Posted on 11/17/2021 5:15:28 AM PST by Kaslin
Since 2014, state and local governments have filed thousands of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies they blame for causing the "opioid crisis" by exaggerating the benefits and minimizing the risks of prescription pain medication. The theory underlying these cases is pretty straightforward: Drug manufacturers lied, and people died.
Two recent rulings -- one by a California judge, the other by the Oklahoma Supreme Court -- show how misleading this widely accepted narrative is. Both decisions recognize that undertreatment of pain is a real problem, and that bona fide patients rarely become addicted to prescription opioids, let alone die as a result.
Three California counties, joined by the city of Oakland, started the flood of litigation against opioid manufacturers seven years ago when they filed a complaint arguing that the companies they sued created a "public nuisance" by encouraging increased use of their products through a false or misleading marketing campaign. The four jurisdictions sought more than $50 billion in damages.
Following a bench trial that began on April 19 and wrapped up at the beginning of last month, Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to prove any of their allegations. In a scathing 42-page ruling issued on Nov. 1, Wilson said the supposedly incriminating statements cited by the plaintiffs were neither false nor misleading.
As Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, noted in a 2016 review of the evidence, "addiction occurs in only a small percentage of persons who are exposed to opioids -- even among those with preexisting vulnerabilities." The California plaintiffs nevertheless argued that it was false or misleading to say that "most" pain patients who take opioids do not show signs of addiction.
That statement is consistent even with the plaintiffs' claim that one in four patients become addicted, an estimate that Wilson concluded was not supported by the evidence. "The more reliable data," he said, "would suggest less than 5%, rather than 25%."
Similarly, the plaintiffs portrayed the concept of "pseudoaddiction," which posits that doctors might mistakenly view patients desperate for pain relief as "drug-seeking" addicts, as nothing but a marketing ploy. But as Wilson noted, "this is a medically recognized term," and California law acknowledges the potential for such confusion.
The plaintiffs viewed any suggestion that an opioid "improves function" as deceptive. But Wilson thought it was "beyond debate" that opioids can improve function by controlling pain well enough for a patient to resume quotidian activities such as shopping, cooking and cleaning.
Wilson noted that the plaintiffs "made no effort to distinguish between medically appropriate and medically inappropriate prescriptions." Since both California and the federal government have determined that the benefits of medically appropriate opioid use outweigh its risks, he said, a rise in prescriptions by itself cannot constitute a "public nuisance."
A week later, the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected similar claims against Johnson & Johnson, one of the defendants in the California case. The court said Cleveland County Judge Thad Balkman, who in a landmark 2019 ruling held the company liable for his state's opioid-related problems, "erred in extending the public nuisance statute to the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of prescription opioids."
Like Wilson, the justices emphasized the distinction between use and abuse. While "improper use of prescription opioids led to many of these (opioid-related) deaths," they said, "few deaths occurred when individuals used pharmaceutical opioids as prescribed."
The court noted that "opioids are currently a vital treatment option" for chronic pain, "a persistent and costly health condition" that "affects millions of Americans." It added that the Food and Drug Administration "has endorsed properly managed medical use of opioids (taken as prescribed) as safe, effective pain management, and rarely addictive."
That is not the impression left by the lawsuits that seek to blame drug companies for opioid-related deaths, which nowadays overwhelmingly involve illicit fentanyl. Patients should not have to suffer from unrelieved pain simply because the medication they need can be abused.
About time.
While i think big pharma is a bunch of whores who prioritize profits, fact is the doctors prescribing this stuff and even more so, the people who take it mindlessly, are equally to blame.
Yet there are times when opiates are medically essential. The issue then becomes when, how, and who will be authorized to prescribe them. I am hard put to imagine the current system as undeserving of criticism or incapable of improvement.
As a recent opioid patient I charge that you are just full of crap.
I have recently become inflicted with intense periodic pain. So far, Medicare has been charged up to about $20k with no real diagnosis.
When the pain strikes, an oxycodone tablet makes it go away
I have experienced all sorts of injury, illness and serious surgery that did not produce such pain. I was prescribed the pills but did not need them. Now is much different.
The episodes occur infrequently and last 8 to 12 hours. The pills do the job
I’m not saying they are not necessary- i’m just saying the responsibility lies with more than just the pharma companies- and the courts seem to agree.
Opioids are absolutely essential for pain management.
The government imposed rules where patients could grade doctors on how well they were treated. In order to not be graded poorly doctors would give pain meds (and antibiotics) too freely. The government is at fault.
Obviously you have a reading comprehension issue. Good luck with you other issues.
“While “improper use of prescription opioids led to many of these (opioid-related) deaths,” they said, “few deaths occurred when individuals used pharmaceutical opioids as prescribed.””
I use vicodin daily to help alleviate the symptoms of my chronic pain. I don’t take more than prescribed, or less. Been taking vicodin for a while now. No problems.
Lumping me in with people who abuse opioids was just plain wrong. I think a lot of the abuse started when the fed scheduled vicodin and other opioids and made it more difficult to get.
I have taken low doses of Oxycodone daily for 20 years to help with a lower back issue. If one believed the propaganda, I should be a raging addict. However, I am not addicted to anything.
Last month my pharmacy could not refill my prescription for 7 days because of supply issues. I had to do without. No withdrawal symptoms nor did I feel the need to go rob a drug store or find a dose of Heroin.
The pain medication makes it possible for me to work 60 hours a week and live a seemingly normal life during this time. I’m very glad these 2 cases illustrated the truth about physician managed pain control.
I think they want to exchange pain management for voluntary suicide. Much cheaper in many ways.
Becoming addicted to opiates 40 years ago literally saved my life, we all knew I would become addicted, I had lots of talks with my Doctors, but there was No other options other than a medical coma for 3 months, which was out of the question. but back then Doctors actually cared about thier patients, so they had me go through managed withdrawls in the Hospital under Doctors Care for 1 week before I had my surgery, after my surgery I was clean and Pain Free. But think about this, when the drugs wore off, I had less than 1 hour to get more in my system before I went in to Shock and Hit the Ground, wherever I was at.
What would you do in that situation?
Years ago I was on a permitted dose of hydrocodone 10/325 four times a day. In time I regulated myself to where 1-1.5 tablets a day allowed me to have a fairly good quality of life. Then came the opioid crisis and I was taken off my medication. Since then I have endured epidurals, Botox treatments, nerve ablation, physical therapy and many visits to a pain specialist caused by limitations on prescribed medicines. Previously I had a reasonably good life for a couple of dollars or less a day. Now I have lesser quality of life for thousands of dollars a year. I feel that I have been punished because of a few addicts and enabling physicians and would welcome a relaxed attitude towards opioids.
My own experience is when I’ve been prescribed that stuff (i’ve had three major leg surgeries the past 12 years) i turned it down.
Then there is the GOD of Fentynal:
George Floyd....who swallowed his way to infamy.
The problem is the people who aren’t in severe pain but are addicted. It was an epidemic here. They caught a local pastor stealing pain pills from people he visited
The truth is leaking out despite the best efforts of the trial lawyers. Is personal responsiblity having a comeback?
If opioids are outlawed then only Muslims and Asians will have opioids. LOL
I’m not usually a fan of this author Jacob Sullum, but he’s absolutely on the mark here. It’s just another manufactured “crisis” to skirt responsibility at the expense of drug manufacturers.
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