The Opioid Epidemic - A.K.A The Crisis of Addiction

So how is whitelandia doing after Donny Bighands said he was going to address the opioids crisis?

https://www.motherjones.com/politic...ows-er-visits-for-overdoses-are-skyrocketing/

More dismal news from the front lines of the opioid epidemic: Emergency room visits for opioid overdoses climbed by nearly 30 percent between July of 2016 and September 2017, according to a report published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 143,000 Americans were brought to the ER for opioid overdoses during the 15-month period.​

 

I thought him winning was going to cure Whitelandia's ills? Well maybe those coal & steel jobs will.

 

The Failing NY Times reports on the opioid problem of Northern California.

Needle By Needle

 

I will do ANY drug you put in front of me but I will scream like a little girl at the sight of a needle. Thus, I never got the appeal of shooting up.

 

It comes down to economics. The cheapest way, in the end, is the needle. It's the best bang for the buck.

 

The author Barry Meier has been on this beat for over a decade. He just published an update if a book he wrote 15 years ago on this topic, and I'm pretty sure he has a Pulitzer for his reporting.

 

Donny's job is not to be Hillary Clinton. As long as he does that, he'll be fine with his supporters. I don't think many of them expect him to do accomplish much. Playing golf, not being Hillary, and pissing off libtards is the job description. And you know, Donny can do those things.

 

He doesn't piss me off. I'm thoroughly enjoying his time in office. Watching DT and the sycophants that surround him stumble around in a state of constant panic, fighting enemies, real or imagined, is great crack. That Mike Pence and his religious nutters passing laws and advancing their far-right radical agenda that pisses me off.

 

The doctors who wrote excessive numbers of border-line prescriptions to people who didn't need them should also get jail time and loss of their medical license.

 

I believe in the press conference about the doctors busted in Kentucky it was said the doctors would be treated like any other drug dealer.

 

Wake me the the distributors and the manufacturers are treated like any other kingpin.

 

Correct, I find them (in almost every case but not all) more culpable than the doctors.

Plus every time they go after doctors they do it based on bad logic. The people who usually suffer are legit patients having trouble kicking actual pain who get swept up in a numbers/dosing game trying to find the few doctors who only prescribe for no good reason but kick-backs.

 

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/ne...in-pill-federal-prescription-bust/3482202002/

 

Read that link I posted above.

 

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/02/7113...-kapoor-found-guilty-in-landmark-bribery-case

Hadn’t been following this but some of these people are now looking at twenty years

 

https://reason.com/video/these-people-are-risking-prison-to-help-philadelphias-drug-users/

Addiction advocates in Philadelphia are gearing up for a fight with federal law enforcement over a so-called supervised injection site, where drug use can take place in the presence of medical professionals.

Fatal overdoses from opioids in the United States have increased by about 250 percent since 2007. The problem is particularly acute in a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, which has the nation's third highest overdose death rate.

In the city of Philadelphia, overdose deaths are concentrated in the neighborhood of Kensington, where a supervised injection site known as Safehouse is slated to open.

At Safehouse, drug users will be invited to drop in and inject themselves with drugs like heroin. If they overdose, supervising staff will administer the overdose reversal drug Naloxone, often known by the brand name Narcan. The facility will also provide clean needles and a sanitary environment.​

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This really isn't even an experiment anymore. This is pretty much the best way to solve the problems associated with addictions. It has been tried, and it works better than anything else.

Bit of a pleasant surprise to see that former PA governor Ed Rendell is on the board

 

Judge holds J&J accountable:

https://www.motherjones.com/crime-j...ling-the-opioid-epidemic-in-a-historic-trial/

The state’s argument against Johnson and Johnson was multi-pronged. First, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter alleged that the company oversold its own opioid products, Nucynta and Duragesic, by targeting high-volume prescribers, paying key opinion leaders, funding pain patient advocacy groups, and generally promoting the idea that opioids were safe and effective for chronic pain. The state also accused the company of quietly dominating the opioid market for years, growing poppies in Tasmania and selling narcotics to leading drug companies, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma. According to documents made public during the trial, by 2016, Johnson and Johnson subsidiary Noramco was allegedly the nation’s top supplier of opioids, including oxycodone (found in OxyContin and Percocet), hydrocodone (found in Vicodin), codeine, and morphine. Throughout the trial, Johnson and Johnson denied wrongdoing and said it had been made a “scapegoat.”

 

It's a start, but still just a slap on the wrist that might not stop them from continuing their actions.

J&J had $20.6 Billion in sales in the second quarter. Not profit, but I don't see the fine as being big enough to discourage them.

 

A quarter of your yearly income would be huge, especially for a publicly traded company.

I think the size of the fine may have to do with J&J being a company the indexes and public pension funds are heavily invested in. Can’t hurt them too much [emoji35]