Opiod "crisis"

[CosmicCowboy]

Maybe its time to just acknowledge that there is a certain percentage of the population that is going to be fuckups. Whats killing these dumbasses is the dealers guessing on the fentanyl cut, and all these dumbasses want the heroin/fentanyl mix for the buzz. Maybe they should take that six fucking billion dollars they just appropriated for "opiod abuse" and just give these idiots accurately cut single use syringes. That would eliminate virtually all the accidental ODs from hot loads.

[boutons_deux]

why "crisis"?

[CosmicCowboy]

why "crisis"?

Seriously? Thats the first time you have heard the term? You should get out of your mothers trailer more.

[pgardn]

Another thing about this is the medical use of prescription opioids is necessary in some cases. It saves people from a whole lot of pain. But you gotta get the patient off as quickly as possible. All parties involved need to fully understand the ramifications of the super addictive drugs. Some docs were handing this out like candy. "Go away, ya bother me you big wussy" Some patients were eating it like candy. And Of course it's gonna spread if it's becomes easy to make and yes there will always be the self medicators and experimenters.

The people that have just been through an excruciating back surgery and actually misplace or drop a pill down the drain say thank you. It's hard on people who actually need a drug once it becomes abused.

I took a codeine based drug after impacted wisdom tooth surgery. My jaw was really torn up and it hurt like hell. I took this stuff and finally a bit of peace. But I also started calling people I had not seen for years. I was far past comfortably numb. I held off on those damn things until it really hurt. Never finished them and chunked them. I was told very clearly to attempt to NOT finish the bottle if possible or to call if it really still hurt and I needed more, I would be first up for a damage assessment. Docs need to pay attention and follow thru. They keep score by how many people they can see during a day. If some poor fck goes bad... they are not a nuisance that's gonna take up time.

[pgardn]

why "crisis"?

What word do you prefer?

[Reck]

What word do you prefer?

No he means why in quotes as if the opiods thing isn't happening or happening more instensely as more and more people are dying of it.

[pgardn]

No he means why in quotes as if the opiods thing isn't happening or happening more instensely as more and more people are dying of it.

Okay.

Well, it's a bit more complex anyways.
Its very easy to simplify the newest abused chemical.

And to think I sat next to a guy on a ski lift who was flippantly asking about trying it and where he could get while I was talking to a coworker about antibodies. I seriously wanted to slap him. Not to be Fd with stopped the conversation.

[boutons_deux]

Seriously? Thats the first time you have heard the term? You should get out of your mothers trailer more.

The quotes indicate a non-customary usage

[Blake]

And to think I sat next to a guy on a ski lift who was flippantly asking about trying it and where he could get while I was talking to a coworker about antibodies. I seriously wanted to slap him. Not to be Fd with stopped the conversation.

Uh...wut?

[Blake]

Seriously? Thats the first time you have heard the term? You should get out of your mothers trailer more.

Where do you hear the term when you're out?

"Massage parlor"?

[Chucho]

Is this going to be another thread where we can talk about how awesome viccodin is? THAT was a fun thread, much better than the typical fare here.

[CosmicCowboy]

OK I will dispense with the quotes. Junkies are ODing on fentanyl. Now its supposed to be a crisis. I admit to not losing any sleep over the crisis but understand that many of you are more fragile. Now we have 6 billion dollars appropriated for the opiod crisis. How should this money be spent? Education? Are you so arrogant as to think these junkies didnt already know heroin/fentanyl might have been a bad idea when they started?

[pgardn]

Uh...wut?

1.Ski lifts require you sit stuck with other people for some time.

2. People are almost forced to converse.

3.Ski resorts attract younger people "finding themselves" so I was told.

4. When a conversation is overheard and biochemistry is the subject I get hit with "Where do I get_____ drug?"

5. I feel like slapping the interloper.

6. I instead said NO. Please No. Do not try.

Ya see what opioids did to me? I use too many annotated personal experiences as examples of casusal use becoming a very bad decision. Btw, it was heroine the interloper wanted, casually of course.

[Chucho]

OK I will dispense with the quotes. Junkies are ODing on fentanyl. Now its supposed to be a crisis. I admit to not losing any sleep over the crisis but understand that many of you are more fragile. Now we have 6 billion dollars appropriated for the opiod crisis. How should this money be spent? Education? Are you so arrogant as to think these junkies didnt already know heroin/fentanyl might have been a bad idea when they started?

It's simple. Pain management changed for the worst after the Obamacare changes went into effect. Countless people who were prescribed opiates for pain for generations were no longer allowed to get anywhere near their original RXs and are/were treated like criminals for asking what they were getting to manage their pain.

They get anywhere from 10%-50% their original RXs and they had to turn to the streets to get their pills. Well, the crunch affected street costs and now 10mg viccodins are $10 each. A person who takes 5 a day doesn't have fiddy bones to kill pain, so heroin is much cheaper, kills the pain faster and is even more addictive.

So, just another case of things designed to help people fucking things up worse.

[Chucho]

1.Ski lifts require you sit stuck with other people for some time.

2. People are almost forced to converse.

3.Ski resorts attract younger people "finding themselves" so I was told.

4. When a conversation is overheard and biochemistry is the subject I get hit with "Where do I get_____ drug?"

5. I feel like slapping the interloper.

6. I instead said NO. Please No. Do not try.

Ya see what opioids did to me? I use too many personal experiences as examples of causal use becoming a very bad decision. Btw, it was heroine the interloper wanted, casually of course.



That's awesome.

[SpursforSix]

Is this going to be another thread where we can talk about how awesome viccodin is? THAT was a fun thread, much better than the typical fare here.

Many times, I've told a doctor that I didn't tolerate acetaminophen just so he'd change the prescription from Tylenol 3 to Vicodin. I'd never go to a doctor just to get a scrip but when I did go, I always wanted to leave with something good.
I'd add about 20 pounds to my weight to make sure I'd get higher dosed pills. Also my pain was always a 7-8 on the scale. Can't go too low and sure can't tell them 10 for a sprained finger.

[Chucho]

Many times, I've told a doctor that I didn't tolerate acetaminophen just so he'd change the prescription from Tylenol 3 to Vicodin. I'd never go to a doctor just to get a scrip but when I did go, I always wanted to leave with something good.
I'd add about 20 pounds to my weight to make sure I'd get higher dosed pills. Also my pain was always a 7-8 on the scale. Can't go too low and sure can't tell them 10 for a sprained finger.


Tylenol 3 is more expensive than norcos right now! Recently had a root canal and they gave me T3s pre-op and Norco post op, 24 T3s and 20 Norcos. Paid $35 copay on the T3s and only $10 on the Norkies. Maybe there's still hope. Blow is great, I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm gonna be tooting lines of some great blow tonight, but I'd still rather have 20 viccodin for that price.

[pgardn]

That's awesome.

Which part:

1.Me giving a strange unreadable short version of an encounter because of opioids?

2. Or a stupid kid wanting to play with a flame thrower?

3. Or Both?

[Chucho]

Which part:

1.Me giving a strange unreadable short version of an encounter because of opioids?

2. Or a stupid kid wanting to play with a flame thrower?

3. Or Both?

It wasn't unreadable.

[AaronY]

It's simple. Pain management changed for the worst after the Obamacare changes went into effect. Countless people who were prescribed opiates for pain for generations were no longer allowed to get anywhere near their original RXs and are/were treated like criminals for asking what they were getting to manage their pain.

They get anywhere from 10%-50% their original RXs and they had to turn to the streets to get their pills. Well, the crunch affected street costs and now 10mg viccodins are $10 each. A person who takes 5 a day doesn't have fiddy bones to kill pain, so heroin is much cheaper, kills the pain faster and is even more addictive.

So, just another case of things designed to help people fucking things up worse.
Cliffs: Thanks Obama.

[Chucho]

Many times, I've told a doctor that I didn't tolerate acetaminophen just so he'd change the prescription from Tylenol 3 to Vicodin. I'd never go to a doctor just to get a scrip but when I did go, I always wanted to leave with something good.
I'd add about 20 pounds to my weight to make sure I'd get higher dosed pills. Also my pain was always a 7-8 on the scale. Can't go too low and sure can't tell them 10 for a sprained finger.

Just realized that you said you'd upgrade T3s to vikes. There's plenty of it in viccodin.

[CosmicCowboy]

Anyone know what percentage of junkies graduated from pain management vs. Those that started recreationally?

[CosmicCowboy]

Just realized that you said you'd upgrade T3s to vikes. There's plenty of it in viccodin.

Yep...they all have 325mg tylenol. The 8 a day recommended max is because of the tylenol, not the codeine.

[Chucho]

Anyone know what percentage of junkies graduated from pain management vs. Those that started recreationally?

A shitload.


Crazy they want to tackle this when they haven't even started on the meth crisis and it took 30 years to halt the crack epidemic and that was because meth became easier to access.

[CosmicCowboy]

Im still pissed they banned qualudes and mandrax

[SpursforSix]

Tylenol 3 is more expensive than norcos right now! Recently had a root canal and they gave me T3s pre-op and Norco post op, 24 T3s and 20 Norcos. Paid $35 copay on the T3s and only $10 on the Norkies. Maybe there's still hope. Blow is great, I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm gonna be tooting lines of some great blow tonight, but I'd still rather have 20 viccodin for that price.

Back in the day, we used to get a half pound of weed and a half ounce of coke for $800. The idea was that we'd sell off enough to make some money and also have some free goods. We'd end up doing all the blow pretty quickly and some of the weed. I don't think we ever came out ahead.

But I digress...I never wanted the Tylenol because of the side effects when consuming alcohol with it. It's bad enough on it's own for the liver.

[CosmicCowboy]

Im still pissed they banned quaaludes / mandrax.

[SpursforSix]

Just realized that you said you'd upgrade T3s to vikes. There's plenty of it in viccodin.

Plenty of what? I'm lost now.

[SpursforSix]

Yep...they all have 325mg tylenol. The 8 a day recommended max is because of the tylenol, not the codeine.

What the fuck. I could have sworn it was ibuprofen in the Vicoden.

It was hydrocodone with ibuprofen. Now that I check, the brand name is Vicoprofen.

My bad for gumming up the thread.

[Blake]

Blow is great, I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm gonna be tooting lines of some great blow tonight,

Oh ok.

[spurraider21]

OK I will dispense with the quotes. Junkies are ODing on fentanyl. Now its supposed to be a crisis. I admit to not losing any sleep over the crisis but understand that many of you are more fragile. Now we have 6 billion dollars appropriated for the opiod crisis. How should this money be spent? Education? Are you so arrogant as to think these junkies didnt already know heroin/fentanyl might have been a bad idea when they started?
How is that a question of arrogance!

[CosmicCowboy]

How is that a question of arrogance!

How do you convince a junkie not to become a junkie?

[sickdsm]

I know a guy. Hardworking guy that had back surgery. He in constant pain. Has a problem with painkillers. I don't know statistics about those that have had pain vs those were just looking for a new drug but I think that part is the thing that frightens people. I had a nother buddy in our early twenties get into a bad accident and afterwards had Vicodin or something like that. Talked me into taking some one time. Never really felt anything different. Now if he asked me to do some heroin? Absolutely not. Granted that was almost 20 years ago but I think that by bringing attention to it and how dangerous prescription drugs can be is a great thing. Again, I'm not looking up statistics but I wonder about who's the average addict? Is opioids a problem only now because white middle class America is having an issue? I would think the criminalization of pot has ruined more lives than any other one drug, just maybe not as drastically on an individual basis

[Chucho]

Oh ok.


This place would fold without these great contributions from you.

[Chucho]

How do you convince a junkie not to become a junkie?


The word you would want to use is naive, or a synonym of.

[Blake]

This place would fold without these great contributions from you.

Oh ok.

[Chucho]

Oh ok.

"Lol".

[Pavlov]

This thread is basically "I didn't get addicted to opioids after my surgery so anyone who does should just die."

[Blake]

"Lol".

Lol "blow".

Thanks for that contribution.

[Chucho]

Lol "blow".

.

That's one of your better ones.

[Blake]

Oh ok.

[Chucho]

This thread is basically "I didn't get addicted to opioids after my surgery so anyone who does should just die."

Not fully. It's also about people talking about their love for recreational viccodin abuse.

[spurraider21]

How do you convince a junkie not to become a junkie?
by being humble, apparently

[koriwhat]

by being humble, apparently

i don't think there's anyway to convince a junkie about anything tbh... my cousin, 41-42 yrs old now, is a methhead and has been diagnosed schizo in the past couple yrs. dude is in his own world now and my uncle & aunt have tried everything to help him but like the old saying goes, "you can only help yourself". he's too far gone nowadays though to be helped. his mental makeup is shot. watching your loved ones slip further and further down the gutter is such a shitty thing to witness especially when they have children and they chose the drug(s) over them.

[pgardn]

Back in the day, we used to get a half pound of weed and a half ounce of coke for $800. The idea was that we'd sell off enough to make some money and also have some free goods. We'd end up doing all the blow pretty quickly and some of the weed. I don't think we ever came out ahead.

But I digress...I never wanted the Tylenol because of the side effects when consuming alcohol with it. It's bad enough on it's own for the liver.

You are worried about what Tylenol does to the liver?

But you are/were buying and selling Coke and then snorting the blow?

Something is amiss here.
Alcohol is not good for the liver either. So you were like just eating Tylenol?

SF6 old buddy... You go to a restaurant and order Diet Coke to drink then order pure lard glazed with sugar to eat?

[boutons_deux]

Trash/sessions to go after illegal distribution, ignoring legal distribtors, bigpharmA

No money for treatment

[boutons_deux]

OxyContin maker stops promoting opioids, cuts sales staff

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-opioids-purduepharma/oxycontin-maker-stops-promoting-opioids-cuts-sales-staff-idUSKBN1FU0YL?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reute rs+Health+News%29


Trash, sessions won't target bigpharma, their distributors

[sickdsm]

OxyContin maker stops promoting opioids, cuts sales staff

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-opioids-purduepharma/oxycontin-maker-stops-promoting-opioids-cuts-sales-staff-idUSKBN1FU0YL?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reute rs+Health+News%29


Trash, sessions won't target bigpharma, their distributors
Should Target health insurance/Obama Care tbh if that's your train of thought........ Keep em coming back for more bank.

[koriwhat]

edibles all day made with that sauce! fuck opioids!

[Xevious]

The reason we have a "crisis" right now is because for years MDs have been going ape shit prescribing narcs to anybody who cried loud enough without adequately exploring other options. Now that said docs are shackled as far as how many narcs they can order, people are hitting the streets for their fix. Chronic pain is a real thing, I'm not discounting that. But doctors have been irresponsible for too long with the meds simply because it's the easiest solution. Same thing with the elderly population and benzos. Grandma a little confused/difficult to deal with? Pop her some Xanax or Ativan. Problem solved.

[SnakeBoy]

The reason we have a "crisis" right now is because for years MDs have been going ape shit prescribing narcs to anybody who cried loud enough without adequately exploring other options. Now that said docs are shackled as far as how many narcs they can order, people are hitting the streets for their fix. Chronic pain is a real thing, I'm not discounting that. But doctors have been irresponsible for too long with the meds simply because it's the easiest solution. Same thing with the elderly population and benzos. Grandma a little confused/difficult to deal with? Pop her some Xanax or Ativan. Problem solved.

Yeah the Doc who prescribed Vicodin is the irresponsible one not the patient who decided to crush them up and snort them to get high.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

There are well known stresses and the like that cause people to use drugs. While fuck it, cut them off is the preferred method of brotherkiller, there have been places like Switzerland and Holland in Europe where they decriminalized and treated the problem. Deaths and usage plummeted.

This of course will never work for the Levites and other Puritans but its there just the same.

[CosmicCowboy]

There are well known stresses and the like that cause people to use drugs. While fuck it, cut them off is the preferred method of brotherkiller, there have been places like Switzerland and Holland in Europe where they decriminalized and treated the problem. Deaths and usage plummeted.

This of course will never work for the Levites and other Puritans but its there just the same.
Read the first post, douchebag.

[Xevious]

Yeah the Doc who prescribed Vicodin is the irresponsible one not the patient who decided to crush them up and snort them to get high.
I'm not talking about the handful of people who were prescribed ten days worth of Norco for a tooth abscess or after an appendectomy and decide to swallow the entire bottle with a swig of Jack. I'm talking about the people who have been on the stuff for 15 years that originally got their narcs five doctors ago and nobody since has followed up as to why we are ordering the stuff other than "I need it". Now after decades of addiction these folks are required to see pain specialists and their meds are getting limited, so they're looking for other sources.

