America's Opioid Crisis and a Complicit Congress

I watched some news documentary thing about fentanyl last year, they were saying law enforcement at first thought the heroin was being cut with fentanyl, but found out it was the other way around. Fentanyl is more powerful than heroin.

When my grandma was dying they prescribed her fentanyl patches. Before that I'd never heard of them.

I don't know which strength they gave her, I just remember them (it was hospice) telling me things to look out for. I figured out they were pretty powerful from the way they talked about it. If she hadn't been dying I don't think they would have given them to her at all, but her spine had cracks in it and they wanted her to not be in pain (me too, obv).

Regarding how dangerous fentanyl is, this image is one that makes me nervous as a parent. The amount it takes to make a fatal dose is so incredibly tiny. And in the region where I live, opioids are very prevalent right now.

Quote from: Bullwinkle on August 12, 2019, 09:31:09 AM

I think it's different taking it for pain compared to thrills.

How does it compare to taking it because it's one of the more addictive class of drugs out there?

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma judge on Monday found Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries helped fuel the state’s opioid crisis and ordered the consumer products giant to pay $572 million, more than twice the amount another drug manufacturer agreed to pay in a settlement.

Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman’s ruling followed the first state opioid case to make it to trial and could help shape negotiations over roughly 1,500 similar lawsuits filed by state, local and tribal governments consolidated before a federal judge in Ohio.

“The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma,” Balkman said before announcing the judgment. “It must be abated immediately.”

An attorney for the companies said they plan to appeal the ruling to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

Before Oklahoma’s trial began May 28, the state reached settlements with two other defendant groups — a $270 million deal with OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma and an $85 million settlement with Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Oklahoma argued the companies and their subsidiaries created a public nuisance by launching an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that overstated how effective the drugs were for treating chronic pain and understated the risk of addiction. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter says opioid overdoses killed 4,653 people in the state from 2007 to 2017.

Bernie Sanders
@SenSanders
Here's the business model:

• Flood the country with painkillers
• Lie about the addictive effects
• Start opioid epidemic
• Cut a deal, admit no wrongdoing
• Hide money in Swiss bank accounts

The billionaire Sackler family must be held criminally liable for their greed.

The Associated Press
@AP
BREAKING: Court filings: Family behind OxyContin used Swiss bank accounts to conceal transfer of millions of dollars to themselves.

Lol

Quote from: Bom Tishop on September 13, 2019, 08:20:43 PM

Lol

It's funny because it's true.

OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Files for Bankruptcy to Wipe Out 2,000 Lawsuits

Purdue Pharma LP filed for bankruptcy with a more than $10 billion plan to settle claims that it fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic by illegally pushing sales of its addictive OxyContin painkiller.

The Chapter 11 filing on Sunday in White Plains, New York, is designed to short-circuit more than 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue and its owners, the billionaire Sackler family. The settlement calls for the Sacklers to hand over Purdue to a trust controlled by the states, cities and counties that have sued to recoup billions of dollars they spent battling opioid addictions and overdoses.

Officials originally envisioned raising as much as $12 billion with the plan, which is backed by more than two dozen U.S. states and territories, along with many cities and counties that sued Purdue. In an emailed statement, Purdue officials reduced the potential settlement amount to more than $10 billion.

The company listed as much as $10 billion in assets and $1 billion in debts in its Chapter 11 filing. Purdue officials said Sunday the costs of dealing with waves of opioid suits made a bankruptcy inevitable. The company spent $250 million this year alone on legal fees and costs to defend the cases, the officials said.

The Sacklers have guaranteed to pay a minimum of $3 billion as part of the settlement, with most of the sum generated by selling Purdue’s U.K.-based drugmaker Mundipharma.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-16/purdue-pharma-seeks-bankruptcy-to-short-circuit-opioid-suits-k0luhox6

Quote

OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Files for Bankruptcy to Wipe Out 2,000 Lawsuits

Purdue Pharma LP filed for bankruptcy with a more than $10 billion plan to settle claims that it fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic by illegally pushing sales of its addictive OxyContin painkiller.

