Posted on 05/31/2017 10:52:30 AM PDT by neefer
Attorney General Mike DeWine targeted five pharmaceutical companies in a sweeping lawsuit filed today, alleging misrepresentation and misinformation on their part in the growing American opiate addiction crisis. The companies are Janssen Pharmaceutical, Allergan, Purdue Pharma, Endo and Cephalon.
"They are the most prominent," DeWine said of the defendants. "They constitute a majority of the drugs."
He insisted that the companies played an active role in flooding the market with prescription painkillers, which led explicitly to addiction for untold numbers of Ohioans. A woman who lost her daughter to opiate addiction appeared with DeWine today, explaining to reporters how powerless she and millions of Americans feel against this public health crisis. "Your entire world gets destroyed over something that you have no ability to fight," she said.
DeWine underscored the tone of Ohio's victimhood: “This is a human tragedy of epic proportion, ripping families apart."
Ohio is at the helm of the country's opiate problem, with more than 4,000 residents fatally overdosing last year. Medical examiners across the state have predicted even greater numbers of deaths in 2017.
"Quite candidly, I think it's my moral obligation to do this," DeWine said. "I don't want to look back 10 years from now and say we should have had the guts to file, we should have had the guts to call a spade a spade. ... There's not a lot of precedent for this action."
(Excerpt) Read more at clevescene.com ...
The Sackler family, use Purdue Pharma to produce Oxycotin, are the most successful drug pushers in human history.
This is taking a page from the anti-Second Amendment crowd.
Go after a producer simply for producing and marketing a legal product that can be misused.
Next, going after gasoline producers. After all, the product allows cars to be used in crime, contributes to fatal auto accidents, and is used a an accelerate of choice by arsonists.
Sometimes prescription opiates are the only relief possible, but doctors hand them out like candy nowadays.
Well, we’ve tried a bunch of other stuff to no avail, but will suing help?
I’m not going to throw my support behind this. Remember all the ‘suing’ of gun manufacturers by leftist gun-grabbers?
Somewhere in EVERY Social mess, you can guarantee two things:
1. People are not held responsible for the CHOICES they’ve made in life, and...
2. ‘Social(ist) Engineering’ started the problem in the first place.
Yep. See my Post #5.
“Go after a producer simply for producing and marketing a legal product that can be misused.”
Opiates are scheduled controlled substances, not simply “legal products”.
Also, even manufacturers of “legal products” are bound by laws restricting stuff like fraud and false advertising.
I actually agree with DeWine on this one.
I think you have to be pretty skeptical of the data when both parties are coming hard against opiates.
“Medical examiners across the state have predicted even greater numbers of deaths in 2017.”
The MEs are all going to be doing tox screens and when someone dies of stage 4 metastatic cancer, an MI or pneumonia a large percentage will test positive for opiates. Then, opiates can be listed as a cause of death along with the other conditions.
The stat to really look at is opiate prescription consumption. I know in WI it has gone down 10% YOY from 2015 - 2016. Now if the opiate death rate increases (which includes other illegal drugs) it’s not because physicians are overprescribing. It’s due to illicit drug use.
Think the government wouldn’t lie about this?
Sometimes prescription opiates are the only relief possible, but doctors hand them out like candy nowadays.
Maybe. I see just the opposite.
Doctors so scared of being labeled drug pushers that they refuse to prescribe drugs for pain releif, when it is clearly needed.
I had a close friend nearly driven very close to suicide because the pain was so bad after a back surgery, and the restrictions of prescription pain drugs kept him from relief.
And that is the other half of the problem.
Bad drugs or mistakes going to market have resulted in drugs getting pulled off the market.
Once opiate presence is noted on the autopsy findings, look for the insurance companies to use this as a reason to deny payment of life insurance claims.
This is complete BS. Why not sue the fed gov for failing to secure the border with Mexico where much of the heroin plaguing our streets is coming from?
There are legitimate uses for narcotic analgesics. I had a baby three weeks ago - my third. With the first two I had Motrin in the hospital topped off with Percocet as needed. With both of those babies I took three or four doses of the Percocet then the pain was manageable with Motrin. This third baby was much bigger than my previous two, and I had lacerations from delivery that required suturing and involved not only skin but down to the muscle. I was given only Motrin and was told no more narcotics for patients due the the “heroin crisis”. For shits sake I wasn’t asking for a prescription or to go home with the stuff. I just wanted a little for the first 24 hours. 12 hours after delivery at 3 am I had to get up to trek to the NICU to feed my son and about passed out from the pain. I’m not an addict and don’t appreciate being treated like one. The blame as well as the solution in this situation are far misplaced.
Apparently you don’t have chronic pain to the point you feel like suicide. The medicines were legal. They were prescribed. There should be no legal grounds for this suit.
Not quite the same thing, there is no right to medication recognized by our Constitution.
The gist of the allegations, as I understand it, is that these producers saw massive increases in prescriptions and pill consumption over a comparatively short period of time. An increase of that size in so short of time should have raised suspicions as these medications are controlled and known to be addictive.
There is a case to be made that these companies willfully ignored indications that these controlled medications were being abused on a large scale. This is an appropriate subject for a lawsuit.
Speaking of the AG: DeWine, how’s the Pike County mass murder investigation coming along?
(crickets)
What if he went after gun manufacturers because guns are misused.
Valium was handed out like candy not too long ago. Hooked my mother with “mother’s little helpers.
A century ago, it was stuff like “Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup” advertised as “Mother’s Best Friend”.
I see the problems, but the solutions too often hurt the people who actually need the relief and are not addicted or are in end stages of their life due to acute medical issues.
I’ve had to take them before, but never to excess.
I guess I’m torn on this issue
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