[Xevious]

And I'm not trying to shame people with chronic pain, there are people who require high doses of meds just to function. But the fact remains that many have abused the system for a long time. And doctors (and nurses) aren't interested in listening to people whine, they're too fucking busy. If you can order a pill to make people happy, that's what a lot of docs will do.

[pgardn]

If we really decided to look at the problems the drug ethanol (alcohol) causes it would also be informative. Obviously prohibition won't work, but the lack of research on people that are unusually addicted needs to be done.
Just take a look at the history of Irish Catholic women having to endure endless beatings from husbands with no chance of divorce. Half of Russia is drunk at 9 pm ( their 5 to 7 time zones) In the US so many family problems directly connected to alcohol.

Its crazy pot is illegal and alcohol makes you a man. "Take your first slug, son"

CH3CH2OH kills. They need to print that on bottles and cans.

Actually, we need to refine tests that tell us which drugs individuals can't "handle" (addicted to), it's a a HUGE problem. The variation among human ability to "handle" different drugs is real. There are methods of testing this now. There is research being done that politicians barely touch. But They won't touch what it could be used for. You get asked on a Doctor's form what you "react" or are "allergic" to? There are very likely ways to do this as easy as immunology allergy tests.

I am continually baffled by our criminal stubbornness not to address drug testing beyond, "is it in you?" and let drugs that are socially acceptable go, except while driving. So is Law Enforcement.

Terminate Rant.

[pgardn]

And I'm not trying to shame people with chronic pain, there are people who require high doses of meds just to function. But the fact remains that many have abused the system for a long time. And doctors (and nurses) aren't interested in listening to people whine, they're too fucking busy. If you can order a pill to make people happy, that's what a lot of docs will do.

Yeah pretty much.

But medical docs tend to get a God syndrome as well.

[SpursforSix]

You are worried about what Tylenol does to the liver?

But you are/were buying and selling Coke and then snorting the blow?

Something is amiss here.
Alcohol is not good for the liver either. So you were like just eating Tylenol?

SF6 old buddy... You go to a restaurant and order Diet Coke to drink then order pure lard glazed with sugar to eat?

I was doing the coke when I was much younger. Didn't think about much of anything.

Drinking while taking Tylenol can kill you dead on the spot. Even taking too much Tylenol by itself.

[RandomGuy]

Maybe its time to just acknowledge that there is a certain percentage of the population that is going to be fuckups. Whats killing these dumbasses is the dealers guessing on the fentanyl cut, and all these dumbasses want the heroin/fentanyl mix for the buzz. Maybe they should take that six fucking billion dollars they just appropriated for "opiod abuse" and just give these idiots accurately cut single use syringes. That would eliminate virtually all the accidental ODs from hot loads.

You would fit right in with the "task force" of political hacks being put together.

How are you going to help all the people addicted to prescription painkillers?

[RandomGuy]

The reason we have a "crisis" right now is because for years MDs have been going ape shit prescribing narcs to anybody who cried loud enough without adequately exploring other options. Now that said docs are shackled as far as how many narcs they can order, people are hitting the streets for their fix. Chronic pain is a real thing, I'm not discounting that. But doctors have been irresponsible for too long with the meds simply because it's the easiest solution. Same thing with the elderly population and benzos. Grandma a little confused/difficult to deal with? Pop her some Xanax or Ativan. Problem solved.

1) Doctors were relying on bad information ("prescription stuff isn't really that addictive", based on a single letter put out in a journal years ago.
2) Drug companies marketed the shit out of it.

Plenty of blame to go around, but if you want to see why this got so bad, look to the profit motive.

[boutons_deux]

Should Target health insurance/Obama Care tbh if that's your train of thought........ Keep em coming back for more bank.

ACA has fuck all to do with opioid crisis

[CosmicCowboy]

You would fit right in with the "task force" of political hacks being put together.

How are you going to help all the people addicted to prescription painkillers?
Easy. Dont fuck with their prescriptions.

[pgardn]

I was doing the coke when I was much younger. Didn't think about much of anything.

Drinking while taking Tylenol can kill you dead on the spot. Even taking too much Tylenol by itself.



Where did you get this?
In combination they are bad for the liver but the more recent findings suggest kidney damage may be really bad for certain people. But dead on the spot? If it kills someone dead on the spot it's most likely what my rant was about. Some drugs are much more potent, have weird side effects, super addictive for certain people. Other people, fine.

Or you mean totally wasted on alcohol and then eating Tylenol?

And we are not referring to Tylenol 3 with codeine?

[SpursforSix]

Where did you get this?
In combination they are bad for the liver but the more recent findings suggest kidney damage may be really bad for certain people. But dead on the spot? If it kills someone dead on the spot it's most likely what my rant was about. Some drugs are much more potent, have weird side effects, super addictive for certain people. Other people, fine.

Or you mean totally wasted on alcohol and then eating Tylenol?

And we are not referring to Tylenol 3 with codeine?

Yeah...in general Tylenol while drinking. 3 or otherwise. There were some cases of people having liver failure mixing booze and Tylenol. So if I'm gonna take some opioids while drinking, I'd rather have them contain ibuprofen.

[boutons_deux]

Tylenol Overdose Risk Is Staggering; Acetaminophen Safeguards Remain Insufficient

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

[Xevious]

Easy. Dont fuck with their prescriptions.
So would you grandfather in the ones that are already addicted and start limiting scrips on new patients or what? Because the way we've been doing it isn't working. I'm just asking, because I really don't have a good solution.

[pgardn]

Tylenol Overdose Risk Is Staggering; Acetaminophen Safeguards Remain Insufficient

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



Good to know.
Even though Those are excessive doses.

I usually go ibuprofen for muscle/ joint pain from excessive exercise and have never taken extra strength Tylenol but I have taken Tylenol. Ok then.

[pgardn]

Yeah...in general Tylenol while drinking. 3 or otherwise. There were some cases of people having liver failure mixing booze and Tylenol. So if I'm gonna take some opioids while drinking, I'd rather have them contain ibuprofen.

Woah.

I'm Never gonna mix codeine with anything else. Had Tylenol 3 a number of times. The wisdom tooth time was the "worst". I think that was a higher dose.

I actually had a really bad reaction to alcohol because I forgot I took an antihistamine. Benadryl.

I have never been knocked so silly in my entire life. I had my wife walk me around for like 2 hours. It was seriously awful. Never gonna ever make that mistake again. Basically it was a very strong narcotic for me.

I still think it must be stressed that individuals react differently to drugs and of course different combinations. We need to get profiles for individuals so at least they know where they are headed, the docs can already have the charts. And over a lifetime the sensitivity can of course, change.

[CosmicCowboy]

So would you grandfather in the ones that are already addicted and start limiting scrips on new patients or what? Because the way we've been doing it isn't working. I'm just asking, because I really don't have a good solution.

Thats workable.

[pgardn]

So would you grandfather in the ones that are already addicted and start limiting scrips on new patients or what? Because the way we've been doing it isn't working. I'm just asking, because I really don't have a good solution.


Thats workable.

Diplomatic progress...

Maybe our elected representatives could accomplish something similar.

[boutons_deux]

leaning on legal opioid channels as a solution?

China firms happy to sell killer opioid "weapon" to anyone in U.S.

It’s one of the strongest opioids in circulation, so deadly an amount smaller than a poppy seed can kill a person.

Until July, when reports of carfentanil overdoses began to surface in the U.S. (https://www.cbsnews.com/opioid-epidemic/), the substance was best known for knocking out moose and elephants -- or as a chemical weapon.

Despite the dangers, Chinese vendors offer to sell carfentanil (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dozens-of-ohio-overdoses-blamed-on-heroin-mixed-with-elephant-tranquilizer/) openly online, for worldwide export, no questions asked,

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-sell-opioid-carfentanil-fentanyl-chemical-weapon-unrestricted-chinese/


The hunt for illegal opioids in the U.S. starts inside JFK airport

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is revealing an alarming new milestone in the fight against opioids.

Fentanyl and other super-potent synthetic opioids have been pouring into the United States through international mail and private carriers,

and seizures of these illegal shipments surpassed 37 kilograms, more than 81 pounds,

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/opioid-crisis-illegal-shipments-from-china-jfk-airport-mail-room/

[pgardn]

leaning on legal opioid channels as a solution?

China firms happy to sell killer opioid "weapon" to anyone in U.S.

It’s one of the strongest opioids in circulation, so deadly an amount smaller than a poppy seed can kill a person.

Until July, when reports of carfentanil overdoses began to surface in the U.S. (https://www.cbsnews.com/opioid-epidemic/), the substance was best known for knocking out moose and elephants -- or as a chemical weapon.

Despite the dangers, Chinese vendors offer to sell carfentanil (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dozens-of-ohio-overdoses-blamed-on-heroin-mixed-with-elephant-tranquilizer/) openly online, for worldwide export, no questions asked,

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-sell-opioid-carfentanil-fentanyl-chemical-weapon-unrestricted-chinese/




Much of this stuff has become relatively easy to make.
The Information Age is just wonderful.

[boutons_deux]

Trash/Sessions won't go after the LEGAL opioid pushers / traffickers

Drug firms shipped 20.8M pain pills to WV town with 2,900 people

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/health/drug-firms-shipped-m-pain-pills-to-wv-town-with/article_ef04190c-1763-5a0c-a77a-7da0ff06455b.html

[RandomGuy]

Maybe its time to just acknowledge that there is a certain percentage of the population that is going to be fuckups.

To some degree, sure.

But what percentage is that? What do you do with people in either group?

Blaming the victim may make you feel all good about yourself, but it rarely solves problems IRL. Use that open mind to give us something workable, preferably based on evidence over the usual conservative platitudes/deepities.

[CosmicCowboy]

I recently watched several hours of a special series in the heroin/fentanyl issue that had actual interviews with the guys cutting and selling it. They said the junkies demanded the fentanyl cut for the buzz. They alse admitted all they could do when cutting the heroin was guess at how much to add and the test was putting it on the street. The closer they could get to max without killing the junkies the better they liked it and ods were just a normal business event because newer users couldnt handle the cut.

[SpursforSix]

I recently watched several hours of a special series in the heroin/fentanyl issue that had actual interviews with the guys cutting and selling it. They said the junkies demanded the fentanyl cut for the buzz. They alse admitted all they could do when cutting the heroin was guess at how much to add and the test was putting it on the street. The closer they could get to max without killing the junkies the better they liked it and ods were just a normal business event because newer users couldnt handle the cut.

What was the show? Any good?

[The Gemini Method]

What was the show? Any good?
Sounds like 'Dope' on Netflix. They talk about how they test the cut of fentanyl to heroin is going to garner the most bang for the buck. How also another synthetic form called cofentanyl is also making a push in to the market and is really wrecking havoc on the addicts. It's a pretty solic documentary that shows the various sides of the dope game.

[boutons_deux]

Use that open mind ...

:lol

[Chucho]

Sounds like 'Dope' on Netflix. They talk about how they test the cut of fentanyl to heroin is going to garner the most bang for the buck. How also another synthetic form called cofentanyl is also making a push in to the market and is really wrecking havoc on the addicts. It's a pretty solic documentary that shows the various sides of the dope game.

Yeah, it was the first episode. Really good show.

Sad how the dealers admit they give fiends knowingly fatal doses to test the "quality".

[CosmicCowboy]

Thats why in the OP I said just give the fiends the shit for free in safe single use needles. It stops the ODs and stops the associated crime to scrounge the $10 for the pop.

[The Gemini Method]

Yeah, it was the first episode. Really good show.

Sad how the dealers admit they give fiends knowingly fatal doses to test the "quality". Nothing new. The Cartels, La Cosa Nostra, Frank Lucas all did this. The mindset that no one would care if a fiend would die because, well they're fiends, was modus operandi in the dope game. It's all about hype. You have the best product, you're going to garner the most repeat customers. Be damned if a few corpses gets in the way of supplying.

[SpursforSix]

Sounds like 'Dope' on Netflix. They talk about how they test the cut of fentanyl to heroin is going to garner the most bang for the buck. How also another synthetic form called cofentanyl is also making a push in to the market and is really wrecking havoc on the addicts. It's a pretty solic documentary that shows the various sides of the dope game.

Cool. I've already got that one on my list.

:tu

[boutons_deux]

US Opioid Crisis Cost: $1 Trillion and Counting

According to a report out Tuesday from Altarum (https://altarum.org/about/news-and-events/economic-toll-of-opioid-crisis-in-u-s-exceeded-1-trillion-since-2001), a non-profit health research and consulting institute, since 2001 the opioid crisis has cost $1 trillion

in lost wages,

lost productivity,

healthcare costs, and

lost tax revenues

in addition to direct spending for healthcare, social services, education, and criminal justice.


Based on an average age of death from an overdose of 41, lost earnings and productivity are estimated to total $800,000 per person. In 2017 the number opioid overdose deaths exceeded 62,500 (extrapolated from data through June). The loss totaled about $50 billion.

For the four years from 2016 to 2020, Altarum estimates that the opioid epidemic will cost another $500 billion. The annual loss rose from $60.9 billion 2011 to $95.8 billion in 2016, a jump of more than 57% over the five year period. By 2020 the annual loss attributable to the opioid epidemic is forecast at $199.9 billion.

It is likely that even if the federal budget includes $13 billion to tackle the opioid epidemic that total would be more than offset by the cost to healthcare providers from the loss of Medicaid funds.

Keith Humphreys, a drug policy expert at Stanford University, told Vox News, “On balance, this is a net cut in health services for people with opioid problems.”

https://247wallst.com/healthcare-economy/2018/02/13/us-opioid-crisis-cost-1-trillion-and-counting/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29

As Cosmic Parasite and other rightwingnuts would say, "good riddance" to the druggie losers.

[pgardn]

I recently watched several hours of a special series in the heroin/fentanyl issue that had actual interviews with the guys cutting and selling it. They said the junkies demanded the fentanyl cut for the buzz. They alse admitted all they could do when cutting the heroin was guess at how much to add and the test was putting it on the street. The closer they could get to max without killing the junkies the better they liked it and ods were just a normal business event because newer users couldnt handle the cut.

This is proof that evil exists for me.

[pgardn]

Sounds like 'Dope' on Netflix. They talk about how they test the cut of fentanyl to heroin is going to garner the most bang for the buck. How also another synthetic form called cofentanyl is also making a push in to the market and is really wrecking havoc on the addicts. It's a pretty solic documentary that shows the various sides of the dope game.

Ok cool.

A go to bed watch.
Thanks.

[boutons_deux]

Seth Meyers' "Check In" on Trash opioid crisis "efforts"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuBH_jlhKtA

[AaronY]

Trash is the worst nickname of all time boo

[Chris]

969348934572195840

[boutons_deux]

The Opioid Crisis Is Surging In Black, Urban Communities

The current drug addiction crisis began in rural America, but it's quickly spreading to urban areas and into the African-American population in cities across the country.

"It's a frightening time," says Dr. Edwin Chapman, who specializes in drug addiction in Washington, D.C.,

"because the urban African-American community is dying now at a faster rate than the epidemic in the suburbs and rural areas."

in Washington, D.C., overall opioid overdose deaths among black men between the ages of 40 and 69 increased 245 percent from 2014 to 2017.

Nationally, the drug death rate is also rising most steeply among African-Americans. Among blacks in urban counties, deaths rose by 41 percent in 2016,

"African-Americans are falling victim to fentanyl and carfentanyl because they are so much more potent than heroin,"

"People who've even been lifelong heroin users are dying because they don't understand how to titrate those doses,"

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/08/579193399/the-opioid-crisis-frightening-jump-to-black-urban-areas

Nothing was done about the opioid crisis in Trash's white base.

The racist Repugs certainly won't be motivated to do anything about black drug deaths.

Repugs enriched the oligarchy and themselves with their tax cut corruption, so legislative GAMEOVER. Repugs haven't scheduled Congress to do much of anything for the rest of the year.

[pgardn]

This is where individual States can start doing something and ask for help. This is where State Governors should theoretically start doing their job. Meeting with mayors and getting their shit together. Bring federal attention to the issue. If it matters to them.

[boutons_deux]

...

[CosmicCowboy]

We have had a "war on drugs" for 60 years now. What the fuck can we do different to keep people that want to get high from sticking needles in their arms?

[boutons_deux]

Places with legal marijuana issue fewer opioid prescriptions, large studies find

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/places-with-legal-marijuana-issue-fewer-opioid-prescriptions-large-studies-find

Sessions still ramp up his war on marijuana, and tell prosecutors to max out the fines, civil forfeitures, prison terms.