The Chapter 11 filing on Sunday in White Plains, New York, is designed to short-circuit more than 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue and its owners, the billionaire Sackler family. The settlement calls for the Sacklers to hand over Purdue to a trust controlled by the states, cities and counties that have sued to recoup billions of dollars they spent battling opioid addictions and overdoses.

Officials originally envisioned raising as much as $12 billion with the plan, which is backed by more than two dozen U.S. states and territories, along with many cities and counties that sued Purdue. In an emailed statement, Purdue officials reduced the potential settlement amount to more than $10 billion.

The company listed as much as $10 billion in assets and $1 billion in debts in its Chapter 11 filing. Purdue officials said Sunday the costs of dealing with waves of opioid suits made a bankruptcy inevitable. The company spent $250 million this year alone on legal fees and costs to defend the cases, the officials said.

The Sacklers have guaranteed to pay a minimum of $3 billion as part of the settlement, with most of the sum generated by selling Purdue’s U.K.-based drugmaker Mundipharma.

Love it when billionaires file for bankruptcy.

“While the Sacklers continue to lowball victims and skirt a responsible settlement, we refuse to allow the family to misuse the courts in an effort to shield their financial misconduct,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Records from one financial institution alone have shown approximately $1 billion in wire transfers between the Sacklers, entities they control, and different financial institutions, including those that have funneled funds into Swiss bank accounts,” she added, according to the New York Times.

A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday extended "extraordinary" protections for the mega-rich Sackler family amid a call from legal experts for a special examiner to investigate the family's finances and role in the opioid crisis.

The Sacklers own and control OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma, which has largely been blamed for helping to spark the opioid crisis that now kills 130 people in the United States each day. The Sacklers and Purdue face around 2,000 lawsuits from states, cities, and municipalities, all alleging that they aggressively marketed their opioids and misled regulators, doctors, and patients about the drugs' addictiveness.

Purdue filed for bankruptcy in September as part of a tentative settlement agreement with over 2,600 plaintiffs. But the Sacklers—who have an estimated worth of $13 billion— have not filed for bankruptcy. Moreover, state attorneys general have accused the family of quietly siphoning some of Purdue's $35 billion from OxyContin sales into their own pockets and out of reach from litigation

At height of crisis, Walgreens handled nearly one in five of the most addictive opioids

The company acted as its own distributor and, according to a lawsuit, failed to report suspicious orders of pain pills and prevent diversion to the black market.

OxyContin maker Purdue to plead guilty over opioid practices

Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges over the handling of its addictive prescription opioid OxyContin, in a deal with U.S. prosecutors that effectively sidestepped paying billions of dollars in penalties and stopped short of criminally charging its executives or wealthy Sackler family owners.

They get to keep their money and stay out of prison.

According to legal documents filed as part of the case, that immunity would extend to dozens of family members, more than 160 financial trusts, and at least 170 companies, consultants and other entities associated with the Sacklers.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/

60 Minutes had an eye opening report on just how in bed lawmakers are with the pharmaceutical industry, even going as far as to get a particular DEA lawyer removed who was causing trouble for the distributors who were breaking laws.  While I want to share this to expose how horrendous a person my Representative, Marsha Blackburn, is, I also am left with the question of "what do we do now?"

We know a lot of Congress is in bed with Big Parma (I hate that phrase but it's the most apt I can use here). We know Congress has neutered the DEA in terms of going after the big actors, leaving them only able to take on the small guys. We also know congress has actively been able to remove an investigator to suit their donors.  The obvious solution is seeking to remove money or lobbyist, both of which will never be pursued by those in power.  We can try to elect honest people, but the majority of the electorate either doesn't care or refuses to see past R vs D, at least it's evident in my district.

I'm at a loss of how to approach this with a solution.

"First Past the Post" voting is a disaster. Alternative, or instant-runoff, voting is the one of the only feasible ways to cancel out the Spoiler Effect and make candidates that a majority of people actually want viable.

Oh, and gerrymandering so that votes are actually unequal and not at all equal. That's gotta stop.