https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/news-releases/mccaskill-requests-investigation-into-opioid-distributor-enforcement
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/28/senate-committee-opens-probe-of-five-big-opioid-makers.html
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/28/15086998/claire-mccaskill-opioid-epidemic-companies
Prescription opioids are likely a gateway drug to other drugs like heroin and fentanyl. Deaths from the latter have increased significantly in the last few years.
A very old and tragic story, modernized by big pharma.
Purdue Pharma is a bunch of sleazeballs who, through recklessness and greed, addicted hundreds of thousands of people to Oxycontin by claiming it lasts 12 hours when it doesn’t, and told doctors to prescribe bigger doses instead of more frequent use. They didn’t care that Oxycontin users suffered withdrawal symptoms after every dose, as long as they got their money. The executives at that company should be in prison, IMO.
Related articles:
https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/heroin-use-rises-significantly-among-young-whites
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-03/tjnj-poh032717.php
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2612444
Related thread here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1975541-increasing-deaths-of-despair-among-white-non-hispanic-americans-with-high-school-or-less-education.html
My brother died from an opioid overdose in 2009. He was a recovering addict who was prescribed an opioid after his shoulder was injured in a car crash. He tried so hard to kick his habit - rehab twice in the weeks right before his death. The fact that there are actually commercials on network tv advertising drugs to counteract the effects of opioid constipation is telling … obviously, there are enough people on opioids that paying a small fortune to advertise these drugs. It really makes me mad.
So sorry, @kelsmom.
Every time I see that ad, and the voiceover says you should see your doctor to get the drug, I think to myself, “See your doctor to get into rehab; the problem here is not the constipation but the opoids.”
Also, direct-to-consumer ads should be illegal.
@kelsmom:
I am sorry for your loss, there are so many victims of this scourge. Hopefully this isn’t just a political stunt (anything involving the governor of my own state is suspect IMO), or an attempt to blame the victims, this needs a stem to stern audit to figure out what is going on.Yes, economic depression is one of the root causes, but there are others, from the drug companies who may be pushing drugs into the supply chain and finding ways to get them prescribed (I saw may because I have seen no conclusive proof), wholesalers who may be selling to shady middlemen who are really drug dealers, doctors who either are corrupt and getting money from dealers and addicts to write prescriptions for this stuff, or are just a little too happy to write prescritions for these drugs.
My guess is we will hear the catchphrase “War on Opiate addiction”, with all these claims of how this is the next big war, we will fight it in the streets of our towns and cities, etc, but it will be more window dressing then really going after the problem from all ends. I was listening to the end of a segment on this on NPR last night, and they were interviewing a guy from New Hampshire, said he was a lifelong conservative, didn’t favor the government doing things, but wondered how committed the government was to this problem when with the health care legislation they were trying to put through it likely would mean plans not covering drug treatment and rehab, which he said was foolish given how vicious this epidemic is.
We need to be very careful about going after doctors. A lot of people have severe pain and opioids can be a very effective method of pain relief. I don’t want the DEA interjecting itself into what should be medical decisions.
In Minnesota there have been overdoses due to a drug that an opioid can be cut with. It is an elephant tranquilizer! One grain of it the size of a poppy seed is terribly dangerous.
While I absolutely believe that direct-to-consumer advertising should be illegal (like it is in the rest of the sane world) and that execs should be in prison for knowingly causing this epidemic, I do want to point out that there are people who really do need long-term opioid use for legitimate reasons. Not everyone who uses opioids use them for short-term injuries or illnesses that will eventually clear up. Some have a lifetime of ever-increasing pain to look forward to.
(And no, I don’t take opioids because I can’t. But if I could? You bet I’d be taking them… long-term if I needed to. .Beats not even be able to roll over because I’m in so much pain. Especially now that I’ve been told that there is nothing else they can try for the pain… hence my turn towards last-ditch things like acupuncture.)
@kelsmom I’m so sorry for your loss.
I personally find it rather alarming that both S and D have been prescribed opiate painkillers by the age of 19. I think doctors should be a little more circumspect before just handing out prescriptions to every Tom, Dick, and Mary.
.
This article presents both sides of the issue:
http://www.vox.com/2017/3/18/14954626/one-simple-way-to-curb-opioid-overuse-prescribe-them-for-3-days-or-less
Someone who is prescribed a 5 day supply of opioids has a 10% chance of still taking opioids a year later. Some doctors have been guilty of prescribing opioids to people who don’t need them, or supplying a prescription with a longer length than necessary.
^The people most likely to be prescribed more than a 5 day supply are those with chronic conditions. Showing 10% of those are still being prescribed opiates a year later shouldn’t come as a large surprise. I would be careful about assuming causality.
I guess I was given the wrong name. I have had back and neck problems for literally decades, and the only time I’ve ever been prescribed opioids in my entire life was after surgery.
Not saying it doesn’t happen, but it’s pretty remarkable to me that this handing out narcs like candy has never happened to me. I never asked for them, but still, you’d think at some point some doctor would have suggested it.
I do think the pendulum can swing too far and that people in pain are going to suffer because docs aren’t going to want the hassle that accompanies using their medical judgment to prescribe narcotics.
Because of chronic paid my wife has a prescription of percocet. I believe we have it in the house. She takes them when she needs them but she has a very high pain tolerance.
I do know that the last time she called about getting a refill she asked the doctor if it was okay and he told her since she had her last prescription issued over a year ago it was fine for her to get the prescription refilled.
I would hate her to have jump through hoops to get a refill when she needs it
I was once given 20 vicoden for a sinus headache. I looked at the doctor, “Shouldn’t I be feeling better with antibiotics in 24 hours?”
I don’t see anything alarming about giving prescription opioids to teenagers. Do teenagers never get injured, have surgery, or experience pain?
Post 6–“The fact that there are actually commercials on network tv advertising drugs to counteract the effects of opioid constipation is telling”
Telling about what? If you need opioids for any number of legitimate uses (cancer, surgery, intractable pain) then constipation is a very real problem.
original post–"prescription opioids are likely a gateway drug to other drugs like heroin and fentanyl. Deaths from the latter have increased significantly in the last few years.
Fentanyl is not being obtained through prescription sources by addicts. It is very cheap and easy to make unfortunately which is why its use is growing.
There was an interesting story on the news yesterday about patient satisfaction surveys causing hospitals to push opiods - http://www.cbsnews.com/news/opioid-epidemic-doctors-say-hospital-patient-satisfaction-survey-fuel-dependence/