[boutons_deux]

Pharmaceutical executive apologizes to Congress for role in opioid crisis: 'I am deeply sorry'
(http://theweek.com/speedreads/772160/pharmaceutical-executive-apologizes-congress-role-opioid-crisis-deeply-sorry)
A Cardinal Health executive, George Barrett, apologized for his drug company's slow response to the unprecedented influx of prescription opioids to small towns in West Virginia,

while Joseph Mastandrea of Miami-Luken admitted that his company had worsened the opioid crisis.The panel has been probing the pharmaceutical companies in light of discoveries that they shipped 12.3 million doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone to small pharmacies in West Virginia, one of the states that has been hit hardest by the drug epidemic.

Most executives denied that their companies were at fault for the opioid crisis, even as lawmakers expressed anger that the companies hadn't taken responsibility as their products spiraled out of control

http://theweek.com/speedreads/772160/pharmaceutical-executive-apologizes-congress-role-opioid-crisis-deeply-sorry

:lol

BULL FUCKING SHIT, the sell as many drugs as they can for maximum profits

WTF is a few 100K drug-dead and drug-addicted Americans, when BigPharma profits (enriching Capital-ist shareholders) are the priority?

[boutons_deux]

No thanks to "alternative facts" KAC as Opiod Czar

Medicaid expansion states see rise in coverage for low income adults with substance use disorders

The percentage of low-income Americans with substance use disorders who were uninsured declined more sharply in states that chose to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act versus states that did not,

The percentage of low-income residents with substance use disorders without coverage decreased from 34 percent in 2013 to 20 percent in 2015 within states that had implemented Medicaid expansion - or expansion states --

compared to 45 percent to 39 percent in non-expansion states.

Yet while more in the group were covered in Medicaid expansion states than those living elsewhere,

Medicaid expansion states saw no corresponding increase in substance use treatment.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/cums-mes081418.php

[dbestpro]

We have had a "war on drugs" for 60 years now. What the fuck can we do different to keep people that want to get high from sticking needles in their arms?

During this war on drugs the treatment has been called prison. True treatment facilities that do work address mind, body, and spirit, and also provide PnP treatments to help adjust the neuro changes that occurred during the addiction. I also think there needs to be a fundamental change the values we have because the value of putting money first has lead many of the youth down this dark road. Too many kids without fathers, too.

[Winehole23]

We have had a "war on drugs" for 60 years now. What the fuck can we do different to keep people that want to get high from sticking needles in their arms?we can approach it as a medical problem, like Portugal does, and give addicts treatment instead of throwing them in jail.

decriminalization has been working well for them so far.

[RandomGuy]

Maybe its time to just acknowledge that there is a certain percentage of the population that is going to be fuckups. Whats killing these dumbasses is the dealers guessing on the fentanyl cut, and all these dumbasses want the heroin/fentanyl mix for the buzz. Maybe they should take that six fucking billion dollars they just appropriated for "opiod abuse" and just give these idiots accurately cut single use syringes. That would eliminate virtually all the accidental ODs from hot loads.

To some extent.

Leaving them addicted doesn't really help anyone though.

We need to do vastly more than blame the victim.

[diego]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/upshot/opioids-overdose-deaths-rising-fentanyl.html?emc=edit_nn_20180816&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=7822528120180816&te=1http://

The media treatment of this crisis would be so different if it were blacks or latinos dying. Where is the police crack down on the dealers and the junkies? For the millionth time, the hypocrisy of the drug war exposed again.

[boutons_deux]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/upshot/opioids-overdose-deaths-rising-fentanyl.html?emc=edit_nn_20180816&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=7822528120180816&te=1http://

The media treatment of this crisis would be so different if it were blacks or latinos dying. Where is the police crack down on the dealers and the junkies? For the millionth time, the hypocrisy of the drug war exposed again.

Nixon launched the War on Drugs to go after blacks, mexicans, and anti-war dirty hippies.

Even back in the 1930s, marijuana was made illegal to go after blacks and mexicans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger

[diego]

https://www.salon.com/2018/09/10/billionaire-drug-executive-who-helped-fuel-opioid-crisis-now-plans-to-make-millions-selling-treatment_partner/

[Isitjustme?]

We have had a "war on drugs" for 60 years now. What the fuck can we do different to keep people that want to get high from sticking needles in their arms?

These hillbilly heroin people are trump voters..right wing has agreed to take it easy on em. Check for the memo you should have gotten

[RandomGuy]

We have had a "war on drugs" for 60 years now. What the fuck can we do different to keep people that want to get high from sticking needles in their arms?

Treat it like a medical condition.

Seems to work reasonably well, especially when you can provide a social safety net to cushion the worst effects.

[CosmicCowboy]

As someone with a scrip for hydrocodone 10s, I dont get the big deal. I take them when I need them and dont when I dont. There is absolutely no buzz. Personally the THC/CBD dose pens work better for pain than the pills.

[boutons_deux]

Colbert righteously TRASHES the Sackler sacks of shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cJ_lyeH7Os

Another billionaire group that gives to non-profits to buy their silence, compliance

[boutons_deux]

Red States in an Opiod league of the own

https://pix-media.priceonomics-media.com/blog/1376/image3.png

[Winehole23]

Life expectancy in the United States has declined for a second year in a row, driven in large part because increasing numbers of Americans are dying from drug overdoses, suicides and chronic liver diseasehttps://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2018/09/u-s-life-expectancy-falls-for-second-year-in-a-row/

[boutons_deux]

Fentanyl Surpasses Heroin As Drug Most Often Involved In Deadly Overdoses

Back in 2011, oxycodone was the drug most commonly linked to overdose deaths.

Starting in 2012 and lasting until 2015, heroin surpassed painkillers to become the drug most often involved.

But then fentanyl, a synthetic opioid pain reliever 50 to 100 times (https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/opioids/fentanyl.html) more powerful than morphine, infiltrated the American drug supply — what the CDC calls (https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html) "the third wave" of the opioid epidemic.

By 2016, overdose deaths involving fentanyl had become more common than any other.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/12/676214086/fentanyl-surpasses-heroin-as-drug-most-often-involved-in-deadly-overdoses (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/12/676214086/fentanyl-surpasses-heroin-as-drug-most-often-involved-in-deadly-overdoses)

Chinese Fentanyl deaths now?

but how many were originally drug free but got hooked on multi-billionaire Sackler family's oxycodone marketing?

[boutons_deux]

Trump Says China Will Curtail Fentanyl. The U.S. Has Heard That Before.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/04/business/04chinafentanyl-1/merlin_142426251_5abcc071-bd9c-4631-8bf8-731f04179f55-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp

China vows to stem the supply of the powerful opioid fentanyl flowing into the United States.

It pledges to target exports of fentanyl-related substances bound for the United States that are prohibited there, while sharing information with American law-enforcement authorities.

Such promises, echoed in the recent meeting between the countries’ presidents, ring familiar.

They first emerged in September 2016, when the Obama administration said China and the United States had agreed on “enhanced measures” (https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/03/statement-national-security-council-spokesperson-ned-price-us-china) meant to keep fentanyl from coming into the United States.

But in its official statements or state media reports made at the time,

the Chinese government never specified the steps it intended to take, and its follow-up has been patchy at best.
So when the Trump administration said on Saturday that President Xi Jinping of China had agreed to designate fentanyl as a controlled substance in “a wonderful humanitarian gesture,” analysts said there was little to cheer about.

“It’s in many ways all theater from the White House

and very little serious substance,” said John Collins, executive director of the International Drug Policy Unit at the London School of Economics. “It seems to me the same story again.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/business/fentanyl-china-trump.html

China outsmarts the gullible, credulous, simplistic Americans yet again

[Winehole23]

1086109691997028353

[Winehole23]

moustache twirling villain:

1086677305622257665

[spurraider21]

1086109691997028353
just say no

[ElNono]

just say no

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Nancy_Reagan.jpg/220px-Nancy_Reagan.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Trash sez his fucking wall stop opioids

[boutons_deux]

Sackler Scion’s Email Reveals Push for High-Dose OxyContin, New Lawsuit Disclosures Claim

member of the Sackler family that owns OxyContin’s maker directed the company to put a premium on selling high dosages of its potentially addicting painkillers,

Richard Sackler, a son of a founder of Purdue Pharma and its onetime president, told company officials in 2008 to

“measure our performance by Rx’s by strength, giving higher measures to higher strengths,”

Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family knew that

putting patients on high dosages of OxyContin for long periods increased the risks of serious side effects, including addiction.

they promoted higher dosages because stronger pain pills brought the company and the Sacklers the most profit,

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/health/opioids-purdue-pharma-sackler.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[SpursforSix]

Sackler Scion’s Email Reveals Push for High-Dose OxyContin, New Lawsuit Disclosures Claim

member of the Sackler family that owns OxyContin’s maker directed the company to put a premium on selling high dosages of its potentially addicting painkillers,

Richard Sackler, a son of a founder of Purdue Pharma and its onetime president, told company officials in 2008 to

“measure our performance by Rx’s by strength, giving higher measures to higher strengths,”

Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family knew that

putting patients on high dosages of OxyContin for long periods increased the risks of serious side effects, including addiction.

they promoted higher dosages because stronger pain pills brought the company and the Sacklers the most profit,

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/health/opioids-purdue-pharma-sackler.html?partner=rss&emc=rss



This is just one of the many companies that engage in this constant fuckery. Just saw a documentary on Dupont regarding the carcinogen c8 and how 99% of the people IN THE WORLD now have this in their system.
If there's one thing you consistently get right, it's the rundown of BigPharma, BigAg, and Big Chem.

[boutons_deux]

This is just one of the many companies that engage in this constant fuckery. Just saw a documentary on Dupont regarding the carcinogen c8 and how 99% of the people IN THE WORLD now have this in their system.
If there's one thing you consistently get right, it's the rundown of BigPharma, BigAg, and Big Chem.

all my "things" are consistently "right"

EPA, run by your beloved Repugs, is gutting the CWA, which I supposed you love because it's deregulation.

[SpursforSix]

all my "things" are consistently "right"

EPA, run by your beloved Repugs, is gutting the CWA, which I supposed you love because it's deregulation.

Ah...I see I'm being categorized. Erroneously. But go ahead and shtick on

[Trill Clinton]

Lol

[Chucho]

all my "things" are consistently "right"

EPA, run by your beloved Repugs, is gutting the CWA, which I supposed you love because it's deregulation.

LOL, you tell lies.

[boutons_deux]

LOL, you tell lies.

I don't any of you rightwingnut assholes bitching about Repugs' destruction of CWA,

about Repugs approving environmental poisons, and

Repugs' not blocking environmental poisons

[FrostKing]

Trash is the worst nickname of all time boo
Repugs

:whine

[Chucho]

I don't any of you rightwingnut assholes bitching about Repugs' destruction of CWA,

about Repugs approving environmental poisons, and

Repugs' not blocking environmental poisons

More LOLies, you nut sucking fruit.

[boutons_deux]

Nan Goldin Leads a Protest at the Guggenheim Against the Sackler Family

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5c604ed7a522d422eeafa07c/master/w_1626,c_limit/Gessen-GoldinSacklerProtest.jpg

Small flyers started falling, as though from the glass dome,

swirling like snow as they descended the six stories.

Within minutes the floor was coated in white.

The sheets of paper were prescriptions, made out by a “Robert Sackler, MD,”

to a Solomon R. Guggenheim,

for eighty-milligram pills of OxyContin, to be taken twenty-four times a day.

Each script contained a quotation:

“If OxyContin is uncontrolled, it is highly likely that it will eventually be abused . . .

How substantially would it improve our sales?”

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5c604ef64eb6353e6d6700ee/master/w_1626,c_limit/Gessen-GoldinSacklerProtest-Secondary2.jpg

staged actions at

the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

the Smithsonian, and

Harvard University’s art museums, which, like

the Guggenheim,

accept donations from the Sackler family.

The Guggenheim’s education center bears the Sackler name,

as does the Metropolitan’s wing (http://www.sackler.org/arts/sacklerwing/) that houses the ancient Roman Temple of Dendur.

“Prescribed to you by the Sackler Family. OxyContin. Extremely addictive. will kill. . . . Rx# 400,000 dead.”

“Side effect: Death.”

“400,000 dead,”

“shame on sackler,”

“200 dead each day,” and

“take down their name.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/nan-goldin-leads-a-protest-at-the-guggenheim-against-the-sackler-family?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_021019&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6795524c17c1048022fcc&user_id=43758549&utm_term=TNY_Daily

No word if Kelly Anne Conway was protester

[boutons_deux]

The USA as a successful society

The U.S. Has the Highest Overdose Death Rate of Any Wealthy Nation

A new study has found that there are, on average,

3.5 times more drug-related deaths in the United States than in 17 other wealthy countries

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/us-has-highest-overdose-death-rate-any-wealthy-nation-180971559/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_ campaign=20190225-daily-responsive&spMailingID=38974570&spUserID=NjY0ODU0NTQ2Mzk1S0&spJobID=1462223879&spReportId=MTQ2MjIyMzg3OQS2

[Millennial_Messiah]

The problem is the users more so than the suppliers. The Reagan administration only tried to stomp out all the suppliers, but the real way to give such an initiative teeth is to go after the users... mandatory 15 year hard sentence for using, no exceptions for anyone 18+.

If a business doesn't have a customer base, it can't operate... basic economics?

[SpursforSix]

The problem is the users more so than the suppliers. The Reagan administration only tried to stomp out all the suppliers, but the real way to give such an initiative teeth is to go after the users... mandatory 15 year hard sentence for using, no exceptions for anyone 18+.

If a business doesn't have a customer base, it can't operate... basic economics?

you're an idiot

[CosmicCowboy]

The problem is the users more so than the suppliers. The Reagan administration only tried to stomp out all the suppliers, but the real way to give such an initiative teeth is to go after the users... mandatory 15 year hard sentence for using, no exceptions for anyone 18+.

If a business doesn't have a customer base, it can't operate... basic economics?

Duterte, is that you?

[Millennial_Messiah]

Duterte, is that you?

He's right though. Either you have a laissez faire stance or drugs or you have a Duterte stance. Those are the only 2 ways that make sense. Anything in the middle is folly, useless, expensive, circular and never-ending.

[boutons_deux]

OxyContin Maker Settles Opioid Crisis Lawsuit With Oklahoma For $270 Million

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/oxycontin-oklahoma-opioid-crisis-settlement?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Repug shithole OK keeps the money, victims' families get nothing

[boutons_deux]

Doctor Who Championed Opioids for Years Flips on Pharma Ghouls to Save His Own Ass (https://gizmodo.com/doctor-who-championed-opioids-for-years-flips-on-pharma-1833894797)

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--_tAtN2s6--/c_scale,dpr_2.0,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/d1guupdj37i2miasgz95.png


A doctor who was an early advocate for the use of opioids for the treatment chronic pain now says pharmaceutical companies pushing opioids have created an epidemic—one that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.

Of course, he’s doing it to get out of being sued.

About a decade ago, Dr. Russell Portenoy was one of the leading voices supporting the use of opioids.

Portenoy was, as he claims, shilling for opioid makers. But during his pro-Opioid days, in a 2008 Q&A with Health. (https://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20189630,00.html)com, he responded to question about whether opioids should be a “last resort” by saying,

“No. Opioids should be considered for every patient with chronic, moderate to severe pain...”

“There is a growing literature showing that these drugs can be used for a long time, with few side effects.”

Portenoy has referred to opioids as a“gift from nature” that needs to be destigmatized, due to “opiophobia.”

Portenoy also spoke in videos and at conferences paid for by opioid manufacturers,

pharmaceutical companies compensated Portenoy during the years when he was speaking out against “opiophobia.”

he was having “second thoughts. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324478304578173342657044604)”

“I gave innumerable lectures in the late 1980s and ‘90s about addiction that weren’t true.” :lol but LUCRATIVE

https://gizmodo.com/doctor-who-championed-opioids-for-years-flips-on-pharma-1833894797

The corruption of America BigCorp and oligarchy is Death To America for Capitalists' profit

[boutons_deux]

Opioid Epidemic May Have Cost U.S. Governments $37.8 Billion In Tax Revenue

The opioid epidemic may have cost U.S. state and federal governments up to $37.8 billion in lost tax revenue due to opioid-related employment loss, according to Penn State researchers.

Additionally, the researchers found that Pennsylvania was one of the states with the most lost revenue, with approximately $638.2 million lost to income and sales tax. The study looked at data between 2000 and 2016.

estimated that in 2016 there were nearly 2.1 million Americans with an opioid use disorder, and approximately

64,000 deaths were the result of an opioid overdose.

there were 2,235 opioid-related overdose deaths*** in Pennsylvania alone.

t from 2000 to 2016, there was an estimated

decline of 1.6 million participants in the labor force,

with about 68,000 of those in Pennsylvania.

There were about 180,000 overdose deaths, with approximately 6,100 occurring in Pennsylvania.

Additionally, the researchers estimated losses of $11.8 billion to state governments and $26 billion to the federal government in tax revenue due to reductions in the labor force.

For state governments, this included lost sales tax and income tax revenue. Losses to the federal government were entirely due to lost income tax revenue.

https://scienceblog.com/507281/opioid-epidemic-may-have-cost-u-s-governments-37-8-billion-in-tax-revenue/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogrssfeed+%28Science Blog.com%29 (https://scienceblog.com/507281/opioid-epidemic-may-have-cost-u-s-governments-37-8-billion-in-tax-revenue/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogrssfeed+%28Science Blog.com%29)

[Winehole23]

Trump Administration goes after harm reduction in Philly and Seattle:


Two major U.S. cities are trying to open facilities to save drug users’ lives, but the Trump administration is trying to stop them, arguing the facilities are no different than crack houses.

Seattle and Philadelphia plan to curb overdose deaths by opening facilities where drug users can ingest illicit substances like heroin under medical supervision. So-called overdose prevention sites are part of a strategy that seeks to reduce harm from drug use. The facilities were first popularized in Western Europe and have made their way to Canada and now potentially the U.S. While controversial and seemingly counterintuitive, over 100 such facilities currently operate in several countries, and public health experts (https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR1261.html) consider them a staple of a robust strategy to prevent overdoses. Even Vice President Mike Pence, when he was Indiana’s governor during an HIV outbreak, implemented a similar program to distribute fresh syringes to prevent new infections.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-justice-department-goes-after-seattle-philadelphia-overdose-prevention-sites-as-crack-houses

[boutons_deux]

Trump Emphasizes Faith-Based Initiatives in Fighting Opioid Crisis

Trump highlighted faith-based initiatives as a major part in the administration’s efforts to resolve the epidemic of opioid abuse in the country,

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-emphasizes-faith-based-initiatives-in-fighting-opioid-crisis_2893451.html (https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-emphasizes-faith-based-initiatives-in-fighting-opioid-crisis_2893451.html)

Thoughts and Prayers, like the Drug War, NEVER fail, and they are free, a lot cheaper than the govt getting organized, funded, staffed to help drug abusers.

[boutons_deux]

Trump says he is holding big Pharma accountable in opioid fight :lol

“We are holding big Pharma accountable,” Trump said at the Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta. :lol

Deaths from opioid overdose in the United States jumped 17 percent in 2017 from a year earlier to more than 49,000 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Deaths from potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl surged 45 percent in that time,

U.S. health officials said they will spend $350 million in four states to study ways to best deal with the opioid crisis on the local level,

Trump’s remarks that his

proposed Medicaid cuts and efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, could make the opioid problem worse.

Trump has used the crisis to support his call for building a wall on the border with Mexico, :lol

saying it would help keep out heroin and other illegal drugs and curb the crisis.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-opioids/trump-says-he-is-holding-big-pharma-accountable-in-opioid-fight-idUSKCN1S016A?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F +US+%2F+Top+News%29 (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-opioids/trump-says-he-is-holding-big-pharma-accountable-in-opioid-fight-idUSKCN1S016A?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F +US+%2F+Top+News%29)

[boutons_deux]

Following opioid suits, family behind deadly OxyContin squabbles

will need to agree among themselves how much to pay.

U.S. communities are seeking billions of dollars in damages to address harm from opioids, and

settlement discussions will help determine how much money they get.

The lawsuits, which in recent months have targeted the Sacklers in addition to Purdue,

claim the family and company contributed to a public health crisis that claimed the lives of nearly 400,000 people between 1999 and 2017,

"we did not cause this complex public health crisis. "

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-purdue-pharma-oxycontin-family-insigh/following-opioid-suits-family-behind-deadly-oxycontin-squabbles-idUSKCN1SG1P7

[boutons_deux]

FIGHTING FENTANYL

Trump called the opioid epidemic a priority, but fentanyl deaths soar as resources fail to keep pace

“Treatment is where we need help. We keep hearing that money is coming, but we haven’t really seen it.”

The inmates here are at least alive — unlike so many drug users in this part of central Ohio, 40 miles southwest of Columbus.

Fayette County has the seventh-highest number of fentanyl overdose deaths per capita in the nation

people in communities across the country continue to die in record numbers from fentanyl, and

health officials are struggling to provide treatment for tens of thousands more, like the men and women warehoused inside this jail.

health policy experts say drug treatment funding is not nearly enough,

and the administration’s response was hobbled by the

failure to appoint a drug czar in its chaotic first year and

confusion over who was in charge of drug policy.

The depth of the problem continues to overwhelm the government’s response, and

the administration has yet to produce a comprehensive strategy that is legally required by Congress.

the Trump administration is still struggling to confront the deadliest drug crisis in U.S. history and

is not dedicating nearly enough federal resources.

“What other threat that is preventable is going to kill tens of thousands of Americans?” Walters said.

“We’re spending much more money on terrorism, as we should, but

we’re not spending a similar amount on the source of death to many more Americans right now.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/fentanyl-epidemic-trump-administration/?utm_term=.6269727d5e70&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/fentanyl-epidemic-trump-administration/?utm_term=.6269727d5e70&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1)

Fetanyl was invented in China, and China is a big supplier to USA

[boutons_deux]

scumbag BigPharma

Opening statements show pharma giant intends to shame addicts in first opioid trial

Johnson & Johnson used a video they did to show the personal responsibility of children who take prescription drugs recreationally.

The narrative J&J is pushing harkens back to an era of

labeling drug addicts as bad people who clearly did something bad and now must face the consequences.

the state compared J&J to Purdue Pharma, the creator of oxycontin/oxycodone, and using an aggressive marketing strategy to encourage doctors, surgeons, nurses and more medical professionals to use opioids, claiming they’re safe.

J&J attorneys explained that they don’t market opioids to children or any minors. They’re right,

what they did was encourage doctors to prescribe opioids to young people (https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2019/05/24/peds.2018-1578?sso=1&sso_redirect_count=2&nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=&nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token) as part of a campaign around Spring Break.

“For sprains and strains,” opioids could be given to youth, J&J argued.

big pharma suggests that like cigarettes, no one ever forced people to use opioids.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/opening-statements-show-pharma-giant-intends-to-shame-addicts-in-first-opioid-trial/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/opening-statements-show-pharma-giant-intends-to-shame-addicts-in-first-opioid-trial/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

[boutons_deux]

400,000 dead

“WE DIDN’T CAUSE THE CRISIS”: DAVID SACKLER PLEADS HIS CASE ON THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC


https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5d093eb163b7965a3850ed9a/16:9/w_1280%2Cc_limit/201908-Sackler-tout.jpg

Since OxyContin came on the market in 1996,

more than 400,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses—

including some 200,000 from prescription versions of the drug.

Millions more continue to struggle with addiction, and

entire communities have been devastated by the epidemic.

A lawsuit filed by Massachusetts—the first to name the Sacklers—

paints a picture of an almost impossibly venal family who continued to push sales of longer-lasting, higher-dose prescriptions of OxyContin long

after it was clear that both increase the risk for addiction.

Since 2008, the Sacklers have made $4 billion from Purdue,

most of it in the form of profits from opioids.

“Eight people in a single family,” the Massachusetts suit alleges, “made the choices that caused much of the opioid epidemic.”

Between 1991 and 1997, the number of opioid prescriptions increased from 76 million to 97 million.

But Purdue went all-out to sell OxyContin, which consisted of a pure concentration of oxycodone, to doctors and consumers:

In its first six years on the market, according to the General Accounting Office, Purdue spent up to 12 times more promoting OxyContin than it had MS Contin.

“They were pushing this just as this patient-centered culture around pain came into vogue, and providers were more hesitant to deny people prescriptions.”

In the five years after OxyContin came on the market, the annual number of prescriptions soared from 670,000 to more than 6 million.

Sales of the drug, meanwhile, rocketed to more than $1 billion.

the marketing claim, endorsed by the Food and Drug Administration, that OxyContin was less prone to abuse because of its extended-release formula.

In fact, the timed-release tablets turned out to be more prone to abuse, in part because they packed more opioids into each pill. T

he inconvenient truth, as the FDA noted in 2010, was that

“the risk for misuse and abuse is greater” for extended-release opioids.

claim—that less than 1 percent of patients taking OxyContin would become addicted—was based not on a peer-reviewed study, but on

a five- sentence letter to The New England Journal of Medicine published in January 1980.

drug companies misrepresented [the claim] in their marketing campaigns pushing opioids as non-addictive.

the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences, considered the risk for addiction to be very minimal.

“Narcotic addiction,” the textbook states flatly, “occurs rarely, or not at all, in patients receiving narcotics for medical use.”

the evidence that Sackler cites does not appear to be supported by any truly substantive science.

Some of the material, in fact, is sourced to the original letter from The New England Journal of Medicine.

A recent study found that the letter has been cited more than 600 times by other scholars—a widespread pattern of “inaccurate citation”

that “contributed to the North American opioid crisis.”

“Just about anyone who takes opioids for long enough, and at high enough doses, can get addicted,”

the debate over the precise level of addiction rates obscures a broader truth: OxyContin is a so-called Schedule II drug, which means that it is known to have a “high potential for abuse.”

The FDA, for its part, acknowledges that it contributed to the epidemic.

the scope of the epidemic reflects many past mistakes and many parties who missed opportunities to stem the crisis, including the FDA.” :lol non-intervention in the free market :lol

Aggressively marketing the drug as not addictive and then saying we warned you it’s addictive is a very dark version of trying to have your cake and eat it too.

if you understand that some percentage of patients are going to get addicted, then by definition

you understand that the more pills you sell, the more addiction there’s going to be.

And there were a lot more pills.

Instead of trying to limit the supply,

Purdue pushed hard to expand it.

From 1996 to 2000, according to the General Accounting Office, the company

more than doubled its internal sales force,

recruited and trained more than 5,000 doctors, pharmacists, and nurses to help tout the benefits of OxyContin,

handed out free 30-day prescriptions to new patients, and

targeted its marketing efforts to doctors who were the highest prescribers of opioids.

United States, which represents less than 5 percent of the world’s population, was consuming more than 80 percent of the world’s opioids.

One thing the company did was place much of the responsibility for the crisis not on the drug itself, but on its users.

“They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/david-sackler-pleads-his-case-on-the-opioid-epidemic?mbid=nl_th_5d0814a076711f06de7fe700&CNDID=43758549&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=VF_Hive_061919&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6795524c17c1048022fcc&cndid=43758549&hasha=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031&hashb=542eb31d958e85ddd5a4c3ccf3faae18526a77bd&hashc=54b3612ab970ce13a64a16665b1987080ca5b72e2ee7 62b722fbba6ab378f2f5&esrc=bounceX&utm_campaign=VF_Hive_061919&utm_term=VYF_Hive&verso=true (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/david-sackler-pleads-his-case-on-the-opioid-epidemic?mbid=nl_th_5d0814a076711f06de7fe700&CNDID=43758549&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=VF_Hive_061919&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6795524c17c1048022fcc&cndid=43758549&hasha=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031&hashb=542eb31d958e85ddd5a4c3ccf3faae18526a77bd&hashc=54b3612ab970ce13a64a16665b1987080ca5b72e2ee7 62b722fbba6ab378f2f5&esrc=bounceX&utm_campaign=VF_Hive_061919&utm_term=VYF_Hive&verso=true)

[boutons_deux]

Just another way America is fucking itself

76 billion opioid pills:

Newly released federal data unmasks the epidemic

America’s largest drug companies saturated the country with 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills from 2006 through 2012 as the nation’s deadliest drug epidemic spun out of control,

Just six companies distributed 75 percent of the pills during this period:
McKesson Corp.,
Walgreens,
Cardinal Health,
AmerisourceBergen,
CVS and
Walmart

Three companies manufactured 88 percent of the opioids:
SpecGx, a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt;
#Actavis Pharma; and
Par Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals.

Purdue Pharma, which the plaintiffs allege sparked the epidemic in the 1990s with its introduction of OxyContin, its version of oxycodone, was ranked fourth among manufacturers with about 3 percent of the market.

The volume of the pills handled by the companies skyrocketed as the epidemic surged,

increasing about 51 percent from 8.4 billion in 2006 to 12.6 billion in 2012.

The database reveals

what each company knew about the number of pills it was shipping and dispensing and

precisely when they were aware of those volumes,

year by year,

town by town.

In case after case, the companies allowed the drugs to reach the streets of communities large and small,

despite persistent red flags that those pills were being sold in apparent violation of federal law

and diverted to the black market, according to the lawsuits.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/76-billion-opioid-pills-newly-released-federal-data-unmasks-the-epidemic/2019/07/16/5f29fd62-a73e-11e9-86dd-d7f0e60391e9_story.html?utm_term=.24fe9627339c&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/76-billion-opioid-pills-newly-released-federal-data-unmasks-the-epidemic/2019/07/16/5f29fd62-a73e-11e9-86dd-d7f0e60391e9_story.html?utm_term=.24fe9627339c&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1)

Profits, amassing endless wealth, are Capitalism's only priority, diseased, dead people and planet Do Not Compute

Never Fear, Kelly Anne Conway is on the case

[Chucho]

I'm in the midst of an opiod crisis myself. I've no more Vicodin. FML.

[Spurminator]

“WE DIDN’T CAUSE THE CRISIS”

"It was always burnin' since the world's been turnin'"

[Chucho]

"It was always burnin' since the world's been turnin'"
[/B][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]

+2. :lol

[boutons_deux]

People Are Overdosing on Wasp Spray in West Virginia

Several people in a county in West Virginia recently overdosed from wasp spray, which they used as an alternative to methamphetamine (https://www.livescience.com/60222-methamphetamine-stroke-risk.html),

Police in Boone County say they've seen a rise in residents abusing wasp spray to achieve a meth-like high

"People are making a synthetic type [of] methamphetamine out of wasp spray,"

The practice is known as "wasping," and it has emerged as a concerning drug trend in recent years,

People can crystallize the spray liquid on hot metal sheets, which allows the substance to be inhaled or injected,

Bug sprays (https://www.livescience.com/62090-how-smoking-bug-spray-affects-health.html) contain active ingredients called pyrethroids, which stun and kill insects; but in humans, the chemicals can interfere with nerve signaling, which can lead to abnormal sensations, and in some cases, seizures or paralysis

The chemicals can also lead to increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, headache, nausea, problems with coordination, and swelling and burning sensations.

https://www.livescience.com/65954-wasp-spray-overdose-meth.html?utm_source=ls-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190717-ls (https://www.livescience.com/65954-wasp-spray-overdose-meth.html?utm_source=ls-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190717-ls)

[boutons_deux]

Drilling into the DEA’s pain pill database

For the first time, a database maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States — by manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies in every town and city — has been made public.

<interactive map by county, pills per person>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/dea-pain-pill-database/?utm_term=.6ea1a3a99613&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/dea-pain-pill-database/?utm_term=.6ea1a3a99613&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1)

[boutons_deux]

Internal drug company emails show indifference to opioid epidemic

Victor Borelli, a national account manager for Mallinckrodt, told Steve Cochrane, the vice president of sales for KeySource Medical, to check his inventories and

“if you are low, order more.

If you are okay, order a little more, Capesce?”

Then Borelli joked, “destroy this email. . .Is that really possible? Oh Well. . .”

Previously, Borelli used the phrase “ship, ship, ship” to describe his job.

the companies had inundated the nation with 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pills from 2006 through 2012.

some drug company employees as driven by profits :lol

and undeterred by the knowledge that their products were wreaking havoc across the country.

“Keep ’em comin’!” Cochrane responded.

“Flyin’ out of there.

It’s like people are addicted to these things or something.

Oh, wait, people are. . .”
Borelli responded: “Just like Doritos keep eating. We’ll make more.”

