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Infamous OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma used front organizations and sponsored research to deceive the World Health Organization and corrupt global public health policies with the goal of boosting international opioid sales and profits, according to a Congressional report (PDF) released Thursday, May 22.
The investigation identified two WHO guidance documents that appear to parrot some of Purdue's misleading and outright false marketing claims about the safety and efficacy of their highly addictive opioids.
The findings, released by Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), land as the country is still grappling with an epidemic of opioid abuse and overdoses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid overdoses kill an average of 130 Americans every day.
Clark and Rogers say that the motivation for the investigation follows a 2017 warning letter Congress members sent to the WHO. Given the opioid epidemic unfolding in the US, the lawmakers warned the WHO that opioid makers would try to expand into international markets, which could potentially trigger a global epidemic. But the Congress members say they didn't get a response (though the WHO disputes this).
"When the WHO failed to respond to the letter, we began to question why they would remain silent about such a significant and devastating public health epidemic," the report reads. "The answers we found are deeply disturbing."
Based on public records, the report outlines a tangle of organizations and individuals that connect financial threads from Purdue to WHO.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @05:15AM (18 children)
Vast majority of people choose to get addicted. They make the choice to start and continue using. You cannot just go into a doctor's not addicted to heroin then come out addicted. If people want to use, let them. If they want to overdose, let them. It's their life and they have agency.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Whoever on Saturday May 25 2019, @05:20AM (6 children)
And, just as I predicted, it only took 10 minutes for someone to blame the victims.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @06:05AM (5 children)
It's not impossible for both to have some amount of blame. We should probably include the doctors who should have known better but didn't seem to care in the blame as well. I can however feel pity for the users, more than I can say about everyone else involved in this debacle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @01:44PM (3 children)
When I go fishing I blame the fish for taking the bait. Sure I have some blame in the situation, but if they hadn't become addicted to food they never would have ended up in my boat (and on my grill).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:58PM (2 children)
I didn't think TMB posted anonymously!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:44PM (1 child)
I’m not TMB. But with all the atupid shit you post it doesn’t surprise me that you would slander all ACs by accusing one of us as being TMB.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 25 2019, @05:18PM
Slander? You should have kept your mouth shut, and taken it as a compliment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:28PM
Care to do an experiment?
Leave unlimited amounts of oxys around your parents, kids, friends, neighbors' houses. Don't tell them what the downside of oxys are. Any time they have an ailment or sadness, encourage them to take 1 or 2. Stand back and let the experiment roll. After 6 months, take away the supply.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by NewNic on Saturday May 25 2019, @05:33AM (1 child)
I think you forgot to log in Takyon.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Saturday May 25 2019, @06:08AM
Nah.
I'm pro-legalization/decriminalization of all drugs, but I don't blame victims. Heroin addiction can be linked to overprescription of opioids. Send drug users to hospitals if they need immediate treatment. Give clean needles and heroin to addicts in supervised injection sites. Legalize cannabis immediately, as it has been shown to decrease opioid use rates. Etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 25 2019, @06:26AM (8 children)
FALSE!!!
In 1996, Purdue claimed that only 1% of patients that took OxyContin became addicted. So, right there, in Purdue's claims, it is acknowledged that SOME people do indeed become addicted, when taking the drug under doctor's orders. The shit is addictive. Even the doctors can unwittingly cause an addiction.
The real crime is that Purdue dismissed that 1% as unimportant, and aggressively pushed those addictive drugs to an even wider audience, in greater amounts.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @07:21AM (3 children)
Even if it was a 100% addiction rate, he is not forcing anyone to take it. Addiction itself doesn't force people to take drugs. They willingly feed the addiction. They choose to do it because it is easier than quitting. They are doing it to themselves. Blaming someone else is just enabling the user to continue using. Because it's the addictions fault they're using. It's the drug manufacturers fault. No. It's their fault. It's their problem. They need to accept responsibility for their life. Now, if they sell the user contaminated drugs, then yeah, it's the manufacturers fault.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 25 2019, @08:05AM (2 children)
Obviously, you've been addicted, and beat the addiction. That's the only way you could know so much about addiction.
Unless, of course, you're just another fucking shill.
One thing I'm certain of. Unscrupulous assholes can and will do anything for a dollar. They don't know, don't want to know, don't care how much human misery they might cause, so long as there is money to be had.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:03PM (1 child)
Former addicts can be the most judgmental. Something got broken in their brains and they extrapolate their issues to everyone.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 26 2019, @04:20AM
As to the hostile response, that's a natural response to something that you're particularly susceptible to. In my view, one doesn't get rid of the mental temptation of addiction. Instead, something has to change in your brain in order to resist the ever-present temptation (and the behaviors that can lead to resumption of the addiction). For a strong addiction, you need a similarly strong resistance.
But sure, blame the victim, right?
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Saturday May 25 2019, @01:20PM (3 children)
My primary reason for doubting the so-called epidemic comes from my own experiences with Hydrocodone, as it's supposed to be highly addictive.
When I had a hemorrhoid removed several years ago, I was prescribed Hydrocodone. Due to a prepping mistake made by my surgeon, my recovery time was far longer (three weeks) than the doctors thought it should be (about a week). I had to renew my prescription two or three times (I don't remember which) because the surgeon's mistake caused my stitches to rip frequently. Instead of treating me as someone whose surgeon had made a painful mistake, they viewed me as a drug addict (those retards told me that directly), and said they would not renew my prescription after this last one.
Fortunately for me, I healed enough by the end of that last prescription to not need strong painkillers anymore. I still had a few pills left after my pain stopped, so I just kept them in the medicine cabinet as a reserve. As it turns out, the second hemorrhoid that the surgeon said wasn't bad enough to remove started flaring up a few months later, so I took the remaining pills to ease that pain. Fortunately for me, though, I discovered that regular bowel flushes with Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt) caused my Hemorrhoid to stop flaring up.
Hydrocodone was no more addictive to me than Tylenol, so I am very dubious about the motives of the people pushing this alleged epidemic.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 25 2019, @02:51PM
Skepticism is good. But, we should all realize that different people have different tolerances for substances. Some of us can take doses that should kill a horse, and suffer no consequences. Others of us have various reactions at extremely low doses of stuff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:14PM (1 child)
Kudos for posting about hemorrhoids under your pseudonym. I had a flare up a couple years ago and while not removed, the doctor cut it to relieve the pressure. By the time I got home the pain was even worse and my wife called in for a pain killer. I was prescribed tramadol which I took I think for four or five days, maybe a week.
Tramadol was interesting. It didn't make me high and it didn't take the pain away -- it simply made me totally apathetic about the pain. I knew the pain was there and at the same time, I didn't care. It was a strange drug to say the least. Without the tramadol though it was like being tortured -- it was insanely horrible. With it, I could get through those few days. I'm honestly very glad it was there for me and when I was done, I had no ill effects from using the tramadol - no withdrawals, no depression, nothing.
Definitely going to look up the espom salt thing. Hemorrhoids are no joke.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:31PM
Oh butt they are ;)