62,000 moms, dads, kids, friends, uncles, aunts died from drug overdoses last year.

Thank you, opioid manufacturers.

Let’s be very clear – this would not be happening if the “legitimate” pill pushers hadn’t co-opted, bribed, lied, and sleazed, funded fake patient advocacy groups, paid hundreds of millions to lobbyists, all in the name of profit.

This is going to get a lot worse – and there is NO indication it’s going to get better.

Drug overdose deaths are skyrocketing in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Florida. Researchers estimate Ohio’s death rate jumped by 25% last year.

The drugs users are taking are so powerful that Narcan – the “get out of jail free” injectable antidote – is becoming increasingly impotent. “E.M.S. crews are hitting them with 12, 13, 14 hits of Narcan with no effect,” said Mr. Burke, likening a shot of Narcan to “a squirt gun in a house fire.” (NYTimes)

More than two million of us are addicted, and over a quarter of us used prescription painkillers last year. That’s more than used tobacco.

States are suing opioid manufacturers in an attempt to recoup some of the billions of dollars this disaster is costing taxpayers, as well they should. But those efforts are happening at the same time the FDA is approving new “abuse deterrent” opioids.  FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is focusing on opioids, which is a very good thing. And truth be told, today’s FDA has pretty limited ability to address the problem, in large part because drug manufacturers are going to make damn sure the FDA’s powers stay limited.

Over the last decade, opioid manufacturers spent close to a billion dollars on campaign contributions and lobbying against state laws limiting opioid prescribing. That’s eight times more than the NRA and the gun lobby.

Sounds like a lot of money, right?

Nope – according to Business Insider, in 2015 alone, Purdue, the manufacturer of Oxycontin, made $2.4 billion from opioid sales.

You may recall Oxycontin was marketed as “abuse deterrent”; Purdue told Business Insider last year “We support policies that align with the FDA and The White House’s view that opioids with abuse-deterrent properties are a public health priority.”

They are certainly a profit priority.

What does this mean for you?

You know someone who’s died, a family destroyed, lives ruined by opioids. There are more coming.

 

 

 

 

Insurers are loosening policy language to allow more treatment for opioid addiction. Treatment centers and providers are opening, expanding, and increasing services to meet growing demand. Workers’ comp requires treatment for those addicted or dependent on opioids, leading to higher costs for employers, insurers, and taxpayers. Medicaid will be saddled with much of the burden, as addicts often lose their jobs and have no other coverage – so we taxpayers will foot the bill.

We know who’s going to be writing the checks – ultimately you and me and our nations’ employers in the form of higher insurance premiums, higher taxes, and lower earnings for employers.

That’s wrong.  And not just-kinda-sorta-of-that’s-too-bad wrong, but ethically, morally, and maybe even legally wrong.

The purveyors of this poison have made billions by lying, deceiving, and killing our fellow citizens.  By crushing families, destroying towns, bankrupting businesses, ripping apart our social fabric.

And we’re left paying the bill in dollars, deaths, and soul-searing pain.

I have a modest proposal.  Make the pill-pushers pay. 

Congress should pass a bill, and the president should sign it, making the opioid industry pay for its sins. Treatment coverage, a flat amount for each person that died on their poison, and reimbursement for all past costs incurred by individuals, families, taxpayers, and employers.  Bankrupt the industry, take every penny the owners have, and use it to help those they’ve harmed.

Let’s call it the Corporate Opioid Responsibility Payment Service Establishment Act. CORPSE for short

What does this mean for you?

Make the bastards pay. 

 

 

As “Astroturf group” is one that looks like a “grassroots” organization that is actually founded, funded, and an advocate for a large organization.

Big pharma is infamous for the practice; one great example is the American Pain Foundation, an opioid-peddling outfit masquerading as a patient advocacy organization (thanks to WCC’s Elaine Goodman for the reminder).  The APF was shut down after an expose by ProPublica’s Charley Ornstein and Tracy Weber.

The APF is instructive.  90% of its funding came from big pharma and medical device companies.

Endo, J&J, and Purdue Pharma of OxyContin fame were major backers.  This is the same Purdue that pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in 2007.  Sadly no Purdue executives went to prison despite thousands of deaths and millions of addicts from opioid over-prescribing.

And ruined communities – this was once a trailer occupied by a heroin dealer in Kentucky. (Credit HuffPo)

APF got both the Joint Commission – THE healthcare facility accreditation organization – and the Federation of State Medical Boards – to send letters and publish “guides” and other materials promoting pain as the “Fifth Vital Sign”, a brilliant marketing ploy that required physicians to ask about – and treat – pain.

Their reach extended into the Veterans Administration and hundreds of other organizations. The Fifth Vital Sign campaign, backed almost exclusively by opioid manufacturers, created the opioid disaster we are living thru.

This is not yesterday’s news – it’s happening today.  In many state capitals the opioid industry remains a powerful and insidious force promoting opioid use.

The damage done is incalculable – hundreds of thousands of dead people, millions of addicts, destroyed families, devastated communities.

Why discuss this now?  Because big business is ascendant.  With the incoming administration focused on reducing regulations and oversight across pretty much every industry we will undoubtedly see Astroturf groups proliferate.

What does this mean for you?

Our families and our towns cannot afford another opioid epidemic.