Borelli and Cochrane did not return calls for comment Friday night. :lol

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/internal-drug-company-emails-show-indifference-to-opioid-epidemic-ship-ship-ship/2019/07/19/003d58f6-a993-11e9-a3a6-ab670962db05_story.html?utm_term=.6e7736415b56&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/internal-drug-company-emails-show-indifference-to-opioid-epidemic-ship-ship-ship/2019/07/19/003d58f6-a993-11e9-a3a6-ab670962db05_story.html?utm_term=.6e7736415b56&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1)

unregulated Capitalism's for-profit-chasing-at-any-and-all-costs is Beautiful

[koriwhat]

I'm in the midst of an opiod crisis myself. I've no more Vicodin. FML.

you're in california, right? find some dispensary that has legit "platinumOG" (strong indica). :tu

i've never been one for pills and am almost at the point of quitting bud altogether but that strain i mentioned works wonders for sleep and pain. until i found that strain i thought "medical marijuana" was straight bullshit.

ps: purple panda(high in CBD) in high dosage edibles works wonders too.

[boutons_deux]

Bexar County’s $1 Billion Opioid Suit Set for Trial in 2020

https://therivardreport.com/bexar-countys-1-billion-opioid-suit-set-for-trial-in-2020/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_content=editorial&utm_term=health&utm_source=Rivard+Report&utm_campaign=844700a4ea-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_21_07_19_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1576c62124-844700a4ea-84683437&mc_cid=844700a4ea&mc_eid=54a5432c74

[boutons_deux]

The Brazen Way a Chinese Company Pumped Fentanyl Ingredients Into the U.S.

Yuancheng used an army of young, perky salespeople to peddle illegal chemicals to Americans.

the two most commonly used fentanyl precursors—think of them as ingredients—are

chemicals called NPP and 4-ANPP.

“More is sold to Mexico.”

This isn’t surprising, since most illicit fentanyl used in America, where 32,000 people died (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/07/19/fentanyl-cocaine-meth-overdoses-opioid-prescription-epidemic/1769490001/) from fentanyl last year, comes through Mexico.

Mexican cartels lack trained chemists to make fentanyl from scratch,

so they buy precursors in bulk from China.

After that, making finished fentanyl is simple.

Yuancheng has sold more of the NPP and 4-ANPP used illicitly than any other company.

It has done so not through secret underground networks or terrorist cells, but over the internet, using an army of young, perky sales representatives.

Posting cheeky job advertisements on the internet and offering employees free cellphones,

it’s a poison factory operating in plain sight.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/08/chinese-company-helping-fuel-opioid-epidemic/596254/ (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/08/chinese-company-helping-fuel-opioid-epidemic/596254/)

[boutons_deux]

Fentanyl is of course synthetic

Synthetic Drugs Will Change the Global Drug Trade Forever

Drug traffickers thrive on their ability to penetrate national borders,

but a new era of toxic, man-made highs could dissolve those boundaries and transform the global drug trade.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gyzx57/synthetic-drugs-could-change-the-global-drug-trade-forever-v26n3?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_747513

[boutons_deux]

a tiny hit on their opioid profits

Drugmaker Endo to pay $10 million to settle opioid case ahead of trial

in a landmark case by two Ohio counties accusing various drug manufacturers and distributors of fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic.

agreed to provide up to $1 million of two of its drug products free of charge. :lol mfr cost: $100 :lol

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-opioids-litigation/drugmaker-endo-to-pay-10-million-to-settle-opioid-case-ahead-of-trial-idUSKCN1VA1FU?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-opioids-litigation/drugmaker-endo-to-pay-10-million-to-settle-opioid-case-ahead-of-trial-idUSKCN1VA1FU?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews)

[boutons_deux]

Purdue Pharma 'offers up to $12bn' to settle opioid cases

Purdue Pharma, the opioid drug-maker owned by the billionaire Sackler family, is reported to be

offering between $10bn and $12bn to settle thousands of lawsuits against it.

The firm is facing over 2,000 lawsuits linked to its painkiller OxyContin.

Purdue told the BBC it was "actively working" towards a "global resolution" but would not comment on the amount.

NBC, which first reported the news, (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/purdue-pharma-offers-10-12-billion-settle-opioid-claims-n1046526)said the settlement would involve the Sacklers giving up ownership of Purdue. :lol they keepy $Bs :lol

The firm said in a statement:

"While Purdue Pharma is prepared to defend itself vigorously in the opioid litigation, the company has made clear that it sees little good coming from years of wasteful litigation and appeals." :lol fucking lawyers

Purdue is one of 22 opioid makers, distributors and pharmacies named in over 2,000 cases which are due to go to trial in October.

The cases, which have been bought by states, cities and counties, allege the company used deceptive practices to sell opioids and is responsible for fuelling an opioid addiction crisis in the US.

On average, 130 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The firm has said that the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, approved labels for OxyContin that had warnings about the risks. :lol

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49491307 (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49491307)

But beware the Muslim ISIS terrorists! They gonna kill us all!

[Thread]

Purdue Pharma 'offers up to $12bn' to settle opioid cases

Purdue Pharma, the opioid drug-maker owned by the billionaire Sackler family, is reported to be

offering between $10bn and $12bn to settle thousands of lawsuits against it.

The firm is facing over 2,000 lawsuits linked to its painkiller OxyContin.

Purdue told the BBC it was "actively working" towards a "global resolution" but would not comment on the amount.

NBC, which first reported the news, (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/purdue-pharma-offers-10-12-billion-settle-opioid-claims-n1046526)said the settlement would involve the Sacklers giving up ownership of Purdue. :lol they keepy $Bs :lol

The firm said in a statement:

"While Purdue Pharma is prepared to defend itself vigorously in the opioid litigation, the company has made clear that it sees little good coming from years of wasteful litigation and appeals." :lol fucking lawyers

Purdue is one of 22 opioid makers, distributors and pharmacies named in over 2,000 cases which are due to go to trial in October.

The cases, which have been bought by states, cities and counties, allege the company used deceptive practices to sell opioids and is responsible for fuelling an opioid addiction crisis in the US.

On average, 130 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The firm has said that the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, approved labels for OxyContin that had warnings about the risks. :lol

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49491307 (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49491307)

But beware the Muslim ISIS terrorists! They gonna kill us all!




I'm white but, it's nonsense. When the blacks were doing their crack into the slammer they went one-by-one, no parole allowed, no rehab, no cryin' & moanin' over it, no President standing up for them.

Now all these white people are going to get checks & free medical shit.
& the poor schnook who needs a good pain reliever at times will play hell getting it. You know what they give you?,,a gigantic Aleve. Well, fuck that. I can take 5 over the counter little Aleve's that would equal that giant one I have to get a script for.

The old man is wrong on thisPERIOD

[FrostKing]

Crack makes individuals aggressive. More prone to violent crime.

[dabom6]

Lawsuits filed by more than 2,000 state, local and tribal governments have cast Purdue as a chief villain in an overdose crisis that has killed more than 400,000 people in the U.S. since 2000.

Holy fucking shit balls. :wow

[Thread]

Crack makes individuals aggressive. More prone to violent crime.

The difference twixt black & white.

& Media stood down on this one.

[boutons_deux]

Lawsuits filed by more than 2,000 state, local and tribal governments have cast Purdue as a chief villain in an overdose crisis that has killed more than 400,000 people in the U.S. since 2000.

Holy fucking shit balls. :wow

Actually, there are MANY suppliers of opioids, and I bet some of the smaller ones will declare bankruptcy

[Trill Clinton]

I'm white but, it's nonsense. When the blacks were doing their crack into the slammer they went one-by-one, no parole allowed, no rehab, no cryin' & moanin' over it, no President standing up for them.

Now all these white people are going to get checks & free medical shit.
& the poor schnook who needs a good pain reliever at times will play hell getting it. You know what they give you?,,a gigantic Aleve. Well, fuck that. I can take 5 over the counter little Aleve's that would equal that giant one I have to get a script for.

The old man is wrong on thisPERIOD

I agree.

[boutons_deux]

"When the blacks were doing their crack into the slammer they went one-by-one, no parole allowed, no rehab, no cryin' & moanin' over it,"

Going back to the 1930s and Harry Anslinger and now keeping mj as Schedule I, the Drug War has always been White Males locking up blacks and browns (and anti-war hippies under Repug Tricky Dick).

Repeat daily: America is and ALWAYS has been about White (Christian) Male Supremacists oppressing non-whites and non-males.

[Trill Clinton]

"When the blacks were doing their crack into the slammer they went one-by-one, no parole allowed, no rehab, no cryin' & moanin' over it,"

Going back to the 1930s and Harry Anslinger and now keeping mj as Schedule I, the Drug War has always been White Males locking up blacks and browns (and anti-war hippies under Repug Tricky Dick).

Repeat daily: America is and ALWAYS has been about White (Christian) Male Supremacists oppressing non-whites and non-males.




Yup

[Thread]

"When the blacks were doing their crack into the slammer they went one-by-one, no parole allowed, no rehab, no cryin' & moanin' over it,"

Going back to the 1930s and Harry Anslinger and now keeping mj as Schedule I, the Drug War has always been White Males locking up blacks and browns (and anti-war hippies under Repug Tricky Dick).

Repeat daily: America is and ALWAYS has been about White (Christian) Male Supremacists oppressing non-whites and non-males.




& blacks ain't no slouches. They've been busting whitey hiney over a 1/2-a-century.

That driver, that truck driver in Los Angeles during the riots. Fucked him all up.

There's more.

[boutons_deux]

Louisiana congressman’s pharmacies sold 1.5 million opioids to towns with population of 6,000 people

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Ralph-Abraham.jpg

Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA) has been caught selling a huge number of opioid pills in two very small Louisiana towns in his district, scoring big profits.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/louisiana-congressmans-pharmacies-sold-1-5-million-opioids-to-towns-with-population-of-6000-people/ (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/louisiana-congressmans-pharmacies-sold-1-5-million-opioids-to-towns-with-population-of-6000-people/)

[Thread]

Louisiana congressman’s pharmacies sold 1.5 million opioids to towns with population of 6,000 people

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Ralph-Abraham.jpg

Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA) has been caught selling a huge number of opioid pills in two very small Louisiana towns in his district, scoring big profits.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/louisiana-congressmans-pharmacies-sold-1-5-million-opioids-to-towns-with-population-of-6000-people/ (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/louisiana-congressmans-pharmacies-sold-1-5-million-opioids-to-towns-with-population-of-6000-people/)




The perps who forced white to ingest these opioids should be brought to justice en mass, toot sweet.

[boutons_deux]

INSIDE THE DRUG INDUSTRY’S PLAN TO DEFEAT THE DEA

Faced with pressure to curtail suspicious opioid shipments, an alliance fought back with every weapon at its disposal

How were drug companies able to weaken the federal government's most powerful enforcement weapon at the height of the crisis?

The industry enlisted members of Congress to limit the powers of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

It devised “tactics” to push back against the agency.

And it commissioned a “Crisis Playbook” to burnish its image and

blame the federal government for not doing enough to stop the epidemic.

In 2016, the drug companies convinced members of Congress and Obama administration officials

to rein in the DEA and force the agency to treat them as “partners” in efforts to solve the crisis.

The crowning achievement of the companies was a piece of legislation known as the “Marino bill,”

curbed the DEA’s ability to immediately suspend the operations of drug companies that failed to follow the law.

the full story has never been told

declined to be interviewed

Tom Marino (R-Pa.), who first proposed the bill;

former acting DEA administrator Chuck Rosenberg, whose agency surrendered to the pressure;

former attorney general Loretta E. Lynch, whose department did not stand in the way of the legislation; and,

finally, then-President Barack Obama, who signed it into law.

Beginning in 2006, the DEA went after drug distributors and pharmacies for failing to report suspicious orders of millions of opioid pills that spilled into the black market.

Over the next decade, the

DEA brought two dozen enforcement cases and forced the companies to pay $500 million in fines.

Executives of the nation’s largest drug manufacturers and distributors were alarmed.

“The DEA is now hammering all of us,” Ann Berkey, then a senior vice president of McKesson Corp.,
etc, etc

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/drug-industry-plan-to-defeat-dea/?noredirect=on&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/drug-industry-plan-to-defeat-dea/?noredirect=on&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1)

Just another example of the oligarchy corrupting govt to enable/enrich/protect itself,

which in this case enabled the deaths of 100Ks of Americans.

[boutons_deux]

The Oligarchy Strikes BAAACK.

Fuck the law, oligarchy rules, OK

Drug companies seek removal of judge in landmark opioid case

Drug industry lawyers facing more than 2,000 lawsuits over their alleged roles in the opioid epidemic

demanded Saturday that the federal judge overseeing the case step aside,

questioning his impartiality because he has consistently urged both sides to settle the case. :lol

The request comes after a series of stinging rulings against the companies by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in the historic trial slated to begin Oct. 21.

“Defendants do not bring this motion lightly,” the lawyers wrote in a filing this morning

on behalf of the some of the biggest drug distributors and retailers in the nation

but which did not include drug makers.

“Taken as a whole and viewed objectively, the record clearly demonstrates that recusal is necessary.”

The defense lawyers said Polster has overstepped his authority,

saying from the start that he wants the sides to settle the case

so that money for badly-needed drug treatment, overdose prevention and other services

could be sent quickly to communities hardest hit by the opioid epidemic.

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/health/drug-companies-seek-removal-of-judge-in-landmark-opioid-case/2019/09/14/1609f69a-d6f6-11e9-9343-40db57cf6abd_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

Can murderous, criminal BigPharma out-lawyer the Federal judiciary?

I'm guessing corporate whore Barr and/or SCOTUS whores-in-robes will be on BigPharma's side

[boutons_deux]

Alarming number of heart infections tied to opioid epidemic

An alarming number of people nationwide are developing infections of either the heart's inner lining or valves, known as infective endocarditis, in large part, due to the current opioid epidemic.

This new trend predominantly affects

young, white, poor men who also have higher rates of HIV, hepatitis C and alcohol abuse :lol Trash's cult mob!

Infective endocarditis occurs when bacteria or fungi in the blood stream enter the heart's inner lining or valves.

One of the major risk factors for infective endocarditis is drug abuse.

"Infective endocarditis related to drug abuse is a nationwide epidemic,"

the prevalence ratio for drug-abuse-related heart infections nearly doubled in the United States, from 8% to 16%.

All geographic regions saw increases, and

the highest jump occurred in the Midwest

at nearly 5% per year.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/aha-ano091319.php

Whatzamatta with these red state kids?

Don't they know Trash has made their America Great Again?

Fantastic, well-funded public educations, affordable college, even affordable trade schools, plenty of good jobs with futures. Trash has provided it all.

[boutons_deux]

Purdue Pharma, facing thousands of lawsuits and bankruptcy,

wants to pay ‘certain employees’ $34 million in bonuses

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-facing-thousands-lawsuits-bankruptcy-wants-pay-certain-employees-million-bonuses/?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-facing-thousands-lawsuits-bankruptcy-wants-pay-certain-employees-million-bonuses/?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1)

[boutons_deux]

Sacklers threaten to scrap opioid deal if they aren’t shielded from lawsuits

Sacklers seek "the benefit of bankruptcy without the burdens of bankruptcy."

Lawyers for OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma filed a new complaint late Wednesday threatening that the company’s mega-rich owners,

the Sackler family, could pull out of a proposed multi-billion-dollar opioid settlement deal (https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/purdue-sacklers-offering-10-12-billion-to-settle-2000-opioid-cases-report/)

if a bankruptcy judge doesn’t shield the family from outstanding state lawsuits.

Purdue’s lawyers argue that if the lawsuits continue,

the Sacklers will have to waste “hundreds of millions of dollars” on legal costs that could otherwise go to claimants in the settlement.

The family's lawyers added that in that event,

the family “may be unwilling—or unable—to make the billions of dollars of contributions” to the proposed settlement.

State attorneys general, however, argue that

the tactic is yet another move designed to shield the Sacklers and their ill-gotten wealth.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/09/sacklers-threaten-to-scrap-opioid-deal-if-they-arent-shielded-from-lawsuits/ (https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/09/sacklers-threaten-to-scrap-opioid-deal-if-they-arent-shielded-from-lawsuits/)

[boutons_deux]

Sacklers gonna try to PR their way free

Purdue Hires PR Firm That Helped BP After Catastrophic 2010 Oil Spill


https://truthout.org/articles/purdue-hires-pr-firm-that-helped-bp-after-catastrophic-2010-oil-spill/ (https://truthout.org/articles/purdue-hires-pr-firm-that-helped-bp-after-catastrophic-2010-oil-spill/)

[boutons_deux]

Chilling report reveals how the DEA inflamed the opioid crisis

The DEA can’t justify why it authorized a 400%-plus increase in oxycodone production from 2002-2013

Even as fatal opioid overdoses surged dramatically across the country,

the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) authorized large increases in the production of painkillers,

The watchdog office described a DEA that was "slow to respond" to the opioid crisis, which has taken more than 400,000 lives over the past 20 years, according to government data.

