Opioid Crisis in OK; Who’s to Blame?

[Shadowrider]

From my link above:

During the trial, Johnson & Johnson said blame for the epidemic could not fairly be placed on one company with such modest sales, whose drugs were approved and strictly regulated by state and federal agencies.

Johnson & Johnson said that the state could not show how Oklahoma’s problems, which the company said arose from the diversion of hydrocodone and oxycodone, could be linked to Janssen, which did not make those drugs. It cited black-box warnings on Duragesic, its fentanyl patch, which cautioned about the potential for abuse and addiction. And it said the state had not identified any doctor who had been misled by the company about the dangers of opioids.

So just how did they get dinged for over a half billion? They gots money and the state (and the feds too) are taking it. That's how.

 

[PJM]

Hi All,
This is a touchy subject and there appears to be two simultaneous, but entirely different conversations going on here that are constantly crisscrossing each other. There ahs to be a delineation of legal opioid use verses illegal opioid use. I was a nurse for over a quarter century, I have myself broken some 58, yes I said 58 bones and no I'm not talking about knuckles toes and fingers. Opioids are wonderful pain relievers and when used appropriately can given people the ability to have a good quality of life they otherwise would not have been able to enjoy. Pain meds should be use for pain meds. The problem with legally prescribed meds is when they are being used to deal with things other than pain. Such as trying to forget about the world or the "euphoric" feeling to escape from ones reality. We need to know that even if prescribed by a doctor when we use prescription medication for uses other than that which they were prescribed for, we are in fact using that drug/medication illegally. I have been on Percocet several times but I did not use it even as much as the script said I could. Why, because I did not need it for pain, and I surely was smart enough to realize that if I started to use it for "other" things it was road to sure destruction. OH and don't think for a minute that I don't understand addiction because I was an alcoholic, smoker, and drug user. How did I stop, well some will laugh others will say Come on now! I was born again on 4/29/1995 and I have not had a cigarette or drink since then. But that is not the point of this. People who need strong pain control are not using these meds for those other reasons. They have a medical need and are using the drugs to ease their physical pain.

Now the other part of this conversation rests in the fact that these drugs are widely available illegally and the people that sell them by and large could not care any more about the damage they do to you or your family than the DSA/dnc would care to remove all gun laws from the books. These people sell this medication oxycodone, oxycontin, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin to make money. They want you to get addicted because that means you have to keep coming back. They are animals and as far as I am concerned they need long prison sentences and if a person dies from drugs they supplied they should face murder charges. As to responsibility wee are responsible for what we do to our own bodies. IF I choose to ingest illegal drugs and my kidneys shut down it isn't GOD's fault, it isn't the govs fault, it is my fault. As for those who have lost loved ones to this war I can sympathize with you. I have a brother that is 24/7 on oxygen because he would not stop taking drugs. His wife died from a drug overdose, he lost a son to a drug overdose, but ultimately each of these people were responsible for their own actions.

IT is wrong to group these two facets of this conversation together because they are not the same. Those who have legit medical need of opioid pain medications will likely not find relief from other pain meds. Those who choose to use them to alter their reality will no doubt become addicts and will cross what ever lines they have to to feed that addiction. I know how that story goes, I was there. While very unpopular in this I will say that those who succumb to this and are addicted understand full well what it means to be possessed by the devil because there is no closer thing to that than being addicted to a drug that you could literally die if you do not get your fix. Is there a crisis, yes. To stop the unnecessary part of this close the border except for legit points of entry, go after the cartels and destroy the enemy if necessary, and offer treatment to those who want help, and do not coddle the people that are in this situation and have no desire to remove themselves from it. Placation will only further the course of personal destruction that they are on.
JMHO

 

[Defcon Shooter]

Not at all the same. Now if a gun manufacturer was selling billions of trillions of rifles that are know to blow up when you fire them, thus blowing people's face off but the manufacturer was telling the public that these are a very safe gun... That would be a good comparison. It's apples and gummy bears different as it it.

No it's up to an individual to research their health care. Especially in the information age of today. I was given Oxycodone after surgery 30 units in 325 MG tablets. I took three over course of my recovery because i know pain slow the healing process. Simply fact findings. If you got hooked on this stuff it's on you.

 

[donner]

@donner; Why would the ATF care about fragrances used to make soap?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I believe it was because some were able to (or could be used in conjunction with other stuff) make things go boom. I was just thinking about it in the context of relatively innocuous items, like fertilizer and other items, that we've come to track closely when purchased in large quantities. Just getting at the discrepancy that manufactures report suspicious activity for those items, yet not for 21 million pills, to a town of 3000, over a 10 month period.

 

[donner]

For those interested, Radio Lab did an interesting story on the concept of addiction, and our history of treatment. Including a long look at how Americans have generally treated it as a failing of character, even when there is some evidence that it can be a problem with brain chemistry (i believe the example used is a light switch that is stuck in the 'on' position for some people vs others whose switches operate normally). It also looks at the 'crutch' that some people experience with addiction that goes beyond the substance (things like 'i've been drinking for so long, i don't know who i am when sober' kind of stuff).

The Simple Fix

My wife and i found it very interesting, given our experiences with our son's birth mom and her addiction issues (and subsequent successes using a shot for treatment with her addiction issues*)

*there remain other issues, including viewing other substances as not an issue since 'my issues were with opioids'.

 

[Grendelshooter]

Just like the gun debate the user is responsible not the product. No more than an AR15 is responsible for a school shooting

Except no gun maker ever advertised their wares as nearly entirely harmless, with less than a 1% chance of injury.

 

[CHenry]

Well I'm glad to see OK setting a new precident that ever other state will benefit from is better control of these drugs. There will be many more lawsuits and if every state gets half a billion in retribution, that will be 26 billion or so to use in helping rehabilitate, educate and help people addicted or needing these drugs. This epidemic is a nasty one

 

[CHenry]

Except no gun maker ever advertised their wares as nearly entirely harmless, with less than a 1% chance of injury.

Someone gets it!
Thank you sir.

 

[Grendelshooter]

For those interested, Radio Lab did an interesting story on the concept of addiction, and our history of treatment. Including a long look at how Americans have generally treated it as a failing of character, even when there is some evidence that it can be a problem with brain chemistry (i believe the example used is a light switch that is stuck in the 'on' position for some people vs others whose switches operate normally). It also looks at the 'crutch' that some people experience with addiction that goes beyond the substance (things like 'i've been drinking for so long, i don't know who i am when sober' kind of stuff).

The Simple Fix

My wife and i found it very interesting, given our experiences with our son's birth mom and her addiction issues (and subsequent successes using a shot for treatment with her addiction issues*)

*there remain other issues, including viewing other substances as not an issue since 'my issues were with opioids'.

I didn’t really understand my moms addiction to the stuff until I got wounded.
It was the first time I was ever given morphine and I instantly understood why people would do the things junkies do.
The feeling of just pure joy, a warm, soft blanket that washes over you and makes everything feel good! Better than good! Absolute perfect bliss. It’s the most perfect feeling I have ever had.
It felt so damned good it was scary. I had second degree burns all over my face and hands but I felt nothing but bliss.
I had to take the stuff for 2 weeks while my skin was heeling back. Thank god I wasn’t a civilian because I’m not sure I could have stopped in my own accord.

If you’ve got the genes for it it is literally beyond your control.
And the people that made it knew that. Just as alcohol distributors know 1/10th of their consumers will be permanent alcoholics and bank on it for profit.
It’s pretty damned dirty.

 

[Shadowrider]

For those interested, Radio Lab did an interesting story on the concept of addiction, and our history of treatment. Including a long look at how Americans have generally treated it as a failing of character, even when there is some evidence that it can be a problem with brain chemistry (i believe the example used is a light switch that is stuck in the 'on' position for some people vs others whose switches operate normally). It also looks at the 'crutch' that some people experience with addiction that goes beyond the substance (things like 'i've been drinking for so long, i don't know who i am when sober' kind of stuff).

The Simple Fix

My wife and i found it very interesting, given our experiences with our son's birth mom and her addiction issues (and subsequent successes using a shot for treatment with her addiction issues*)

*there remain other issues, including viewing other substances as not an issue since 'my issues were with opioids'.

The bolded part. That's the thing.

Long term use of opioids basically "rewires parts of the brain" for lack of a better description. If one stops using it reverts back, but it takes years and it may not even go to a complete normal. It doesn't take years to be altered. This knowledge isn't new. Basically everyone knows this now and those that try to blame it on the pharmas and doctors are full of denial or just flat lying.