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DEA tracked every opioid pill sold in the US. The data is out
Between 2006 and 2012, opioid drug makers and distributors flooded the country with 76 billion pills of oxycodone and hydrocodone—highly addictive opioid pain medications that sparked the epidemic of abuse and overdoses that killed nearly 100,000 people in that time period.
As the epidemic surged over the seven-year period, so did the supply. The companies increased distribution from 8.4 billion in 2006 to 12.6 billion in 2012, a jump of roughly 50%. In all, the deluge of pills was enough to supply every adult and child in the country with around 36 opioid pills per year. Just a 10-day supply can hook 1 in 5 people into being long-term users, researchers have determined.
The stunning supply figures were first reported by the Washington Post and come from part of a database compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracked the fate of every opioid pill sold in America, from manufacturers to individual pharmacies. A federal court in Ohio released the data this week as part of a massive consolidated court case against nearly two-dozen opioid makers and distributors, brought by nearly 2,000 cities, towns, and counties. The local governments allege that the opioid companies conspired to saturate the country with the potent painkillers to soak up billions in profits. The companies deny the allegations, arguing generally that they were serving the needs of patients.
According to an analysis of the data by the Post, just three companies made 88% of the opioid pills: SpecGx, Actavis Pharma, and Par Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals. Purdue Pharma ranked fourth, making 3% of the pills. Just six companies distributed 75% of the pills: McKesson Corp., Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS, and Walmart.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Thursday July 18 2019, @03:41AM (8 children)
This looks like just another article that lays easy blame for a problem that most Americans can't and won't wrap their heads around.
The "opiate crisis" was not born overnight. The "opiate crisis" was not born out of doctors prescribing too many pills. If its all about access to opiates, how is it that Afghanistan and Mexico don't have these exact same problems, but in higher numbers? The United States doesn't have a pill problem, it has a whole bunch of other problems that pills help people with. Why come we can't focus on those issues?
Wouldn't it stoke the economy if we were able to help people in the U.S. from being so sad and depressed? It seems to me that its a whole lot more likely that people that were prescribed these pills that got "hooked" had many types of pain fixed by this. Maybe their leg is all better, but since the only help they ever received for their mental anguish was given to them by these pills, what else do they know? Are we going to fire up the mental health system to help people who's only found peace is now being removed by the government? This is a complete and utter failure of society to not meet these needs, which expresses itself as a 'drug issue.'
These types of issues go so much deeper. The broken criminal justice system says all of the time, they are not equipped to help people in trouble. The health care system drops people that don't have jobs, so if you get into trouble, you're into one of America's systematic black holes. Even good health insurance doesn't pay for mental health. Apparently the brain doesn't count?
A huge problem we need to deal with before we even move onto the deeper issues is being able to talk about this stuff without immediately resorting to punishment and shaming. How on earth can someone that is in serious mental anguish want to get "help" if that help is only in the form of "oh, you shouldn't be on these meds. Thanks for letting us know."
It would be refreshing to see people wanting to dig deeper into these societal issues, but the resulting headlines don't sell ads like "McKesson tried to hook every human including infants on pills!!"
Until the entire conversation is changed, we are only harming more people.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday July 18 2019, @03:55AM (4 children)
Why, you ask? I don't know, man, and I don't care. See? I just took that pill...
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:15AM
Ah. If NHS just handed out happy pills like those, Britain wouldn't have any problems. What a country! ;)
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:30AM (2 children)
... the blue one.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:37AM
Naaah, not only that one... (Eww [xkcd.com]).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday July 19 2019, @01:18AM
So, now he's happy, is his girlfiend happy as well? Or is his girlfriend now depressed?
Further study is required.
Don't forget to take a before and after quiz. [psychcentral.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday July 18 2019, @03:51PM
Or at least do some reading. [nih.gov] And then read some more... [nih.gov]
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 18 2019, @06:11PM
Because that would be socialism, apparently, and all socialism is bad even the good parts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @01:00AM
People have their family income stagnant since 80s (I am not talking about certain isolated islands where the whole country wants to move to). Meantime wives are made to work so real per person or per hour income almost halved for most. Since 2008 it has been an outright depression (again, excluding certain island). What do we expect? Considering, folks are actually holding well. Domestic terrorism cases are rare and amateurish at best. I mean, no officers, being former middle class, tried to nuke the island yet, which should not be that difficult to accomplish.