"We found that the rate of opioid overdose deaths in the United States grew, on average, by 8 percent per year from 1999 through 2013 and by 71 percent per year from 2013 through 2017," the report said.

"Yet, from 2003 through 2013 DEA was authorizing manufacturers to produce substantially larger amounts of opioids."

The DEA, an arm of the Justice Department, is the federal agency that most directly oversees and regulates the production, distribution and administration of opioids.

It sets annual quotas for narcotics manufactured in the United States and investigates the illegal sales of prescription drugs.

Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general, noted the agency authorized a greater than 400% increase in oxycodone production between 2002 and 2013 — despite evidence that opioids were being overprescribed and frequently misused.

https://www.salon.com/2019/10/06/chilling-report-shows-how-the-dea-inflamed-the-opioid-crisis/ (https://www.salon.com/2019/10/06/chilling-report-shows-how-the-dea-inflamed-the-opioid-crisis/)

but mj is Schedule I and kills nobody.

My guess is that the opioid lobbyists got to, even paid, DEA to allow 400% increase in oxycodone production

[boutons_deux]

Rising heart infections tied to U.S. opioid epidemic

As the opioid epidemic continues in the U.S., more cases of an infection that damages the heart are being seen, researchers say.

Between 2002 and 2016, rates of infective endocarditis doubled,

with much of the increase occurring in young, poor, white men

who also tended to have higher rates of alcohol abuse, hepatitis C and HIV, the study authors report in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Infective endocarditis is a very serious infection ... that can lead to heart failure, valve destruction, stroke and even death,”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-heart-endocarditis-opioids/rising-heart-infections-tied-to-u-s-opioid-epidemic-idUSKBN1WM1Y6?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reute rs+Health+News%29

DEA aided and abetted enrichment of Sackler family and other opioid mfrs.

[CosmicCowboy]

I hate the way they group all the "opiod" deaths together. Why not list the suicides separately? They do the same shit with gun deaths. 61% of gun deaths are suicides. then how many are illegal heroin/Fentanyl OD's? Why not use the REAL number for prescription drug deaths?

[AaronY]

Rising heart infections tied to U.S. opioid epidemic

As the opioid epidemic continues in the U.S., more cases of an infection that damages the heart are being seen, researchers say.

Between 2002 and 2016, rates of infective endocarditis doubled,

with much of the increase occurring in young, poor, white men

who also tended to have higher rates of alcohol abuse, hepatitis C and HIV, the study authors report in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Infective endocarditis is a very serious infection ... that can lead to heart failure, valve destruction, stroke and even death,”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-heart-endocarditis-opioids/rising-heart-infections-tied-to-u-s-opioid-epidemic-idUSKBN1WM1Y6?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reute rs+Health+News%29

DEA aided and abetted enrichment of Sackler family and other opioid mfrs.



At what does personal responsibility ever come into play with anything for you boo?

[AaronY]

I hate the way they group all the "opiod" deaths together. Why not list the suicides separately? They do the same shit with gun deaths. 61% of gun deaths are suicides. then how many are illegal heroin/Fentanyl OD's? Why not use the REAL number for prescription drug deaths?
its annoying. Sadly as I've said in here before the Republican response to the crack epidemic was kind of racist in some ways and heartless but its true at the end of the day people need personal responsibility. There should definitely be programs to help these people but no one can help these people at the end of the day but themselves. i say racist because as soon as hillbilly white trash got hooked on opiates Republicans stopped lecturing drug users about personal responsibility.

[AaronY]

1069749124751388672

[boutons_deux]

Opioid Crisis Cost $631 Billion to U.S. Economy Over 4 Years

and it may keep getting more expensive,

The biggest driver of the cost over the four-year period is unrealized lifetime earnings of those who died from the drugs, followed by health care costs.governments bear less than one-third of the financial costs.

The rest of it affects individuals and the private sector. lives are lost to the opioid crisis (more than 400,000 Americans since 2000)

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/opioid-crisis-cost-631-billion-to-u-s-economy-over-4-years-study-says/ (https://www.truthdig.com/articles/opioid-crisis-cost-631-billion-to-u-s-economy-over-4-years-study-says/)

And Sacklers don't want to pay up without keeping themselves as billionaires.

How fucked up must a country be to allow 400K deaths while BigPharma rakes in $100Bs?

[boutons_deux]

Three drug distributors in talks to settle opioid litigation for $18 billion

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-opioids-litigation/three-drug-distributors-in-talks-to-settle-opioid-litigation-for-18-billion-wsj-idUSKBN1WU2SF?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

and the lawyers get how much?

[boutons_deux]

At height of crisis, Walgreens handled nearly one in five of the most addictive opioids

The company acted as its own distributor and, according to a lawsuit,

failed to report suspicious orders of pain pills and

prevent diversion to the black market.

Walgreens dominated the nation’s retail opioid market from 2006 through 2012, buying about 13 billion pills

— 3 billion more than CVS, its closest competitor,

Over those years, Walgreens more than doubled its purchases of oxycodone.

The company had “runaway growth” of oxycodone sales because

it continued to send pills to stores “without limit or review,”

Edward Bratton, Walgreens manager of

pharmaceutical integrity :lol oxymoron!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2019/11/07/height-crisis-walgreens-handled-nearly-one-five-most-addictive-opioids/?arc404=true

Narcos shoot up a few Mormons in MX, huge freakout.

BigPharma profits from 30,000 opioid deaths / year, yawn, that's just Capitalism

[boutons_deux]

How Chemists, Chinese Factories, and ‘Dark Web’ Dealers Spread Fentanyl Across the US

the Centers for Disease Control has called the “third wave” of the opioid crisis.

The Wizard of OxyContin—where is he now?

That nickname, revealed (https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/22/abbott-oxycontin-crusade/) in leaked documents, belonged to

an employee of Abbott Laboratories, which partnered with Purdue Pharmaceuticals to sell the drug.

Starting in the late 1990s, he and his colleagues canvassed clinics around the country, hard-selling doctors on their flagship product.

Purdue wooed doctors taught to distrust pain medications with steaks, vacations, and a stunning range of swag:

Oxy-branded clocks, pens, beach hats, even swing music compilations.

They were told that, unlike other opioids, OxyContin was addiction-proof;

its time-release coating assured a steady, measured dose and would thwart attempts at abuse.

Unmentioned by those reps—but known by their bosses from day one—was

the ease with which this coating could be removed.

As doctors began prescribing the drug in ever-larger numbers and Oxy’s sales soared into the billions,

this glitch would devastate families, ravage towns, and before long spark the worst drug crisis in US history.

Purdue eventually gestured toward fixing this problem, after 14 years of lucrative dithering.

In 2017, more than 47,000 Americans have died of opioid overdoses, the highest number on record.

the heroin available in the United States (along with fast-rising quantities of cocaine) was laced with fentanyl.

The advantage, for dealers, was price:

Fentanyl costs less than heroin and is easier to acquire.

It also happens to be 50 times more potent.

If Fentanyl, Inc. does have a primary antagonist, it’s the Chinese government.

Virtually all of the fentanyls that have flooded the United States in recent years have been manufactured in China,

where many NPS are legal, an arrangement that allows

legitimate businesses to churn them out on a scale inconceivable to illicit drug makers in North America.

This process has been heavily underwritten, as Westhoff demonstrates, by “lucrative tax incentives, subsidies, and direct financial support” from the Chinese government,

as part of its breakneck bid to expand the country’s biotechnology sector.https://www.thenation.com/article/fentanyl-inc-review/ (https://www.thenation.com/article/fentanyl-inc-review/)

[basquetbol]

I'm white but, it's nonsense. When the blacks were doing their crack into the slammer they went one-by-one, no parole allowed, no rehab, no cryin' & moanin' over it, no President standing up for them.

Now all these white people are going to get checks & free medical shit.
& the poor schnook who needs a good pain reliever at times will play hell getting it. You know what they give you?,,a gigantic Aleve. Well, fuck that. I can take 5 over the counter little Aleve's that would equal that giant one I have to get a script for.

The old man is wrong on thisPERIOD

Nothing in American history has ever affected black the same way as white.

Drug overdoses are good, one less junkie on the street willing to commit crime to get their next high.

[boutons_deux]

Few doctors can legally prescribe opioid-addiction drug

Fewer than one in 10 primary care providers in the U.S. can prescribe the opioid-addiction medication buprenorphine, and

access is even more scarce in rural counties hardest hit by overdoses

Since 2000, physicians have been able to seek waivers from the federal government to prescribe buprenorphine, seen as an alternative to methadone dispensed at federally approved clinics,

opioid deaths skyrocketed from about 16,500 per year to 46,000 per year,” McBain said by email. “So we see that need for treatment also ballooned.”

“The kind of doctor most people actually get to see is legally prohibited from offering the most accessible and effective form of treatment for opioid addiction,”

most of our health care workforce is not ready to treat a devastating and treatable disease is a tragedy that we need to fix.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-bruprenorphine-prescribing/few-doctors-can-legally-prescribe-opioid-addiction-drug-idUSKBN1Z528C?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reute rs+Health+News%29 (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-bruprenorphine-prescribing/few-doctors-can-legally-prescribe-opioid-addiction-drug-idUSKBN1Z528C?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reute rs+Health+News%29)

WTF has our wonderful opioid Czarina Kelly Ann Conway be up to?

I would not be surprised if corrupt BigOpioidMfr has been lobbying against wider availability of buprenorphine.

[boutons_deux]

Medicaid expansion associated with fewer opioid overdose deaths across the US

a six percent reduction in total opioid overdose deaths nationally,

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/nlh-mea010720.php (https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/nlh-mea010720.php)

So red states' refusal to expand Medicaid just to spite Obama was an act of manslaughter,

combined with higher mortality in non-Medicaid-expanded red states from all causes.

[Winehole23]

Sacklers settle for $225M ( they made $35 billion in cumulative oxycontin revenues by the end of 2017.)

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-global-resolution-criminal-and-civil-investigations-opioid

[Winehole23]

Mayo Pete's former employer, McKinsey, gave shady advice to Purdue Pharma and shredded records.

1332459989177425923

1332461470588805120

[boutons_deux]

The Sacklers’ Last Poison Pill

A trapdoor in the (Barr) Justice Department deal with the family’s company

might enable them to escape a full accounting of their part in the opioid epidemic.

As part of that plea, Purdue agreed to pay $8 billion to the United States. The Sacklers, who served on the board of directors and were characterized as Purdue’s “de facto C.E.O.” by a company executive,

agreed to pay $225 million in civil penalties, estimated to be about 2 percent of their wealth (https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2020-11-24.CBM%20to%20R.%20Sackler%20re%20Witness%20Invite .pdf).

the settlement contains a largely overlooked poison-pill provision:

If the Justice Department is unsatisfied with any reorganization plan proposed for Purdue, << Barr's choice

it can walk away from the settlement.

That could more than double its claims to $18 billion (https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-seeks-as-much-as-18-1-billion-from-purdue-pharma-11596595629), and

allow it to use its civil forfeiture powers to seize Purdue’s assets.

Nothing might then be left for opioid victims and other creditors.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/opinion/sackler-purdue-pharma-doj.html

So it's Barr's choice, in HIS deal, whether the Sacklers avoid punishment and victims get screwed.

More billionaires killing 100Ks of people for profit will be escaping punishment.

Meanwhile, Trash/Barr are rushing to kill as many poor people, in as many different ways (hanging, firing squad), who mostly killed one person, as fast as they can.

[Winehole23]

lost in the hullaballoo, the Sacklers and their representative testified in Congress this week. Rep. Katie Porter menaced them with the sharp stick of the law.

1339654052586553344

[Winehole23]

Guillotine watch:


https://i.imgur.com/jqKRMd7.gif


https://in.reuters.com/article/us-purdue-pharma-opioids-investigations/sacklers-cited-fear-of-oxycontin-lawsuits-before-transferring-10-billion-from-their-company-documents-show-idINKBN28V11Y

[boutons_deux]

In SFO, more dying of overdose than C19

"The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already difficult situation

by reducing access to life-saving treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support services,

while increased stress and isolation might increase the risk of addiction and substance use disorders (SUDs).2 (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32113-9/fulltext#bib2)

As of July, 2020, deaths from drug overdose in the USA rose by an estimated 13% in the first half of the year compared with 2019, according to data compiled from several local and state governments.

In some states, drug-related deaths climbed by over 30%.3 (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32113-9/fulltext#bib3)

The pandemic has also triggered an economic recession

that threatens the survival of some addiction treatment centres,4 (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32113-9/fulltext#bib4)
and

is expected to exacerbate social barriers such as housing instability,

which can further hinder treatment of SUDs."

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32113-9/fulltext#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20reported%20deaths% 20from,thirds%20of%20the%20total%20deaths.

[Winehole23]

Walmart is gonna get it in the shorts


The Justice Department sued the retail giant Walmart on Tuesday, accusing it of fueling the country's opioid crisis by inadequately screening thousands of dubious prescriptions and ignoring repeated warnings from its own pharmacists.

Walmart "knowingly violated well established rules requiring it to scrutinize controlled-substance prescriptions to ensure that they were valid" and required "pharmacists to process a high volume of prescriptions as fast as possible," the suit alleges (https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1347906/download).

By doing so, "Walmart profited by providing its pharmacies with unusually large quantities of controlled substances to sell, and from selling other products to customers who came to Walmart stores only because Walmart pharmacies would readily provide these controlled substances," according to the federal complaint.

The retailer's own compliance unit "collected voluminous information indicating that Walmart was routinely being asked to fill invalid controlled-substance prescriptions," but "that unit for years withheld that information from pharmacists and allowed them to continue dispensing opioids based on invalid prescriptions," the suit says.

Jeffrey Bossert Clark, the acting assistant attorney general of the civil division of the Justice Department, said on a call with reporters: "Walmart's pharmacies violated the law by filling thousands of prescriptions for controlled substances that Walmart's pharmacists knew were invalid.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/u-s-sues-walmart-alleged-role-fueling-opioid-crisis-n1252148 (https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/12/links-12-23-2020.html)

[boutons_deux]

Walmart is gonna get it in the shorts

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/u-s-sues-walmart-alleged-role-fueling-opioid-crisis-n1252148 (https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/12/links-12-23-2020.html)

walmart will spends $10Ms on lawyers and escape with handslap, at worst.

[Winehole23]

the federal Opioid settlement with Big Pharma is recoupable in taxes.

1360330838362050561

[boutons_deux]

Pharma executives mocked addicts as 'pillbillies'

as they drowned West Virginia in opiates

The emails were revealed by West Virginia prosecutor Paul Farrell Jr. in a trial against drug makers AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp., whose

executives mocked addicts as "pillbillies,"

"Watch out Georgia and Alabama, there will be a mass exodus of pillbillies heading north," ... after Florida passed legislation in 2011 cracking down on the pharmacies.

Other executives made up songs about Appalachian addicts

to the tune of "The Beverly Hillbillies" theme and

Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville,"

while a corporate investigator forwarded an email titled "Oxycontin for kids" showing a cereal box altered to read "SMACK."

https://www.rawstory.com/west-virginia-opiate-problem

100Ks dead Americans was BigPharma Capitalists' cause for condescending, ridiculing jokes

[SpursforSix]

100Ks dead Americans was BigPharma Capitalists' cause for condescending, ridiculing jokes




Small potatoes compared to alcohol/tobacco deaths. Not to mention poor nutrition.

[MultiTroll]

https://www.rawstory.com/west-virginia-opiate-problem

100Ks dead Americans was BigPharma Capitalists' cause for condescending, ridiculing jokes
:lol tRumps campaign promise to go after BigPharma.

Not that Sleepy Joe will do anything differently.

[boutons_deux]

Trump and Rudy Giuliani's ties to opioid crisis revealed by HBO 'The Crime of the Century' filmmaker

https://www.rawstory.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6I mh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjQwMDE2OS9vcmlnaW4 uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODQ1NDc0M30.wKwyk9NIl 8WhLqSohgmZhupGGUuEtFdsHFvZ6I1_5c8/image.jpg?width=1200&height=675

America's opioid crisis -- as bad as it continues to be -- was on the precipice of becoming much worse under the administration of former president Donald Trump.

both Trump's involvement and also linked former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to the crisis.

