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The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

esquire.com

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Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#251

Post by beachy »

lostlogin wrote: post #248
beachy wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its allowed in NZ, its rare, and limited to headache medicince, asthma remedies and the like. I'm always astonised when I'm in the US at the medical ads on TV. It seems bizarre that companies target advertising at the consumer for products that should really be selected on their behalf by a medical professional. And those disclaimer/warning crack me up.

It’s not rare at all and it’s for a lot more than just the medications described. I can recall erectile dysfunction drugs, anti depressants, pains medications and other miscellaneous drugs. The “Family Health Diary” segment of TV was a particularly perverse one. This article below (which is long) covers the issues well. https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/read-the-journal/all-issues/...

That's amazing, I need to watch TV more. Have never seen any of those.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#252

Post by Nomentatus »

adventured wrote: post #169
Nomentatus wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money can travel - your reputation, not so much. China has a solution, a social score that travels with you everywhere. Dystopian, but it could cure that worship of money thing.

China doesn't have a solution at all. They've unleashed one of the greatest money & wealth rushes ever seen, at the simultaneous cost of taking on the fastest large accumulation of debt in history. Have you seen their asset manias from the last decade? Who worships money more than the Chinese these days?

I think you missed the word "dystopian."

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#254

Post by iaw »

refurb wrote: post #43
iaw wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the article they note that epidemic opioid addiction was correlated with OxyContin prescription volume in a region. This article isn't about Purdue, it's about the Sackler's that influence Purdue, MundiPhrama, and a number of other global pharmaceutical companies to increase their wealth while also "braiding their name" into high society.

There was a resurgence of heroin use back in the 1970's in the US. So it's clear it can happen even without a legal opioid driving it. So why are we so quick to claim causation when there is only correlation? I know, because it sells newspapers!

That was attributed to returning veterans from Vietnam being hooked on opiates and creating a massive market, also the baby boomer generation coming off of "free love" didn't help the problem.

It's generally understood for both that epidemic and the current how the problem arose, in part this understanding was achieved through interviews with addicts.

Going back to the original morphine epidemic in the 19th/20th century it parallels closely the current Purdue/OxyContin epidemic lending further evidence to the driver being OxyContin.

Do you really think that OxyContin is not a driver and only correlated? If so, what is driving the ever-increasing opiate usage?

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#255

Post by valuearb »

pas wrote: post #237
valuearb wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Arizona big pharma was the biggest contributor to the campaign to defeat marijuana legalization.

Links, sources, please.

One example.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/sheila-polk-anti-prop-20...

$500k is a huge amount in Arizona politics.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#256

Post by philwelch »

wavefunction wrote: post #123
philwelch wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because clearly George Steinbrenner is a better moral teacher than Jesus.

Jesus didn't talk about eating pork or not though.

True, but he did teach about not doing good deeds just to show off, which was the original point.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#257

Post by scott_karana »

refurb wrote: post #219
beachy wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its allowed in NZ, its rare, and limited to headache medicince, asthma remedies and the like. I'm always astonised when I'm in the US at the medical ads on TV. It seems bizarre that companies target advertising at the consumer for products that should really be selected on their behalf by a medical professional. And those disclaimer/warning crack me up.

Are you saying the ideal state is when physicians are the sole keepers of all medical knowledge? Patients couldn't possibly play a role in their own health?

Advertising is the only source of medical knowledge?

News to me. ;-)

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#258

Post by ChoGGi »

dirtybird04 wrote: post #156
neilk wrote: post #78

It's interesting how HN has near-universal disdain for people covertly making billions off an addictive product. But much of our industry is explicitly, openly trying to create addictive experiences.

There's a fine line between physical and psychological addictive experiences. You can always delete Candy Crush from your phone, not that easy to delete opiods from your system

Once you get the physical addiction out of your system, you then spend the rest of your life dealing with the psychological addiction.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#259

Post by tclancy »

CPUstring wrote: post #215
GigabyteCoin wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's killed far fewer people so far. Sitting curled up in a chair for hours straight staring into a phone is killing you a lot quicker than you might think.

I imagine that "death from sitting too long" and "death from heroin overdose" differ a lot on the preferability spectrum.

Alternatively, I'll try "death from sitting too long" and you try the other and let's meet up in a year.
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