can someone explain how the opiod crisis happend?
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This is a focused documentary on the opiod crisis. It’s kinda mind blowing how they got away with it for so long.
Basically some company invented oxycodone as a painkiller. It has some side effects to it and can be addictive.
They advertised this drug heavily, made doctors overprescribe it, had people take too high doses for too long. When people suddenly lost their prescription or couldn’t afford it any longer they were hooked and had to buy cheaper opiods.
There’s a really good series called dopesick that really hit home for me . . I’m not sure where you can watch it online tho.. every actor in the movie was so amazing
Pharmaceutical companies also run programs and train representatives to ‘ inform doctors about their products’ because it boosts rates of prescription.
I know one thing that they did when they realised people were getting addicted was come up with the idea of prescribing *higher* doses because they said that the addiction symptoms were because a higher dose was needed!
The Sackler family has made billions of this exact thing, and are basically drug dealers, even to the point that the Guggenheim Museum will no longer accept donations from them because of protests (they had previously donated tens of millions).
evil bastards
Another factor in the opioid crisis was the development of a new theory of addiction which said that addiction developed because patients were not given the drugs frequently enough to keep the pain at a livable level until the next dose was allowed. Therefore, by the time they could take a second dose they were in intense pain so required a higher dose. Over time the process spiraled out of control as needed doses got higher and higher and addiction developed.
The new theory (supposed solution) was to allow patients to control the timing of drug ingestion such that they never felt intense pain. It was thought that this methodology would avoid addiction because patients would only take the amount of (less-addictive) drug needed to kill the pain. Patients were supposedly using the drug to replace naturally occurring pain killers made by the human body. As the body healed, less drug would be required so patients would take less drug thus avoiding addiction.
Interesting theory – didn’t work. And Purdue knew this.
Read “Dreamland” by Sam quinones. It not only explains it, but it will blow your freaking mind.
Many years ago I had a sore throat. Turned out to be strep throat, and I also had Mono so i wasn’t really recovering. After a 2 day stay in the hospital they gave me a prescription to continue antibiotics, and a prescription for pain killers.
They gave me 500ml (about 17oz or 2 cups) of liquid codeine. I got, so addicted to that stuff… When I ran out of it, it was hell.
Basically pain killers were handed out like they were nothing even though they created addiction. Lucky me, I discovered that you could goto a pharmacy and get pills with it so the addiction continued. Not in a major way, it didn’t interfere with my life but if I had a headache, take a pill. Joint pain? that’s a pill. Hung over? pill for that! until one day they made it so that you can’t buy them anymore. Haven’t had one in about 3 years now. Funny how I don’t feel pain as much anymore, it’s like I created the pain to justify taking something for it.
For other people though, they were given pain killers in the form of opioids. They got addicted, and started taking stronger and stronger doses. Where I live now, it’s so bad that if someone is dying, and they are given Naloxone to save their life. they wake up sober, and get angry about it because they aren’t stoned anymore.
then they just take more, and the cycle keeps going.
For fans of comedy podcasts, The Dollop did a 2 parter on this that is pretty easy to understand
OP if you’re more interested in this topic then I recommend you watch Dopesick. It will give you lots of information about Purdue Pharma and their shady business tactics that allowed OxyContin to get approved by the FDA. Great series with a great cast.
Read the book Dopesick. It tells the whole story, up to a point anyway.(its a few years old now and the lawsuits have progressed out a bit)
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