Trump's initial choice of Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) to head up the effort.

the guy who did more than anybody to eviscerate the DEA and

his ability to go after these companies that were flooding America, the opioids, of course,"

the ultimate blame is with the drug companies -- with Giuliani having a hand in the problem.

"Purdue gets its hand slapped, but doesn't have to endure any real punishment in 2006 because of a deal cut mysteriously. And nobody knows exactly who cut that deal at the Department of Justice," he reported.

"But Rudy Giuliani was, was a part of it.

And then it happens again in 2020 with this deal cut again at the Department of Justice where fines are paid, key facts are buried."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-opioid

[Thread]

Pharma executives mocked addicts as 'pillbillies'

as they drowned West Virginia in opiates

The emails were revealed by West Virginia prosecutor Paul Farrell Jr. in a trial against drug makers AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp., whose

executives mocked addicts as "pillbillies,"



"Watch out Georgia and Alabama, there will be a mass exodus of pillbillies heading north," ... after Florida passed legislation in 2011 cracking down on the pharmacies.


Other executives made up songs about Appalachian addicts

to the tune of "The Beverly Hillbillies" theme and

Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville,"

while a corporate investigator forwarded an email titled "Oxycontin for kids" showing a cereal box altered to read "SMACK."

https://www.rawstory.com/west-virginia-opiate-problem

100Ks dead Americans was BigPharma Capitalists' cause for condescending, ridiculing jokes




Now because Americans couldn't handle their shit we can't get a decent pain killer. Fuckin' shame. Thank Christ I held onto every one I ever got and have a good stash of the junk. Otherwise I'd be in a world of real hurt.

[Thread]

Trump and Rudy Giuliani's ties to opioid crisis revealed by HBO 'The Crime of the Century' filmmaker

https://www.rawstory.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6I mh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjQwMDE2OS9vcmlnaW4 uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODQ1NDc0M30.wKwyk9NIl 8WhLqSohgmZhupGGUuEtFdsHFvZ6I1_5c8/image.jpg?width=1200&height=675

America's opioid crisis -- as bad as it continues to be -- was on the precipice of becoming much worse under the administration of former president Donald Trump.

both Trump's involvement and also linked former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to the crisis.

Trump's initial choice of Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) to head up the effort.

the guy who did more than anybody to eviscerate the DEA and

his ability to go after these companies that were flooding America, the opioids, of course,"

the ultimate blame is with the drug companies -- with Giuliani having a hand in the problem.

"Purdue gets its hand slapped, but doesn't have to endure any real punishment in 2006 because of a deal cut mysteriously. And nobody knows exactly who cut that deal at the Department of Justice," he reported.

"But Rudy Giuliani was, was a part of it.

And then it happens again in 2020 with this deal cut again at the Department of Justice where fines are paid, key facts are buried."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-opioid

Horseshit. Act like somebody for Christ sake. That stuff was like gold on tooth and body pain. A Godsend it was. All gone. You ask for it now and all manner of shit starts up. A genuflect here, a rustle of papers there, a swish of a doctor's smock over there, a huff and puff from the nurse and finally..."No, Dale, I can give you a giant acetaminophen pill though how's that?"

[Ef-man]

Admitting Addiction To Yourself Is The First Step Towards Recovery.

[Thread]

Admitting Addiction To Yourself Is The First Step Towards Recovery.

Or, you could do what President Trump did about alcohol...

"How come you don't drink alcohol, Mr. President."

---

"If you don't start, you don't have to stop."

President Trump, the greatest President to ever walk the face of the earth.

[Ef-man]

Trump’s brother was an alcoholic so that might explain aversion to drinking. With such a big ego and fat ass, looks very true that trump has issues taking weight loss pills.

“In July, Gawker reported what it called “a rumor” that Trump’s abuse of amphetamine-like diet pills did not end in the 1980s,, when he stopped seeing Dr. Greenberg.

According to Gawker reporter Ashley Feinberg, publishing the piece on July 1, “according to our source, the Donald Trump of today is on a diet drug called phentermine — and has been since at least April of 2014.”

Phentermine is also known more informally as “Fen-Phen,” which combined the drug with another, fenfluramine, and was marketed as a “miracle” weight loss drug. But Fen-Phen was pulled from the market by the Food and Drug Administration in 1997, after it was found to have potentially deadly side-effects, damaging a user’s heart muscle.”

https://heavy.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-drugs-drug-use-sniffing-sniffles-cocaine-clinton-debate-test/

[Ef-man]

Or, you could do what President Trump did about alcohol...

"How come you don't drink alcohol, Mr. President."

---

"If you don't start, you don't have to stop."

President Trump, the greatest President to ever walk the face of the earth.


Now because Americans couldn't handle their shit we can't get a decent pain killer. Fuckin' shame. Thank Christ I held onto every one I ever got and have a good stash of the junk. Otherwise I'd be in a world of real hurt.

But enough about trump, what will you do about your opioid addiction thread?

[Thread]

But enough about trump, what will you do about your opioid addiction thread?

I'll do what "Johnny" did...I'll call "Mother."

tee, hee.

[Winehole23]

another super thread by Cory Doctorow

1420791164769226755

[ChumpDumper]

The Crime of the Century is another relentlessly competent Alex Gibney documentary on HBO, this time about the Sacklers and their history of being pieces of shit.

[RandomGuy]

The Crime of the Century is another relentlessly competent Alex Gibney documentary on HBO, this time about the Sacklers and their history of being pieces of shit.

hmm. something to check out.

Thanks.

[Winehole23]

Sacklers get to pay a pittance, say goodbye to future litigation, and cry themselves to sleep on their grotesque pile of dope money.

1433386686747185154

[Winehole23]

yep

1435004705504219136

[boutons_deux]

The War on Drugs, just another war America loses, isn't serious about winning, but it's a great socialistic job creator for LE, and enriches govt contractors.

[Winehole23]

1437619132606959618

[Winehole23]

DOJ moves to block the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy deal


A division of the Justice Department that serves as a watchdog over the federal bankruptcy system filed an appeal late Wednesday seeking to block the controversial Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan.
William Harrington, who serves as U.S. trustee for the Justice Department, also filed documents requesting an "expedited stay" to prevent implementation of the settlement.

The deal, which Judge Robert Drain approved Sept. 1 (https://www.npr.org/2021/09/01/1031053251/sackler-family-immunity-purdue-pharma-oxcyontin-opioid-epidemic#:~:text=Television-,Sackler%20Family%20Wins%20Immunity%20From%20Opioi d%20Lawsuits%20In%20Purdue%20Pharma,liability%20fo r%20the%20opioid%20crisis.), granted sweeping immunity from opioid lawsuits to members of the Sackler family who own the drug company.

The Sacklers, who are not bankrupt, were granted releases from liability after agreeing to contribute roughly $4.3 billion of their private wealth to the deal.

Supporters of the settlement, including most state attorneys general, said it will avoid costly litigation while funding drug treatment programs over the next decade.


But throughout a two-week bankruptcy trial, and in court documents, the Justice Department repeatedly blasted releases from liability granted to the Sacklers as "unlawful" and "unconstitutional."
In an earlier filing (https://www.npr.org/2021/07/19/1018028179/justice-department-blasts-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy-plan), Harrington accused the Sacklers and their associates of using the bankruptcy system to avoid liability for "alleged wrongdoing in concocting and perpetuating for profit one of the most severe public health crises ever experienced in the United States."
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/16/1037806819/opioids-purdue-pharma-sackler-settlement-bankruptcy-deal

[Winehole23]

Are we winning the war on drugs?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FEa-WUgWQAoQv6S?format=jpg&name=large

[RandomGuy]

yep

1435004705504219136

Another example of how conservative policy approaches fail and that negligence kills people.

[CosmicCowboy]

It's dumbasses ODing on heroin/fentanyl that are driving the numbers...not prescription pharma.

[SpursforSix]

It's dumbasses ODing on heroin/fentanyl that are driving the numbers...not prescription pharma.

that seems short sighted

[ElNono]

It's dumbasses ODing on heroin/fentanyl that are driving the numbers...not prescription pharma.

Is that why prescription pharma is going bankrupt and throwing billions of dollars to try to settle lawsuits?

On July 21, 2021, a $26 billion global settlement offer was made by opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson ($5 billion) and the “big three” distributors McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health ($21 billion) to resolve their liabilities in over 3,000 opioid crisis-related suits nationwide.*

And on September 1, 2021, Purdue’s $4.5 billion bankruptcy settlement plan won court approval. It will shield members of the Sackler family from future opioid crisis-related suits as feared. The Attorneys General for Washington and Connecticut intend to challenge the decision on appeal; the DOJ dislikes it as well.

[ElNono]

I get that this thread backfired mightily, but it's time to just accept it and move on, tbh

[Winehole23]

DOJ moves to block the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy deal

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/16/1037806819/opioids-purdue-pharma-sackler-settlement-bankruptcy-dealAppeals court throws out settlement


https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/us/purdue-sackler-opioid-lawsuit-settlement-rejected-purdue/index.html



Cool lawsplainer:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2020/12/purdues-poison-pill-and-the-broken-chapter-11-system.html

[Winehole23]

Another great explainer by Doctorow

Will be interesting to see where SCOTUS comes out on this.


First, they extracted vast sums from Purdue and shifted it into offshore financial secrecy havens:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-purduepharma-bankruptcy/sacklers-reaped-up-to-13-billion-from-oxycontin-maker-u-s-states-say-idUSKBN1WJ19V (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-purduepharma-bankruptcy/sacklers-reaped-up-to-13-billion-from-oxycontin-maker-u-s-states-say-idUSKBN1WJ19V)

Even as this money was disappearing into legal black holes, the Sacklers demanded — and received — extraordinary protection from the courts, who aggressively sealed testimony and materials presented through discovery:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-courts-secrecy-judges/ (https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-courts-secrecy-judges/)

When this gambit finally failed, the Sacklers insisted that were down to their last $4 billion, and, with trillions in claims pending against them, they declared bankruptcy.

When a normal person declares bankruptcy, they are required to divest themselves of nearly everything of value they possess, and then still find themselves hounded by cruel arm-breakers who deluge them with threatening calls and letters:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/19/zombie-debt/#damnation (https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/19/zombie-debt/#damnation)

But for the richest people in America, bankruptcy is merely a way to cleanse one’s balance sheet of liabilities for any atrocity you may have committed on the way, without giving up your fortune.
The Sacklers are a case-study in how a corrupt bankruptcy can be conducted.

Purdue Pharma presents a maddening case-study in the corrupt benefits of bankruptcy. When it was announced in March, many were outraged to learn that the Sacklers were going to walk away with billions, while their victims got stiffed.

First, they converted their victims’ right to compensation into “property” that the Sacklers themselves owned. This transferred jurisdiction over these claims from the regular court system to the bankruptcy court. A bankruptcy judge — not a jury — would decide how much each of these claims was worth, and then what how much of that worth these victims (now recast as creditors) would be entitled to through the bankruptcy.

Thus tens of thousands of claims were nonconsensually settled without a trial, by an administrative judge with no criminal jurisdiction, not a federal judge who’d undergone Senate confirmation:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/31/vaccine-for-the-global-south/#claims-extinguished (https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/31/vaccine-for-the-global-south/#claims-extinguished)

These “coercive restructuring techniques” are not available to everyday people who are drowning in student debt or credit-card bills — these are the exclusive purview of the wealthiest Americans, who enjoy a completely different bankruptcy system that is rigged in their favor.

Three judges — David Jones and Marvin Isgur of Houston and Bob Drain of New York — hear 96% of the country’s large corporate bankruptcies:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2021/05/judge-shopping-in-bankruptcy.html (https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2021/05/judge-shopping-in-bankruptcy.html)

These judges are unbelievably horny for corporations, embracing a legal theory “that casts the invention of the limited liability corporation alongside that of the steam engine as a paradigmatic development in the pursuit of prosperity”:

https://prospect.org/justice/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-the-sacklers-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy/ (https://prospect.org/justice/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-the-sacklers-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy/)

Now there are more than three bankruptcy judges in America, so how do the nation’s biggest companies get their cases heard by these three enthusiastic Renfields for corporate vampirism?

They cheat.

For example: when GM was facing bankruptcy, it argued that it was a New York company on the basis that it owned a single Chevy dealership in Harlem, and got in front of Judge Drain.

The Sacklers were — characteristically — even more brazen. They really wanted to get their case in front of Judge Drain, the nation’s most enthusiastic supporter of “third party releases,” through which bankrupt billionaires can wipe the slate clean, securing dismissals of all claims by the people they wronged.

Drain is also uniquely hostile to independent examiners, “an independent third-party appointed by the court to investigate ‘fraud, dishonesty, incompetence, misconduct, mismanagement, or irregularity…by current or former management of the debtor.”

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3851339 (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3851339)

If you’re the Sacklers, hoping to keep two thirds of your billions and extinguish all claims by your victims, there is no better helpmeet than Judge Robert Drain of the Southern District of New York.

So, 192 days before filing for bankruptcy, the Sacklers opened an office in White Plains, New York (a company may claim jurisdiction in a specific court once they’ve operated a business there for 180 days).

Then they filed a bankruptcy in which they altered the metadata on their casefile, inserting the code for a Westchester county hearing into the machine-readable, human-invisible parts of the documents they uploaded to the federal Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system (they also captioned the case with “RDD, for “Robert D Drain”).

They chose their judge, and the judge obliged. UCLA Law’s Lynn LoPucki is one of the leading scholars of these bankruptcy “megacases,” and has written extensively on why these three judges are so deferential to corporate criminals seeking to flense themselves of culpability. She sees judges like Drain motivated by “personal aggrandizement and celebrity and ability to indirectly channel to the local bankruptcy bar. The judge is the star and the ringmaster of a megacase — very appealing to certain personalities.”

Thus, these judges are “willing and eager to cater to debtors to attract business…[an] assurance to debtors that…these judges will not transfer out cases with improper venue or rule against the debtor…”

https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/02870w66d

This kind of judge-shopping goes beyond the Sacklers; the cases that Drain and co preside over make a mockery of the idea of America as a land of equal justice. “Prepack” and “drive-through” bankruptcies are reliable get-out-of-jail-free cards for capitalism’s worst monsters: private equity firms.

Whether PE murdered your grandmother by buying her care-home and putting each worker in charge of 30 seniors:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/portopiccolo-nursing-homes-maryland/2020/12/21/a1ffb2a6-292b-11eb-9b14-ad872157ebc9_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/portopiccolo-nursing-homes-maryland/2020/12/21/a1ffb2a6-292b-11eb-9b14-ad872157ebc9_story.html)

or poisoned your kids by filling your neighborhood with carcinogens:

https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/ethylene-oxide/20190719/residents-unaware-of-cancer-causing-toxin-in-air (https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/ethylene-oxide/20190719/residents-unaware-of-cancer-causing-toxin-in-air)

limited liability wipes the slate clean.

30% of America’s bankruptcies are private equity companies using the bankruptcy system to wipe away claims for their misdeeds, while keeping a fortune, thanks to the shield of limited liability.

Take Millennium Health, James Slattery’s fake drug-testing company, which promised to help nursing homes figure out whether seniors were abusing (or selling) their meds by testing their piss for angel dust and other drugs. Slattery defrauded Medicare and Medicaid for millions, borrowed $1.8 billion (Slattery got $1.3 billion of that). He eventually walked away from this fraud after paying a mere $256m to settle all claims, and kept a fortune in assets, including the 40 vintage planes his private company (“Pissed Away LLC” — I am not making this up) owned:

https://prospect.org/justice/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-the-sacklers-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy/ (https://prospect.org/justice/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-the-sacklers-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy/)

For the wealthy, bankruptcy is the sport of kings, a way to skip out on consequences. For the poor, bankruptcy is an anchor — or a noose. This is by design: judges who preside over elite bankruptcies speak of their protagonists as heroic “risk takers” and tiptoe around any consequences, lest these titans be chained to a mortal’s fate, costing us all the benefits of their entrepreneurial genius.

PE companies helped the Sacklers design their own bankruptcy strategy, and it was a standout, even by the standards of Bob Drain and his kangaroo bankruptcy court. But now, the Supreme Court has pumped the brakes on the whole enterprise.

The judges ruled that the exceptions the Sacklers took advantage of were intended for bankrupts in “financial distress” — not billionaires with vast fortunes hidden overseas. In so doing, the court threatens all manner of corrupt arrangements, from “the Boy Scouts, wildfires and allegations of sexual abuse in the church diocese — where third parties get a benefit from a bankruptcy they themselves aren’t going through.”

