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| Science & Technology |
| The Opioid Epidemic - Is 'Big Pharma' killing Small-Town America ? |
| 2016-10-16 |
| [WAPO] UNNATURAL CAUSES: Sick and Dying In Small-Town America. Since the turn of this century, death rates have risen for whites in midlife, particularly women. In this series, The Washington Post is exploring this trend and the forces driving it. Cancer patients taking high doses of opioid painkillers are often afflicted by a new discomfort: constipation. Researcher Jonathan Moss thought he could help, but no drug company was interested in his ideas for relieving suffering among the dying. So Moss and his colleagues pieced together small grants and, in 1997, received permission to test their treatment. But not on cancer patients. Federal regulators urged them to use a less frail -- and by then, rapidly expanding -- group: addicts caught in the throes of a nationwide opioid epidemic. Suddenly, Moss said, investors were knocking at his door. "As clinicians, we wanted to help palliative patients," said Moss, a professor and physician at University of Chicago Medicine. "The company that bought our work saw a broader market." |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 Any idea how Big Pharma gets these drugs into the black market and makes money on it? Most of what we see is "legally" over-prescribed meds...prescribed to addicts and small time sellers...that shop for doctors in several states. Strange, it seems that ye olde illegal dealers fund both the new opioid treatment centers...and flood the market with very cheap heroin. Get the illegal money on the front end with the heroin, and the government money on the back end with insurance payments for treatment. Hell of a deal ain't it? |
| Posted by: Tennessee 2016-10-16 21:08 |
| #4 Don't forget the most damning statistic, which has been floating around for over 15 years. The pharmaceutical companies annually manufacture over 6 times the amount of prescription pain killers as are prescribed and used in health care. I guess we know where the rest of them went. Any idea how Big Pharma gets these drugs into the black market and makes money on it? |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2016-10-16 15:52 |
| #3 The opiate of the people turns out to be - opiates. Marx looks up from Hell shaking his head... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-10-16 08:44 |
| #2 Maybe all according to plan. There is that recently released Ivey-Podesta email and Hillary has a very cozy relationship with Wall Street: And as I’ve mentioned, we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking – and not just poll driven, demographically-inspired messaging. Ivey to Podesta The left/Progressives/Dems believe it is important to have an uninformed, unaware and compliant population. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2016-10-16 07:38 |
| #1 The Washington Post is exploring this trend and the forces driving it. Unlike our urban utopias, rural populations tend to be independent, self-sufficient, distrustful of government, and reluctant to move into more structured environments. The 'die off' is probably just coincidental. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-10-16 04:29 |