Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea blames doctors for the opioid crisis
dailymail ^ | 27 February 2018 | Megan Sheets

Posted on 02/27/2018 11:15:03 AM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: opioidcrisis
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 next last
To: Enchante

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.


21 posted on 02/27/2018 11:27:49 AM PST by Yaelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

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.


22 posted on 02/27/2018 11:27:58 AM PST by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm male.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

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


23 posted on 02/27/2018 11:28:46 AM PST by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

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


24 posted on 02/27/2018 11:28:55 AM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicans aren't born, they're excreted." -Marcus Tillius Cicero (3 BCE))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

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.


25 posted on 02/27/2018 11:29:01 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (The government cannot protect you and isn't even trying. Self-defense is a right.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

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


26 posted on 02/27/2018 11:29:36 AM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicans aren't born, they're excreted." -Marcus Tillius Cicero (3 BCE))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

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..


27 posted on 02/27/2018 11:29:43 AM PST by mowowie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: shelterguy

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)


28 posted on 02/27/2018 11:29:44 AM PST by Bob434
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Enchante

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


29 posted on 02/27/2018 11:30:32 AM PST by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: robroys woman

[[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


30 posted on 02/27/2018 11:32:07 AM PST by Bob434
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

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.


31 posted on 02/27/2018 11:33:13 AM PST by Pravious
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: robroys woman
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......

32 posted on 02/27/2018 11:33:18 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (My cat is not fat, she is just big boned........)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

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.


33 posted on 02/27/2018 11:33:28 AM PST by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm male.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Enchante
"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.
34 posted on 02/27/2018 11:33:36 AM PST by Old Teufel Hunden
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

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

It is your responsibility...


35 posted on 02/27/2018 11:34:21 AM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

May I say “doctor prescribed doses”?


36 posted on 02/27/2018 11:34:50 AM PST by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm male.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: 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.


37 posted on 02/27/2018 11:34:58 AM PST by Pravious
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Enchante

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.


38 posted on 02/27/2018 11:35:27 AM PST by mowowie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: shelterguy

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


39 posted on 02/27/2018 11:35:29 AM PST by PMAS (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

[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.


40 posted on 02/27/2018 11:36:11 AM PST by ObozoMustGo2012 ("Be quiet... you are #fakenews!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson