and Merry Christmas to you and yours
Posted on 12/24/2017 11:15:42 AM PST by mabarker1
For years, the opioid crisis was described as one of negligence. In this narrative, doctors overprescribed pills that shouldn't have gone to patients and pharmaceutical companies overzealously promoted medications while playing down the risks.
Robert Gebelhoff
But new reporting demonstrates how this version, as worrying as it sounds, might understate the role of drugmakers in the opioid crisis.
The Washington Post and 60 Minutes reported that some of the Drug Enforcement Administration's most experienced investigators believed criminal charges were warranted against one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, alleging that the company, McKesson Corp., did little to prevent huge quantities of addictive opioid medications from being diverted to illegal use by pharmacies that were, in some cases, knowingly supplying illegal drug rings.
In other words, this isn't just a story of simple negligence; it's a story about whether drug manufacturers and distributors turned a willfully blind eye toward illegal drug trafficking.
Defenders of opioid painkillers often argue that these medications are essential to people with chronic pain and that the vast majority of opioid prescriptions do not result in addiction or abuse. Instead, they contend, the prescription drug crisis is a myth and the real problems are more powerful, nonmedicinal opioids such as heroin and fentanyl, which account for the lion's share of overdoses in the country.
But to focus only on these facts lets drug producers off the hook.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has found that nearly 80 percent of all heroin users in the United States started with prescription opioids. Some of these people began using opioids through pain treatments; others became addicted as millions of pills starting pouring into pharmacies and ended up in black markets.
The Post's investigation illustrates a distribution system in which pharmacies, drug manufacturers and even --
(Excerpt) Read more at dentonrc.com ...
My Podiatrist mentioned it but doesn’t do it.
I’m sure the Pain Clinic will bring it up on 01/08/18.
Merry Christmas from Mama, Myself and the Dog pack.
Most of the people in favor of the war on pain meds have never experienced any pain in their lives.
Yeppers!
Merry Christmas
P.S.
[President Trump Delivers Remarks on Combatting Drug Demand and the Opioid Crisis]
Unlisted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I54ffF8FY0
More MAGA!
and Merry Christmas to you and yours
Very true. It’s even worse when it’s 24/7/365.
The only worse pain I’ve had was last Christmas Day when while in the Hospital for My Neuropathy I was coming back up to the room from an MRI when My intestine ruptured, THAT WAS PAIN ON A SCALE I’VE NEVER HAD BEFORE AND NEVER WANT AGAIN!
On the stupid scale they use these days of 0 to 10 that was a 20 and My Neuropathy is an 8.
>>If the Doc gave Your Uncle pain meds for that then I blame the Doc.
The Doc gave my uncle pain meds for his chronic degenerated knee and hip joint issues.
He prescribed the other uses himself.
Heroic, Yep. But indestructible? Nope. The point is that if opiates can essentially ruin somebody like him, they can ruin anybody.
POTUS Trump is Right On Target.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I54ffF8FY0
Once again wasting our time with scandalous fallacy....
It has destroyed communities across the country, mostly communities that had no previous experience with heroin. The dealers are illegal aliens from one specific area in Mexico. And their targets include children.
Drug companies spend millions on tests and clinical trials to convince the federal government that their drugs are safe and effective. Once they get FDA approval they can sell the drug, but consumers can’t just walk up and buy it. You can only get an opioid if your state-licensed physician prescribes it for you. And you can only fill that prescription at a licensed pharmacy. So, there are at least two levels of learned professionals between the manufacturer and the consumer, and both have to give the OK for you to legally acquire a prescription medicine, let alone a controlled substance. I would be surprised if the drug companies have violated any criminal laws; much less surprised if the doctors, pharmacies and consumers violated the laws.
This “war on Opioids” is a bunch of crap for those of Us that have a legitimate use for them.
Era’s have been strong-armed into not prescribing opioids to patients who come in for pain relief only. The government knows they won’t get compliance from drug dealers, so they target doctors and their patients, and there’s NOTHING patients can do about it. And, for now, there’s nothing doctors can do about it, either, because the AM A is extremely political, so they’re no help, and groups like AARP and other “advocacy” groups are also in the pocket of mock crusading “experts”. This all springs from obamacare regulations, sjw’s, and whoever else can politically benefit from it. Toradol, BTW, is a very effective non-narcotic pain reliever, which, of course, is not available except in a hospital or advanced clinical setting, so that’s out. Ketoprofen used to be available over the counter, and was pretty effective, but they stopped selling it in the U.S. several years ago, though it is available by prescription. Naturally, now that it’s prescription only, the price has ballooned. You can now buy 10%lidocaine over the counter, in a spray form. It is sold, of all things, as a numbing agent for men to apply to their penises, so they can play longer, without climaxing too soon! I found it at Wal-Mart, while searching for lidocaine products, where, though expensive, it is much cheaper than Amazon. I apply it to my husband’s back, (he has disc disease and arthritis) and he says it helps. You can buy lidocaine lotion over the counter, but it’s a much weaker strength (4%). It’s made by Aspercreme. Doctors can order the pharmacist to compound creams made with anti-inflammatants and steroids, like ibuprofen and cortisone. It’s expensive. Years ago, I ground up a bunch of ibuprofen and mixed it with hydrocortisone cream, and rubbed that on my husband’s back. He thought it helped. If you do that, it has to be mixed with a steroid cream, or some other known “bioavailable” cream, so it will be absorbed. Regular skin creams or lotions won’t be absorbed. Some people swear by DSMO. You can buy it at health food stores. It also has bioavailable properties.
I sympathize with you. It’s heartbreaking to see a loved one in pain, unable to live a normal life, just because of politics.
“Moderate intensity aerobic exercises can play a valuable role to disrupt the normal progression of DPN in type 2 diabetes.”
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1056872713003322
Good luck.
/eom
President Trump, like most honest legislators, only knows what the “experts” tell them. They’re being lied to, just like the rest of us.
E R.s, NOT Era’s (darned autocorrect!
>>President Trump, like most honest legislators, only knows what the “experts” tell them.
And when the swamp’s bidness model is raized. I hope he bombs it again, just to make sure.
Q: Why are opiates always a last stop on the progressive self-medication train ride?
A: Because they let the afflicted individual shut down and sleep.
More Soma please?
Whoever made the Wizard of Oz illustrated what drug dealers know: Snow to stay awake, Poppies to sleep.
Nothing new under the Aten.
It seems obvious that the vast majority would be junkies, or addicts, if you prefer, buying their drugs “on the street”, no matter how upscale the street might be.
But we need to go deeper.
The overwhelming number of addicts began by taking prescribed opioids, implying either they or their insurer was paying a doctor. Not your typical street bum. They weren’t taking them recreationally. But then they were cut off.
The black market price for the typical opioid analgesics is high, about $100-$200 a pill. Heroin is typically a quarter of that price.
According to a drug counselor friend, they typically tell themselves that they will just snort or smoke heroin, “but two weeks later they are injecting it.”
This becomes acutely murderous because of the very powerful Fentanyl and its analogues, as seen on this table of Equianalgesics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equianalgesic
They are very cheap to manufacture and easy to smuggle.
Fentanyl itself is 50-100 times stronger than oral morphine. Carfentanil, a popular analogue, is from 10,000-100,000 times stronger. The RCMP estimates that 50 micrograms will overdose the average adult.
So drug dealers cut their heroin with them, and addicts die in their hundreds.
This is why the government needs a breakdown of the OD mortality. I suspect it is predominantly white, middle and upper middle class, well educated, otherwise successful people.
Right now, several states are suing some of the lesser drug manufacturers for using unethical or illegal means to get doctors to over-prescribe opioids to their patients.
The overwhelming number of addicts began by taking prescribed opioids, implying either they or their insurer was paying a doctor. Not your typical street bum. They weren’t taking them recreationally. But then they were cut off.
____________________
I don’t think this is true, not in my work. I see a broad variety of addicts and although there are some working and middle class prescribed opiate addicts, the vast majority are people who like to ride the drug, whatever the drug.
I’M NOT DIABETIC!!!
This is from chemicals at the Water Plant I worked at.
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