion and DEA’s goals, and they can advise their clients how to stay within the guidelines.”

Joseph Rannazzisi, former head of Diversion Control, tells the Post

“It’s obvious that they targeted the office…

If you want to understand how we were doing our investigations, the best way to do it is to take our people who are doing the investigations and put them in place in your company.

It’s not difficult to understand why you would take these guys. They know the law.”

There are laws in place intended to severely restrict (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/207) conflicts of interest between former federal employees and their new private employers. The so-called “Revolving Door” rules include a permanent prohibition against former federal workers on being involved in anything “in which the person participated personally and substantially” while they worked for the government. For matters that the person didn’t handle directly but were still pending when they left their government job, there is a two-year ban. Violations of these rules can result in substantial financial penalties (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/216).

However, the DEA and the pharma industry contend that all is above-board and these DEA folks were hired because of their expertise.

“Many who serve in government possess expert knowledge in a wide variety of fields. It is not uncommon for former government officials to use or rely on such expertise when they transfer to the private sector following their public sector service,” a DEA rep tells the Post. “Employees who leave DEA and other government agencies for private sector work are expected to abide by the applicable laws and ethics rules that govern their private sector activities.”

While it could just be a coincidence, :lol

the Post notes that after the drug companies went on the DEA hiring spree,

those who remained at the agency began bringing fewer cases against the industry,

as the DEA raised its bar for the standard of proof required to bring a case.

Between 2011 and 2014, the number of DEA’s civil cases filed against distributors, manufacturers, pharmacies, and physicians dropped 131 per year to only 40.

Aside from any expertise or insight the former DEA folks might have brought to their new employers, Craig Holman of Public Citizen questions what impact these DEA defections might have had on those who remained behind.

“That high rate of turnover makes you really wonder whether those officials were acting in the interests of the DEA rather than the companies they were regulating,” he tells the Post. “

Just by seeing your colleagues going that way, that tells you that

you can shape your future employment prospects if you behave accordingly.”
https://consumerist.com/2016/12/22/did-big-pharma-hire-dozens-of-dea-officials-to-reduce-scrutiny-of-opioid-painkillers/

The Corporatocracy owns and operates the US govt for laughs and big profits (and 100Ks of dead Americans)

[boutons_deux]

Fentanyl Billionaire Comes Under Fire as Death Toll Mounts From Prescription Opioids

Employees of John N. Kapoor’s Insys Therapeutics bribed doctors to prescribe large, off-label doses of painkiller, prosecutors charge

http://www.wsj.com/articles/fentanyl-billionaire-comes-under-fire-as-death-toll-mounts-from-prescription-opioids-1479830968

[Xevious]

ERs are the hottest places to score drugs. So many people go ER hopping complaining of abdominal pain, back pain, chest pain, whatever and get instant IV narcs. Places eventually catch on when people repeatedly come in with negative testing, but in larger cities people can make the rounds several times over before doctors cut them off.

[CosmicCowboy]

ERs are the hottest places to score drugs. So many people go ER hopping complaining of abdominal pain, back pain, chest pain, whatever and get instant IV narcs. Places eventually catch on when people repeatedly come in with negative testing, but in larger cities people can make the rounds several times over before doctors cut them off.

I understand that San Antonio ER's have stopped giving out anything stronger than Tylenol 3.

[Xevious]

Maybe as a prescription, I'm not sure, but while you're physically in the ER anything goes. People learn what buzzwords to say to get meds. Some go so far as to say they have allergies to all analgesics... except Dilaudid, can have plenty of that.

[boutons_deux]

"Acetaminophen overdose sends as many as 78,000 Americans to the emergency room annually and

results in 33,000 hospitalizations a year, federal data shows.

Acetaminophen is also the nation’s leading cause of acute liver failure, according to data from an ongoing study funded by the National Institutes for Health."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/tylenol-overdose_n_3976991.html

[Trill Clinton]

i think we need another war on drugs to handle this epidemic.

[boutons_deux]

i think we need another war on drugs to handle this epidemic.

The Repug solution is to defund NIH so the data isn't collected, the studies are done.

[boutons_deux]

Fentanyl Outpaces Heroin as the Deadliest Drug on Long Island

killing at least 220 people there in 2016,

In New York City, more than 1,000 people are expected to die from drug overdoses this year — the first recorded four-digit death total in city history,

“The influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl from overseas is a nationwide issue that requires a multidisciplinary intervention from all levels of government.”

“Not only are drug traffickers mixing it with heroin for street distribution,” he said, “but drug suppliers are sending it in bulk form for resellers to sell in pill form or in bulk powder.”

“We’ve never seen as much of a drug this strong on the black market before,”

Some users who purchase it believe they are actually buying prescription pain pills like oxycodone or hydrocodone, or heroin alone — drugs far less potent than fentanyl.

One recovering addict said the drug is so powerful, he can no longer get high from heroin alone.
“Without the fentanyl, shooting heroin’s like shooting water — you build up a tolerance,”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/nyregion/fentanyl-epidemic-long-island.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[UNT Eagles 2016]

I got my stockpile. Every time I went to the dentist I insisted. And I went a lot. There is nothing better for tooth pain than that stuff.

Oxycontin is amazing!

[UNT Eagles 2016]

"Acetaminophen overdose sends as many as 78,000 Americans to the emergency room annually and

results in 33,000 hospitalizations a year, federal data shows.

Acetaminophen is also the nation’s leading cause of acute liver failure, according to data from an ongoing study funded by the National Institutes for Health."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/tylenol-overdose_n_3976991.html



That's why I exclusively use naproxen and aspirin, with the ever so occasional ibuprofen sprinkled in.