The case was brought by the DoJ’s US Trustee Program, which lost in the Second Circuit when it tried to halt the Purdue bankruptcy and argued that the Sacklers themselves had to declare bankruptcy to discharge the claims against them.

Now the Supremes have hit pause on the bankruptcy the Second Circuit approved, and will hear the case themselves. It’s only one step on a long road, but it’s an unprecedented one. Some of the country’s filthiest fortunes are riding on the outcome.



https://doctorow.medium.com/the-sacklers-woulda-gotten-away-with-it-if-it-wasnt-for-those-darned-meddling-feds-62120696e2de

[Thread]

Another great explainer by Doctorow

Will be interesting to see where SCOTUS comes out on this.

https://doctorow.medium.com/the-sacklers-woulda-gotten-away-with-it-if-it-wasnt-for-those-darned-meddling-feds-62120696e2de

You're gonna have to see if any of this shit that you're throwing at Thomas will stick, fast. If not, you're SOL because Roberts will not move hard left until the time is ripe. & dad, it ain't ripe.

[Blake]

Stomach wrenching with what they got away with

[Thread]

Stomach wrenching with what they got away with

You got away with threatening President Trump on Inauguration Day with blowing up the White House.

You've nary room, Blake.

Nary.

[Blake]

You got away with threatening President Trump on Inauguration Day with blowing up the White House.

You've nary room, Blake.

Nary.

Back on ignore

[baseline bum]

Kill one person in America and you get the needle. Kill half a million and you get immunity and a boatload of cash. Wouldn't shed a tear if someone who lost a husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, etc went and slit the throats of multiple members of the Sackler crime family.

[Thread]

Back on ignore

Of course, you won't be held to account when presented with the grim facts. So, you run.

It's human.

& here is how you reasoned [it---death threat on Inauguration Day]..."We're entitled. He didn't deserve to be President. It is unconscionable to see him as President of the United States. So, just this once, and only this one time I will suspend my decency and do whatever is needed to get him out, AND punish him thereafter so he suffers for the rest of his life. Then, once he's out of office we can once again have a regular President and a normal succession of power in this country. And then I'll be my regular self."

Signed,

- Blake

[Thread]

Kill one person in America and you get the needle. Kill half a million and you get immunity and a boatload of cash. Wouldn't shed a tear if someone who lost a husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, etc went and slit the throats of multiple members of the Sackler crime family.

Bullshit, bum. It is a medication for pain, extreme pain that alleviated that pain almost at once. It was a blessing. A monumental miracle that came to us, and as usual the weak fucks in our society fucked it up for EVERYONE. Just thank Christ every single time I got a script for it, I filled it. "But, I don't need it, Girl, the Aleve is good enough."

"Fill it, Dale, fill it!"

"Okay, okay, already, holler but like don't hit."

So, I have a cache of hundreds, just in case. You know where half of that stash is? In the Wells Fargo safe deposit box. It-is-gold.

[baseline bum]

Bullshit, bum. It is a medication for pain, extreme pain that alleviated that pain almost at once. It was a blessing. A monumental miracle that came to us, and as usual the weak fucks in our society fucked it up for EVERYONE. Just thank Christ every single time I got a script for it, I filled it. "But, I don't need it, Girl, the Aleve is good enough."

"Fill it, Dale, fill it!"

"Okay, okay, already, holler but like don't hit."

So, I have a cache of hundreds, just in case. You know where half of that stash is? In the Wells Fargo safe deposit box. It-is-gold.

It's a fucking drug the Sacklers lied about being safe when pushing onto doctors, and now we're down half a million in America thanks to those gangsters. Should just federally legalize weed so people can get high safely.

[Thread]

It's a fucking drug the Sacklers lied about being safe when pushing onto doctors, and now we're down half a million in America thanks to those gangsters. Should just federally legalize weed so people can get high safely.

It was safe if taken according to the directions and warnings. It was all there in B&W and the doctors dispensing it always told me the goods. But, there is a significant portion of this populace (and growing) who abuse anything good for bad purposes.

And they'd fuck the (legal weed up) just like they fucked the Oxy up.

[Winehole23]

Stomach wrenching with what they got away withyep. maybe SCOTUS will remove the shield of bankruptcy.

[Thread]

yep. maybe SCOTUS will remove the shield of bankruptcy.

You're mad because you let RBG go to waste. You're usually on something like that with 100% accuracy and wily gusto. Not that time, thank Christ.

Now, you're coming at Thomas for the 2nd time, 1st time didn't work as he told ya's to go back and fuck your mothers some more. Where ya's really fucked up though was going after Bork like that. That got our attention and taught us how to do ya's likewise and we ain't let go yet.

[boutons_deux]

Supreme Court temporarily blocks $6 billion Purdue Pharma-Sackler bankruptcy


https://www.npr.org/2023/08/10/1193304383/purdue-scotus-bankruptcy-oxycontin

[Thread]

Supreme Court temporarily blocks $6 billion Purdue Pharma-Sackler bankruptcy


https://www.npr.org/2023/08/10/1193304383/purdue-scotus-bankruptcy-oxycontin

He's already got a few billion hid with the children, all in $20 bills.

[boutons_deux]

"Problematic" use of opioid settlement money opposed by coalition of public health organizations

Public health groups criticize spending opioid settlement funds on police, criminalization and incarceration


https://www.salon.com/2023/08/16/problematic-use-of-opioid-settlement-money-opposed-by-coalition-of-public-health-organizations/

[Blake]

Painkiller 8/10 Netflix.

Solid movie reminding everyone once again what big pharma gets away with in this country

[Thread]

Painkiller 8/10 Netflix.

Solid movie reminding everyone once again what big pharma gets away with in this country

It was/is a wonder drug but the scum element in this country shit all over it, wrecking it for the good people, who, if they didn't stash a supply when they had the chance now have nary alternative except over the counter meds. Those are the people I feel sorry for, Blake.

[Thread]

TOPSIDE!!!

[Winehole23]

population scale drug peddlers get a slap on the wrist


Publicis Health, a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe, agreed to pay $350 million to resolve claims by all U.S. states and territories that it helped OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma devise marketing strategies to boost sales of its prescription opioid painkiller.

Massachusetts, which sued Publicis (https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/publicis-loses-bid-escape-massachusetts-opioid-marketing-lawsuit-2021-10-29/) in 2021 alleging it collected more than $50 million to help Purdue get doctors to prescribe its opioids to more patients, for longer periods of time, and at higher doses, served on the executive committee of states investigating the company.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/ad-firm-publicis-drugmaker-hikma-settle-us-opioid-cases-500-million-2024-02-01/

[Winehole23]

Arizona trying to divert the opioid settlement to whatever whatever

1803900405845492072https://x.com/brahmresnik/status/1803900405845492072

[Winehole23]

McKinsey with nothing to say to the press is a new one

(McKinsey isn't a drug company, it's a corporate management consultant)



McKinsey & Company consulting firm has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work for opioids manufacturer Purdue Pharma, according to court papers filed in Virginia on Friday.

McKinsey has also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve criminal charges, including that it conspired with Purdue Pharma to aid in the misbranding of prescription drugs.

A former McKinsey senior partner has also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges, according to the court papers.

McKinsey representatives didn't immediately respond to phone and email messages on Friday.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/mckinsey-company-agrees-to-pay-650-million-to-settle-federal-probe-over-opioids-work/ar-AA1vOn5B

[Winehole23]

Pharmacy Benefit Managers were in on it too


For years, the benefit managers, or P.B.M.s, took payments from opioid manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma, in return for not restricting the flow of pills. As tens of thousands of Americans overdosed and died from prescription painkillers, the middlemen collected billions of dollars in payments.

The details of these backroom deals — laid out in hundreds of documents, some previously confidential, reviewed by The Times — expose a mostly untold chapter of the opioid epidemic and provide a rare look at the modus operandi of the companies at the heart of the prescription drug supply chain.

The P.B.M.s exert extraordinary control over what drugs people can receive and at what price. The three dominant companies — Express Scripts, CVS Caremark and Optum Rx — oversee prescriptions for more than 200 million people and are part of health care conglomerates that sit near the top of the Fortune 500 list.

The P.B.M.s are hired by insurers and employers to control their drug costs by negotiating discounts with pharmaceutical manufacturers. But a Times investigation this year (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/business/prescription-drug-costs-pbm.html) found that they often pursue their own financial interests in ways that increase costs for patients, employers and government programs, while driving independent pharmacies (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/business/drugstores-closing-pbm-pharmacy.html) out of business. Regulators have accused (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/health/ftc-drug-price-inflation-insulin.html) the largest P.B.M.s of anticompetitive practices.

The middlemen’s dealings with opioid makers reveal a lesser-known consequence of this pay-to-play system: Seemingly everything — including measures meant to protect patients and curtail abuse — can be up for negotiation.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/business/pharmacy-benefit-managers-opioids.html

[Winehole23]

self-dealing seems to have been a factor


The P.B.M.s’ power lies in their role as gatekeepers. They largely control the lists of drugs that insurance plans will cover, and drugmakers compete for position on those lists by offering rebates. The middlemen typically pass along most of these rebates to their clients, but they also keep a portion for themselves.

The drug lists, known as formularies, frequently include restrictions meant to save money by steering patients to cheaper drugs. But for some drugs, such as opioids, restrictions can serve a medical purpose — minimizing the risk of overdose and addiction and limiting the number of pills that could be diverted to the illicit market.

Yet time and again, documents show, the P.B.M.s bargained away safeguards in exchange for rebates.

Purdue’s strategy to ensure broad access to its blockbuster painkiller OxyContin was explicit: “Offer rebates to remove payer restriction,” according to an internal presentation. The company didn’t want doctors to have to provide additional justification for prescribing a powerful narcotic, and it didn’t want strict limits on the number of pills that could be dispensed.

The approach worked. Purdue repeatedly boasted in internal reports that prescribers and patients faced few or no restrictions on access to the drug.

[Winehole23]

This spring, the Justice Department announced a major victory against a drug firm that manufactured billions of opioid painkillers. Endo Health Solutions, the agency said, would face $1.5 billion in fines and forfeitures and plead guilty to a corporate criminal charge.


Prosecutors said the massive fine would hold accountable a suburban Philadelphia company that profited by “misrepresenting the safety of their opioid products and using reckless marketing tactics to increase sales.”


But in the end, federal prosecutors offered far friendlier terms than those trumpeted by the agency (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25453827-us-press-release-endo-sentencing-5-3-24/).


Endo would not have to pay the $1.5 billion in criminal penalties, which was already a deep discount from the billions federal officials said Endo owed for dodging taxes and driving up Medicare costs.


In what amounted to a liability fire sale by the Justice Department, the company’s woes with the federal government would all be resolved by a $200 million payment.


In sentencing Endo in federal court in May, Judge Linda Parker wondered how the amount paid to the U.S. could be so low.


“I don’t understand. I really don’t understand,” Parker said. “I just don’t understand how it went from $1 billion to $200 million.”


Federal prosecutor Benjamin Cornfeld explained: Endo was broke.


“The reality is that there are limited funds available because the debtors were in bankruptcy,” Cornfeld said.


But a fuller explanation, drawn from corporate filings, interviews, and criminal court and bankruptcy records, shows how the DOJ, after years of aggressively prosecuting opioid companies, delayed for a decade a winning criminal case against Endo. In the intervening years, Endo vastly expanded its narcotic-pill empire before executing a corporate escape plan.


Codenamed Project Zed, the plan allowed Endo to restructure its debt to retain control of the company and hand out $95 million in executive bonuses before seeking protection in bankruptcy. The result for U.S. taxpayers: Endo paid a tiny fraction — three pennies on the dollar — of the $7 billion that officials said it owed the U.S. government, including $4 billion in taxes.
How Opioid Giant Endo Escaped a $7 Billion Federal Penalty — ProPublica (https://www.propublica.org/article/endo-settlement-opioids-justice-department?)

[Winehole23]

"but the problem is really a bunch of pillbillies with no self control"




Delayed Justice: After a whistleblower exposed the criminal behavior of Endo, a drug manufacturer, the Justice Department waited more than a decade to bring charges against the company.
A Steep Discount: Federal agencies said Endo owed up to $7 billion in criminal fines, back taxes and other charges. The government settled this year for just $200 million.
Winners and Losers: Endo is still selling narcotics. Lawyers made $350 million. A few executives shared $95 million in bonuses. Thousands of opioid victims are to share $40 million.

[Thread]

"but the problem is really a bunch of pillbillies with no self control"

Amen.

[Winehole23]

OD fatality trend is currently downward


“Overdoses started declining in 2022 at a state level, and accelerated through 2023,” Dasgupta said. “By early 2024, every state was declining in overdose deaths. … That’s a really different narrative than we have come to appreciate. The conventional wisdom is things have been getting worse and worse and worse for 30+ years, and nothing has been working. But it turns out that things have been working and we haven’t been paying attention.”

But Dasgupta said no one is totally sure why overdose deaths have decreased.

“We have like 20 possibilities that we are thinking about. Whatever is happening isn’t linear, and it’s probably not just one thing,” he explained. “The only people who I hear consistently saying they know what caused the decline is the DEA.”https://matternews.org/community/overdose-deaths-are-falling-nationwide-why/

[Winehole23]

Hypothesis: diplomacy and regulatory pressure influenced China to restrict the supply of fentanyl to North America, drug purity declined and so did ODs


The data revealed a distinct pattern. The average purity of fentanyl powder seized by authorities rose throughout 2022 and peaked at roughly 25 percent in early 2023. Following that peak, purity levels plummeted. By the end of 2024, the average purity of seized powder had fallen to approximately 11 percent.


This decline in product quality occurred almost simultaneously with the drop in overdose deaths. The researchers found a strong correlation between the purity of fentanyl pills and the rate of fatal overdoses. As the drugs became less potent due to apparent shortages, fewer people died from using them.


The team also reviewed the number of drug seizures reported by the National Forensic Laboratory Information System. Seizures of fentanyl peaked in the first half of 2023. By the second half of 2024, those numbers had fallen by 37 percent. While fewer seizures could theoretically result from reduced police activity, the high political profile of the fentanyl crisis suggests that enforcement remained a priority. This makes a reduction in actual drug volume the most likely explanation.


Canada also suffers from a fentanyl crisis, but its supply chain is distinct. While the United States receives finished fentanyl trafficked from Mexico, Canadian traffickers largely import precursor chemicals and manufacture the drug domestically. Despite these different production methods, both countries rely on chemical precursors that originate in China.

If the supply shock were caused by law enforcement actions at the US-Mexico border or conflicts between Mexican cartels, the Canadian market should have remained relatively stable. However, the data showed that Canada experienced a similar disruption. Opioid-related deaths in Canada began to decline in the third quarter of 2023.


Canadian health data mirrored the trends seen in the United States. Emergency medical services reported fewer responses to suspected opioid poisonings. Hospitalizations related to opioids also fell. Additionally, Canadian lab data showed a shift where dealers began substituting fentanyl with fentanyl analogs, a behavior often seen when the primary drug is scarce.


The synchronized downturn in both nations points to a bottleneck at the source of the chemicals they share. The researchers suggest that actions taken by the Chinese government are the most plausible explanation. This shift aligned with a pivotal meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2023. The summit resulted in an agreement to increase cooperation on drug enforcement between the two nations.


Following this diplomatic breakthrough, China tightened regulations on the production and export of chemicals used to make synthetic opioids. These regulatory actions included the removal of online advertisements for precursor chemicals and the shutdown of various marketplaces. The Chinese government also issued notices warning chemical companies against selling substances that could be used for illicit drug production.

The Drug Enforcement Administration noted in a 2025 assessment that Chinese suppliers had become “wary” of selling these chemicals to international buyers. The assessment indicated that suppliers were aware of the increased scrutiny resulting from the government’s compliance with updated United Nations counter-narcotics treaties. The timeline of these enforcement actions in China closely matches the drop in purity and deaths seen in North America.

The study implies that diplomatic pressure and international cooperation can yield tangible public health benefits. The reduction in the flow of raw materials appears to have achieved what domestic law enforcement struggles to accomplish. Arresting street-level dealers rarely impacts the overall availability of drugs, but choking off the supply of essential chemicals affects the entire market.
https://www.psypost.org/sudden-drop-in-fentanyl-overdose-deaths-linked-to-biden-era-global-supply-shock/

[Winehole23]

(I guess we inhabit a post-diplomatic space right now0