Only We Can End the Opioid Epidemic
By Donald M. Petersen Jr., BS, HCD(hc), FICC(h), Publisher
The Sackler family billionaires (owners of Purdue Pharma, LP, maker of OxyContin) are defending themselves against "roughly 2,000 lawsuits by cities, counties and states"
citing alleged deceptive marketing practices. They and their company are at the center of the current opioid crisis that claimed more than 400,000 American lives between 1999 and 2017, with no end in sight.1
Buying Deception for Profit: The Lasting Legacy of Big Pharma
OxyContin was initially approved only for short-term use. But an investigative story by "60 Minutes" revealed
that "the FDA bowed to Purdue Pharma's demands to ignore the lack of science supporting long-term use and changed the [OxyContin] label to 'around the clock ... for an extended period of time.'"2
Pharmaceutical companies have spent hundreds of billions of dollars over the past few decades buying the opportunity to legally sell harmful drugs to an unsuspecting American public with very limited oversight. Their only tether seems to be the lawsuits they endure after a drug has wreaked havoc on its victims while politicians and
bureaucrats feign shock and dismay. But even the effect of the lawsuits has been limited.
Additional information revealed by "60 Minutes" and The Washington Post shows "the drug industry used its money and influence to pressure the DEA's top lawyers into taking a softer approach." Drug manufacturer influence in both the DEA and Congress appears to have eliminated many lawsuits, reduced fines to a fraction of
what they should have been and kept corporate officers out of jail.2
Make no mistake about it, this is the harsh reality the consumer public faces in its dance with the drug industry. And while attorneys and accountants will ultimately decide the fate of these and many yet-unknown infractions, a broader question needs to be addressed.
What's the Real Solution? It Can't Come From the Medical Profession
I believe most MDs have had the best interests of their patients in mind when prescribing these drugs, but the medical profession has long since sacrificed understanding the systemic cause of sickness for the most expedient course of action. Only recently are some MDs beginning to recognize that the drugs they rely on are marketed by profiteers, rather than health promotion partners.3
It is highly unlikely that the majority of medical professionals indoctrinated into the drug culture will forsake that approach, regardless of the consequences to their patients. It would require them to question and possibly reject the basis of their understanding of health.
As a child growing up in the early 1960s, there were certain parental rules you lived by or paid the consequences. One of those was shared responsibility for a negative event by the child who knew better. Essentially, if you knew another (usually younger) kid could get hurt by doing something, it was your responsibility to warn them and
tell their parents if they persisted with the ill-advised course of action. Not warning the child or their parents was considered a form of collusion and punishable as such.
This "I am my brother's keeper" moral code is sadly missing from today's culture. Applied to the opioid crisis, we see too many sitting by and watching as people become addicted and die. Those who profit are aided by the silence of those who know better.
The opioid crisis is far from over. More than a million lives lost before 2025 would be a safe bet at this point.
One of the many lessons I have learned over the years is to not expect someone to act in a manner inconsistent with who they are. To anticipate otherwise is unrealistic. The drug industry will continue to push drugs that damage and kill. That's how it makes its money. The purchase of influence is included as a cost of doing business. Any
lawsuits that get filed, along with attorneys' fees, are an acceptable business risk factored into the industry's obscene profits. Each company's corporate structure is designed to maximize its profits with these risks in mind.
The medical profession will keep prescribing drugs, no doubt about it. That's what it does. The medical profession has long since washed its hands of any responsibility, fully protected from the liability it should rightfully bear.
Our No. 1 Job Is Clear: Change How People Think About Health
That leaves us – the chiropractic profession – and a few other non-pharmaceutical-based professions to council our patients and communities about the dangers of all drugs and the safe, effective, nondrug alternatives that include chiropractic, nutrition and a wellness lifestyle.
Today's opioid crisis will eventually wane. But in its wake will come a new drug or vaccine purported to be "safe and effective when used as directed" with disastrous side effects only discovered after it has damaged the health of millions ... to the financial benefit of the manufacturers and the attorneys that help protect
them.4
Our job is to change the way people understand and maintain their health, causing them to make better, safer choices. This task is both critical and urgent. Please take every opportunity to share this information with everyone whose lives you impact.
Keep up the great work!
References
- Spector M, DiNapoli J. "Following Opioid Suits, Family Behind Deadly OxyContin Squabbles." Reuters Health (Business News), May 10, 2019.
- Farmer BM. "The Opioid Epidemic: Who Is to Blame?" CBS "60 Minutes," