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The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

nytimes.com

141–150 of 211 posts

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this a perfect situation to use class action?

I'm not sure how you'd identify participants. Medical privacy rules would prevent you from taking the typical "this consumer product causes warts so we'll find everyone on record of having bought one" approach.

Have you or a loved one been diagnosed with mesothelioma? Received a vaginal mesh implant? Taken the drug Risperdal?

They've been able to do it before.

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the opposite. Government regulations outlaw cheap non-dangerous alternatives (like cannabis) and create a monopoly by granting patents to a single entity. https://qz.com/1125690/big-pharma-is-taking-advantage-of-pat... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/outdated-treatments-and-dr... The solution is to make cannabis legal for everybody in every state for medical use and since it cannot be patented there will b…

I don't know, dude. If you are talking of using camnnabis for medical use, I'm gonna want a dosage guideline and strength/purity promises. I'm pretty sure for medical use, it will more closely resemble ibuprofen or cough medicine if it is without prescription. With prescription it'll be more like generics. It might still be a monopoly, since these drugs have to go through all the FDA testing. Heck, if you want fluori…

Totally:

http://www.newsweek.com/states-medical-marijuana-painkiller-...

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#143
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the opposite. Government regulations outlaw cheap non-dangerous alternatives (like cannabis) and create a monopoly by granting patents to a single entity. https://qz.com/1125690/big-pharma-is-taking-advantage-of-pat... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/outdated-treatments-and-dr... The solution is to make cannabis legal for everybody in every state for medical use and since it cannot be patented there will b…

Other countries without legal cannabis haven't had the same problem with opioid medication.

Did they have the same regulation like the US? No? I guess you are trying to prove my point. :)

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#144
post #7

I cannot understand why the Government is not acting against the pharmas profiting from this crisis. And why people are not revolting. There is a clear nexus between pharmas and doctors. Something should be done.

>I cannot understand why the Government is not acting against the pharmas profiting from this crisis. $$$ > And why people are not revolting. Drugs are an effective and subtle form of chemical warfare. They keep the people docile and apathetic.

Like http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0236640/? :)

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#145

Marijuana should be legal. That it is a schedule 1 narcotic and that we put people in prison for decades and even life is immoral. https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/life-sentence-ma...

Interesting how legal opioids are fueling a national 'crisis' while illegal marijuana, though widely used, is not.

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#146
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's theoretical, infirect future money, not real tangibld, here and now money provided by companies who profit off the war on drugs.

Totally: http://fortune.com/2016/12/13/colorado-billion-legal-marijua...

Sure, it's becoming real tangible now money, but that's taken nearly 50 years.

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how you'd identify participants. Medical privacy rules would prevent you from taking the typical "this consumer product causes warts so we'll find everyone on record of having bought one" approach.

Have you or a loved one been diagnosed with mesothelioma? Received a vaginal mesh implant? Taken the drug Risperdal? They've been able to do it before.

I guess as someone who doesn't own a TV I've not been exposed to much of that, but I do wonder whether the success rate of such an initiative would be lower among opioid addicts. "Please step forward, admit to the world you're addicted, and in 10-15 years you might get a coupon for free drugs."

Also, what are we really looking for? Do addicts really know whether they were overprescribed? Is being addicted sufficient cause for a lawsuit?

Anyway, I'm not saying it's unsolvable, but I can imagine some tougher hurdles than the class action suits I've been privy to.

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#148
post #107

I find it endlessly hilarious that nobody in the US is asking WHY Why are people taking drugs? The country needs to do some serious soul searching. Won't happen though.

I've been reading Dreamland by Sam Quinones, which goes into detail and background of the past ~50 years or so about how we got into this situation. A large part of the WHY you're referring to I'll summarize as

1. Pain being identified as a vital sign and hospitals/institutions new-found focus on tracking and treating pain

2. Deceptive pharmaceutical marketing that painkillers are a be-all solution to pain and also non-addictive (Purdue/Sackler seem to be worst offenders here)

This lead to doctors prescribing opioid painkillers to many of middle-class americans who would likely have otherwise not come in contact with drug addiction. The book so far has been a really good read and also goes into detail around how heroin started spreading through the rust belt as well (feeding on the existing prescription addiction). I highly recommend it (about 65% through it right now).

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#149
post #7

I cannot understand why the Government is not acting against the pharmas profiting from this crisis. And why people are not revolting. There is a clear nexus between pharmas and doctors. Something should be done.

Our culture intentionally pacifies and rounds off edges. Of course nobody is revolting.

This is true. The mechanism is decentralized, and so very powerful. In capitalism speech is proportional to money, so those with money speak more loudly and more often than others. The Adam Smith ideal is that successful capitalists use their soapbox to ideologically reproduce. However, the soapbox is used to mislead, weakening society at large to enrich oneself. Each individual is weakened only slightly, but in aggregate the benefit to the attacker is enormous.

Doves want drugs. A smart business wolf constructs a sophisticated machine (business) that in order to sell drugs, hires genius level lawyers and chemists (techie wolves) to do an end-run around the law, strengthen legal and technical barriers-to-entry, and perhaps make a good side-business with private law-enforcement in several ways (make new addicts, fund recovery programs, sell recovery drugs, and also sell private prison services, which is the most lucrative of all).

It's thoroughly, blatantly evil. The law is clearly insufficient to control the wolves - it may even be that US democracy is insufficient to control the wolves, since doves can't even be counted on to vote in their own interest, thanks in no small part to being mentally disabled by the wolves.

Re: The lucrative business of America’s opioid crisis

#150
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other countries without legal cannabis haven't had the same problem with opioid medication.

Did they have the same regulation like the US? No? I guess you are trying to prove my point. :)

Cannabis in the UK is a class B drug. Possession with intent to supply carries a posible 14 year prison sentence. Possession alone has a maximum 5 year sentence, although for an uncomplicated first offence the fine would be a band B fine (100% of weekly income).

https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Drug...

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