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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

#171

Post by jayess »

Animats wrote: post #63

... Medical Advertising Hall of Fame... This is a real thing.[1] They really give out awards for medical advertising. Typical writeup: "Ambien dominated the insomnia market like few products ever have. Our goal was to introduce a new way of thinking about sleep, and to introduce Rozerem as a new option for the treatment of insomnia. In order to take down Goliath, Rozerem needed to spend BIG. $200 million in broadcast…

I hadn't heard of Rozerem, so I looked it up.

"It however does not appear to speed the onset of sleep or the amount of sleep a person gets."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramelteon

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#172

Post by jayess »

andreasgonewild wrote: post #49

I was on Oxy for about a month after smashing one of my vertibraes into pieces in a climbing accident, I was prescribed more than three times as much. I walked through hell to get out of that crap; nothing else I've encountered even comes close, including heroine and cocaine. There are several natural, less addictive and less harmful methods for treating chronic pain; cannabis, mushrooms and meditation among others.…

Why not just go back to prescribing cocaine instead of Oxy?

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#173

Post by Veedrac »

ryuuchin wrote: post #51
herodotus wrote: post #15

In my experience with local philanthropy, there are donors who have no interest in "naming opportunities" and those for whom it is all about the name. To me it says a lot about the character of the donor if they specifically want as little fuss as possible about the donation, and especially if they do not want something named after them. It is the cause they support, not their own egos. Personally, the more often I s…

Reminds me of the quote by George Steinbrenner[1]. "If you do something nice for somebody, and more than just the two of you know about it, maybe you're doing it for the wrong reason" [1] https://tree.mindbloom.com/apps/inspiration/detail/quote/563...

This quote really irritates me; if we don't allow people to be judged by the good they do, more people die, because fewer people give. It's as simple as that. People shouldn't just feel free to talk about how they are contributing to saving lives, they should be encouraged. Introducing a social stigma that one isn't allowed to be publically happy or proud of doing good is cruel and counterproductive.

I have personal cynical hypotheses about why the state of affairs is as it is. None of it has to do with the qualities of those who donate.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#174

Post by cbanek »

triangleman wrote: post #166
cbanek wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this happens a lot. Plus, if the person is really adamant about getting whatever drug, the doctor knows that it's possible the patient will find a new doctor to prescribe it anyway.

Sure but medicine is a profession and doctors usually don't suffer when they lose a patient to a "competitor", so they shouldn't typically feel pressured to give a patient whatever drug they want.

I've heard that and brought that up to a doctor friend of mine at the time, and they told me that they would rather give the prescription if it won't harm the person, because it's likely the patient will go to a questionable doctor / online pharmacy and the risk might be less just to comply.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#175

Post by fencepost »

Gatsky wrote: post #165
andreasgonewild wrote: post #49

I was on Oxy for about a month after smashing one of my vertibraes into pieces in a climbing accident, I was prescribed more than three times as much. I walked through hell to get out of that crap; nothing else I've encountered even comes close, including heroine and cocaine. There are several natural, less addictive and less harmful methods for treating chronic pain; cannabis, mushrooms and meditation among others.…

I think the benefits of oxycontin for acute pain are highly contentious. For advanced cancer pain, oxycontin is effective and the rates of addiction are very low. Patients can't wait to get off it usually if the pain improves. There are likely to be many physiological and psychological factors explaining these differences.

I'd really like to see some citations for your statement that patients with advanced cancer pain "can't wait to get off" of their opiods "if the pain improves."

"Advanced cancer pain" and "pain improves" [to a level where withdrawal seems like a good idea] seem like things that rarely go together. I could see people getting off of oxycontin to go onto stronger painkillers in hospice, but that feels like a very different thing to me.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#176

Post by valuearb »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #69
Animats wrote: post #63

... Medical Advertising Hall of Fame... This is a real thing.[1] They really give out awards for medical advertising. Typical writeup: "Ambien dominated the insomnia market like few products ever have. Our goal was to introduce a new way of thinking about sleep, and to introduce Rozerem as a new option for the treatment of insomnia. In order to take down Goliath, Rozerem needed to spend BIG. $200 million in broadcast…

Ick! This reinforces my belief that direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs should be illegal.

As disgusting as this story is, freedom of speech isn't a freedom if it magically disappears because a collection of people say it instead of a single person. I'd much rather have a raucous marketplace of ideas and opinions that let people choose for themselves, over having the government make their medical decisions.

For example, thousands of deaths have been attributed to the tough drug approval requirements in the US. How would you feel if you had a terminal condition and your government didn't allow you to even know of a possible treatment, or the choice of taking the risk that the treatment won't work?

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#177

Post by valuearb »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #147

It should simply be illegal to advertise prescription medications. "Ask your doctor about Klonopin today" "Ask your doctor about coronary artery bypass grafting today" One of these sounds completely ridiculous, and the other sounds commonplace. They should both sound ridiculous, because they're both equally completely ridiculous. The idea that the patient should be influencing the treatment decisions of medical profe…

The idea that the patient should be influencing their own treatment decisions is absurd?

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#178

Post by valuearb »

andreasgonewild wrote: post #49

I was on Oxy for about a month after smashing one of my vertibraes into pieces in a climbing accident, I was prescribed more than three times as much. I walked through hell to get out of that crap; nothing else I've encountered even comes close, including heroine and cocaine. There are several natural, less addictive and less harmful methods for treating chronic pain; cannabis, mushrooms and meditation among others.…

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

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#179

Post by valuearb »

mavhc wrote: post #40
joemag wrote: post #27

Aren’t the doctors to blame for this as well? It always surprised me how quickly and easily they prescribe serious painkillers. A few years ago I had a tooth pulled, and the doctor gave me prescription painkiller. In the end, I ended up using regular ibuprofen, and that was more than enough. I wonder how much of this comes pharmaceutical sales reps pressuring the doctors to use their medicine. That whole system seems…

Capitalist medicine is to blame, when you can vote with your money you can pick the doctor who does what you want, not what's best for you.

Are you saying patients should not have any say in their own treatment?
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