CVS, Walmart and Walgreens fueled opioid crisis, US jury finds

The Guardian - UK ^ | 23 Nov 2021 | Staff

[DennisR]

Who wrote the prescriptions? This is just a money grab.

[Species8472]

And many chronic pain patients are now going to the streets for Mexican/Chinese Fentanyl pouring across the border. Know of several accidental overdose deaths from this.

[Bonemaker]

Another corrupt tobacco settlement type scam. Pharmacies should just stop filling prescriptions for pain killers and let the whining, bitching and law suits begin

[Galactica]

But they’re not giving out Ivermectin so everything is fine. Nothing to see here.

[grumpygresh]

This is totally bogus fed by the false narrative that prescription opioids are driving the drug OD. It’s illicit fentanyl made in China and brought in by cartels, protected by DEA protection racket.
The CDC miscoded fentanyl deaths as prescription opioid deaths. That’s why people thought this was due to prescription opioids and the DEA began rounding up doctors prescribing opioids. This
The fact is that even the DEA admits that illicit drugs and opioids are much less safe than prescription opioids.
The people dying of drug ODs and illicit fentanyl are generally in their 20s and that’s not the population that takes prescription opioids for chronic pain.
Meanwhile, the DEA’s war on pain patients and their doctors has resulted in increased MIs, suicides and illicit drug use by pain patients.
DEA needs to be abolished and agents charged with treason and murder

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40122-021-00254-z.pdf

https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/03/19/cdc-quietly-admits-it-screwed-dishonestly-counting-pills-12717

https://www.dea.gov/alert/sharp-increase-fake-prescription-pills-containing-fentanyl-and-meth

[CaptainK]

All over the country there are pharmacies refusing to fill ivermectin prescriptions.

https://slate.com/technology/2021/09/pharmacists-ivermectin-prescriptions.html

[grumpygresh]

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0033354919878429?fbclid=IwAR2z8qq__1oyvqqOEkcYtE8zzFaNY1PbgdT_q5pti9DEVjPHe7HNS5Q5EL8#articleShareContainer

Massachusetts study, 1.3% ODD had active opioid prescription.

[grumpygresh]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376871621004841?dgcid=raven_sd_aip_email

Objective
“Overdose and death rates from opioids continue to rise. However, the relative contribution of prescription opioids to the ongoing crisis is unclear. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between prescription opioid dispensing and opioid-related morbidity and mortality.
Methods
Regional-level data for this ecological study were extracted from publicly available databases for the years 2013–2018 in Ontario, Canada. The primary exposure variable was opioids dispensed, in milligram morphine equivalents (MME), per capita by public health unit (PHU) in a given year. The primary outcome was the rate of opioid-related emergency department (ED) visits per 100,000 by PHU. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) analytic models were developed to account for clustering by PHU over time while adjusting for demographic and population health characteristics at the regional level.
Results
Higher per capita MME of opioids dispensed was associated with lower rates of opioid-related ED visits per 100,000 (β=-0.091, 95 % CI: -0.110 to -0.077, p < 0.001), as well as with lower rates of opioid-related deaths per 100,000 (β=-0.012, 95 % CI: -0.014 to -0.007, p < 0.001). In subgroup analyses based on time periods (2016–2018 vs. 2013–2015), this negative association was seen only for the period 2016–2018.
Interpretation
Higher per capita regional opioid prescribing was not positively associated with an increased rate of opioid-related emergency room visits or opioid-related deaths. Further studies with patient-level data are needed to better understand our findings.”

[Rebelbase]

An old girlfriend’s brother had debilitating headaches from a career as a car painter. Around 2003 the Dr. prescribed Oxy and it worked well but they cut him off after a set time but he was hooked and it was messy. He switched to crack until he couldn’t pay one night and the dealer broke his leg.

[grumpygresh]

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpain.2021.721357/full “The estimated risk of death from opioid treatment involving doses above 100 MMED is ~0.25%/year.” “The prevalence of opioid use disorder associated with prescription opioids is likely <3%.” “For example, the case-fatality rates associated with >100 MMED opioid therapy are comparable to the risks of fatal bleeding associated with use of rivaroxaban (0.2%/year) and warfarin (0.5%/year) in the prophylaxis of stroke due to atrial fibrillation (48)” “Vowles et al. a mean rate of ostensible addiction of 3.27%, and a complicated and nuanced picture of opioid use and misuse in patients on opioid therapy for chronic non-cancer pain.”

[Vendome]

Gun stores are next...

[Tacrolimus1mg]

Great. I don’t go to any of those pharmacies, but I’ll bet my doctors are going to try altering my meds now. I have nerve damage in my left arm, and that’s all that helps. I haven’t had a dosage increase in a decade, a decrease actually, but this will sound alarm bells for them.

I’ll be back in tears with my useless arm in a sling in no time.

[Lumper20]

I had two pharmacies refuse to fill my pain RX’s last month. As of
JAN 1st BCBS TN will no longer honor Walgreens as a preferred pharmacy. I tried two others. This crap is hurting older people in real pain plus younger folks.

[bravo whiskey]

Funny how different people react differently to pain meds FOR PAIN. 4 years ago i started oxy for cervical stenosis. When the pain hit i was completely incapacitated. Started low dose 4 a day. No buzz just easing of pain. After starting PT and getting my first shot I was down 2 most days, 3 some days. In 6 weeks after PT and second shot I was off them completely. NEVER got a buzz, just relief.
Now my MD has to send me to a pain doctor who does not know me, if I need pain meds. Just STUPID.
I could not have functioned without them.

[Lumper20]

Pain MD’s fax RX’s.

[Lumper20]

Yes, class II narcotics are not handed out.

[Basket_of_Deplorables]

I despise trial lawyers. Grifters.

[frank ballenger]

I take it as a compliment you would give me that link with so much detail in it. Honestly I read some paragraphs and skimmed the rest (not expecting the teacher in school will give a pop quiz Monday since she was probably drunk all weekend and will be hungover).

When I hear of the many fentanyl and heroin deaths and then hear again that the Chinese and organized US crime syndicates are using the open border to smuggle the drugs, I remember Bill O’Reilly recently said organized crime bosses love Joe Biden. He lets so many illegals in all at once that the agents at the Border cannot search so many incoming trucks and phony industrial shipments because they’re already overworked. In come more drugs than ever in history. Then China is glad to have undermined the US along with Zhao Bai-Den, their patsy.

[grumpygresh]

DEA has worked with Chinese narcotics police for over 30 years. There’s no question that DEA has been compromised just as many other agencies politicians and institutions have been over that time.

https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-09/DEA%20Testimony%20-%20China%20and%20Fentanyl%20HFAC_0.pdf

[kearnyirish2]

I had an oral surgeon insist on handing me a prescription I assured him I would never fill; he wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, and I never filled it.

This “opioid crisis” is like the crack epidemic for the middle and upper classes, turning productive normals into junkies. Criminal!