America's opioid crisis

[notme]

Quote

Every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids.

¹ The misuse of and addiction to opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.²

How did this happen?

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. This subsequently led to widespread diversion and misuse of these medications before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive.^3,4 Opioid overdose rates began to increase. In 2015, more than 33,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose, including prescription opioids, heroin, and illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.¹ That same year, an estimated 2 million people in the United States suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-crisis

I am admittedly a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but it looks intentional to me, just like the crack epidemic of the 80s. By destroying communities, the people are more easily divided and more easily controlled. 

[AfricanShia]

On 8/2/2017 at 3:06 PM, notme said:

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-crisis

I am admittedly a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but it looks intentional to me, just like the crack epidemic of the 80s. By destroying communities, the people are more easily divided and more easily controlled. 

America is broken. 

[monad]

I will add to your C-theory. HE seems to have some good topics. Heard one today.

[notme]

1 hour ago, notme said:

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates.

At minimum it was gross negligence, and the working poor are bearing a disproportionate burden from the error of the greedy pharmaceutical executives and gullible doctors. Opioid addiction had been around longer than almost any other addiction. How could they believe that somehow, miraculously, these things were no longer addictive?

[notme]

3 hours ago, monad said:

Heard one today.

I'm interested in this video, but it will take me a long time to listen. If I remember, I'll comment on it when I've finished or at least made significant progress. Do you know offhand if a transcript is available? 

[hasanhh]

2 hours ago, notme said:

At minimum it was gross negligence, and the working poor are bearing a disproportionate burden from the error of the greedy pharmaceutical executives and gullible doctors. Opioid addiction had been around longer than almost any other addiction. How could they believe that somehow, miraculously, these things were no longer addictive?

When heroin use began to move out of the inner cities into the campuses and all in the 1960s, the doctors then said once addicted forever addicted. There is no getting off it as, say, a drunk can dry out and stay that way.

[Abu Hadi]

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. 

 

This is called 'plausible deniability'. That is all the pharma companies and the doctors were looking for. They didn't want to get sued. There was never really any solid scientific evidence for the case that patients wouldn't become addicted. Like was said above, opiodes have been around for more than 1000 years, and a large percentage of people who begin using these on a regular basis have been getting addicted for more than 1000 years. 

Medicine is a business in the US, period. Pharma and doctors have the same main concern, which is making a profit. Everything else is so secondary it's almost irrelevant. Opiods make a patient temporarily docile, which means hospitals spend less resources on them in the hospital, and in an outpatient setting directly after surgery or some other medical procedure. Less resources spent on the patients means more money for them. They know fully that after that short period, when the patient is out of their care (and can no longer sue them), a certain, maybe large, percentage of the patients will suffer with addiction, but when your only concern is the bottom line, you don't spend much time thinking about that. 

It is the nature of the current version of capitalism currently practiced in the US that is the problem, and that is destroying not only the US but the whole world. 

Edited August 3, 2017 by Abu Hadi

[notme]

One of my relatives died of opioid overdose after spending many years fighting addiction. It really looks like murder to me. At minimum manslaughter. It's only the poverty and lack of unity of the victims that allows it to continue. 

[Abu Hadi]

And people wonder why we , as muslim, say alcohol is haram. This is a good example of why it is. Because I am quite sure that there is not one of these addicts that didn't start out with alcohol, then escalated to drugs. In American society, becoming intoxicated with alcohol is acceptable in certain situations, and those situations are not 100% clear cut, so the situations expand until sometimes, someones whole life becomes ruined and their children's lives also. 

In Ashtabula County, in Ohio’s northeast corner, the number of children in court custody quadrupled from 69 in 2014 to 279 last year. “I can’t remember the last time I removed a kid and it didn’t have to do with drugs,” says Mongenel, a quick-witted redhead. Her clients range from preschoolers who know to call 911 when a parent overdoses to steely teenagers who cook and clean while Mom and Dad spend all day in the bathroom. Often, the kids marvel at how quickly everything changed—how a loving mom could transform, as one teenager put it, into a “zombie.”

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/children-ohio-opioid-epidemic/

 

We would like to think that this epidemic is limited to non muslims or maybe non shia, but it isn't. Although it is less, it is still there. That is why I tell all brothers and sisters that if they have surgery or a procedure and they are prescribed opiates by a doctor, they should not take them unless the pain is unbearable and they are unable to function. Once the pain is at a level where they can go on with their life, then stop taking the opiates immediately and throw them away in the garbage. Don't think that you have to take all the opiates that the dr prescribes to you. Also, you should educate yourself about what medications you are taking and how they affect your body and if you have chronic pain, it is very unlikely that opiods will solve your problem in the long term. You need to do research and consult knowledgeable people until you find the root of the problem. And have patience, for truely Allah(s.w.a) is with the patient ones. 

 

[Haji 2003]

Lawsuit

Two people fired at consulting firm and apparently no one jailed for a crime that led to 100's of thousands of dead Americans.

 

Quote

McKinsey says it regrets its opioid work. In statements since its first settlement with state authorities in 2021, it has said it stopped working for opioid manufacturers, introduced new procedures to vet consulting engagements, and fired two senior partners “for communicating about document deletion”.

https://www.ft.com/content/dc28b459-a837-4a7a-af9b-0b9620ad26d2

 

Quote

The consulting firm has now agreed more than $1.6bn in payments to federal, state and local authorities who claimed its marketing advice contributed to an epidemic of addiction that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

 

[tsh]

Bismillah

اللهم عجل لولیک الفرج

That's an interesting topic as I am a medical student and also concerned with the social and cultural problems.

I could figure out some key points here. Conspiracy and the structure of world power, the medical profession and industry intentions and practice, the problem of money, the foundational crisis of medical sciences, what to do, what is next.

I think it is possible to do sth about it. the internet is a far more powerful tool than thought before to shape the society. I see a society as a big human having real characteristics and dominating more or less the way the individuals behave. I think we should understand the deep roots and the history of humanity both past and future to do our bests now.

Then I think we need a reform in medical studies, and even scientific inquiry to bring less problematic drugs for patients.

I would be grateful, any of you sharing anything.

May Allah guide us all.

[notme]

My household was traveling in the past week, to visit our relatives in other states. We stopped at a tourist area in West Virginia, and in the restroom there was a "medical waste sharps" deposit box. It is sad that addiction is common enough that such things are needed to keep the staff of the park safe, but good that they are recognizing the problem. Maybe with recognition, treatment will follow.

My step-cousin and her husband, both former opium addicts, work with agencies that help victims of addiction to regain their freedom.

[Hameedeh]

On 8/2/2017 at 6:08 PM, notme said:

I'm interested in this video, but it will take me a long time to listen. 

Salam, Sister. If you click through the video to YouTube, you can pause it. In the description underneath, it ends with the word "more..." Click on that then scroll down to "transcript" and click to read it.