Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea blames doctors for the opioid crisis

dailymail ^ | 27 February 2018 | Megan Sheets

[dennisw]

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea blames doctors for the opioid crisis as he reveals he was prescribed OxyContin after 20 years clean

Flea, the lead bassist for alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, wrote an opinion piece for Time magazine about his struggle with drugs The performer, 55, born Michael Balzary, got clean at age 30 in 1993 In 2015 he was prescribed OxyContin for a snowboarding injury and got hooked He says that the opioid epidemic is caused by doctors over-prescribing strong medicines and failing to follow-up with patients

Red Hot Chili Peppers bass guitarist Flea says doctors bear much of the responsibility for America's opioid crisis as he reveals that he was prescribed an excessive amount of OxyContin for a snowboarding injury in 2015.

The performer, born Michael Balzary, opened up about his decade-long history with drug abuse in an opinion piece for Time magazine called The Temptation of Drugs is a Bitch. Balzary, 55, writes that he has been around substance abuse since he was a child and had extensive experience with back-alley drug deals in the years before he got clean at age 30 in 1993.

He claims that America's opioid epidemic has an alarming source: the doctors that we've been conditioned to trust more than most other people in our lives.

[Yaelle]

Agreed, but these two were /are heroin addicts. In Anthony Kiedis’s case (lead singer of Red Hot Chili Peppers) he was open with his doctors and dentists once he was clean that time, and asked to not receive any pain meds. And some dentist I believe told him to take these, they would be fine. So in some cases it IS a doctor’s fault. Doctors should know if they have an addict recovering not to prescribe any drug that sends them back to Sister Morphine.

[robroys woman]

that woudl be 477 oer person divided by 6 (the number of years in the study period) which equals 79 pills per person per year- which would not even be a month’s worth of pain meds (considering a person takes 4-6 pills a day as prescribed)- that would be only about 10 days worth of pills per person for the period of 6 years-

See how stats can make something seem huge when it isn’t?

---

Not in this case.

I don’t know a single person taking these meds as a prescription. And those numbers include children.

This number is absurdly high.

[reasonisfaith]

This guy must not know about the CIA’s policies in Afghanistan.

[faithhopecharity]

Pain can be very difficult for people, and they quite naturally expect their doctors’ Help with it.

[ClearCase_guy]

I think everyone in that band has had a serious drug problem. This goes back into the 80s.

The guy gets clean, but 20 years layer some Dr dangles OxyContin in front of him and he’s dumb enough to grab at it? And he ran into trouble?

The brain of a flea.

[faithhopecharity]

Manufacturer stops promoting oxy sales:
http://www.chroniclenewspaper.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20180226/NEWS01/180229967/0/experts33

[mowowie]

I have for years told my doctor that i don’t like pills, don’t want them and if at all possible don’t prescribe them to me.
i have enough frigging problems in life..

[Bob434]

they only give them out for 7 days where we are- (You can get refill IF needed usually though but you gotta beg for them if you are in serious pain, and likely won’t receive them because docs are so afraid of gov regulations on opioids now)

[reasonisfaith]

Totally. This guy is what you’d call an extreme wimp.

[Bob434]

[[I don’t know a single person taking these meds as a prescription.]]

Then how is it the doctor’s fault that they are taking illegal drugs? and again- accordign to the math- they are only takign about a week’s worth of pills over a six year period- or 10 pills a year if we spread it out per year

[Pravious]

Yes . . . people need to have personal responsibility, but the medical / pharmaceutical industry seems to have NO ethics anymore - it’s all about money. It’s all about hooking people on every drug they can. It’s all about bringing people back to pay more - and more - and more.

Watch Fox News lately (and probably every other news channel)? All you get is a CONSTANT stream of commercials INTENT on hooking every American on every possible drug. Ohh! Heavens! My C-PAP device isn’t clean (whatever THAT is!). Uh, oh... I better make that doctor’s appointment because I need to be tested for some disease I don’t show any signs of having - but, you know, you can’t be too safe! And don’t get me started on the garbage they peddle for “erectile dysfunction,” miracle diets and other tabloid-style crap. All of it should be banned, IMHO - ALL OF IT. If you did, I bet you’d see a noticeable drop of people hooked on this crap because people would wise up and learn they can live just fine without a constant stream of drugs going into their bodies.

[Hot Tabasco]

From the article:

The suit alleges that from January 2010 through December 2016, McKesson distributed 18,434,834 doses of prescription opioids in Floyd County alone, amounting to 477 opioid pills for every person living in the county.

Not "Prescriptions" but rather doses......

[robroys woman]

The point is doctors over-prescribing.

And you keep trying to spread out the doses over the whole population. It isn’t spread out like that.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Take some reponsibility, dude!!!!!"

I'm not sure if you read the article or not, but here are some passages from it:

"But in recent years with the opioid epidemic, Balzary has a different question: 'What if your dealer was someone you'd trusted to keep you healthy since you were a kid?'

'Many who are suffering today were introduced to drugs through their healthcare providers,' he wrote."

"The performer wrote that he stopped taking the pills after a month, but that it would have been easy for him to get a refill."

Look, I'm not a fan of the Chili Peppers at all, I know about two songs by them. What he's trying to say has a lot of truth to it. He didn't get addicted to the prescribed opiods. What he's trying to say is that doctors who you trust with your health and life are telling you to take them, you get addicted and then they end up cutting you off. This is what happened to Rush Limbaugh, are you going to say the same thing to him? I've read articles years ago where the American Legion had brought this to light as happening at the VA to returning injured soldiers and Marines from Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Vendome]

That’s like blaming the liquor store owner for selling you booze.

It is your responsibility...

[robroys woman]

May I say “doctor prescribed doses”?

[Pravious]

All of it should be banned, IMHO - ALL OF IT.

—

Just to be clear, I was talking about the advertising of this garbage, not the garbage itself.

[mowowie]

about seven years ago i was in a very serious dirt bike accident. When i woke up 3 days later a doctor prescribed me a big bottle of Morphine pills...actually said Morphine on the bottle.
I told him that i didn’t want them i might get addicted he replied that if you don’t want to become addicted you won’t.
Anyway i took like 3 or 4 and a while later threw the rest of them out.

[PMAS]

People get hooked on Oxy within 5 days - 2 weeks is a disaster for many people

[ObozoMustGo2012]

[He’s blaming someone else for not having enough self control to say “No thanks Doc- the pain won’t kill me. Fact is that I’m an addictive personality and might become addicted if i take them”?]

A lot of people don’t associate pain pills with the same addictive properties as say alcohol.

Also, there are some people who don’t know they have a propensity to addiction until they’re already hooked.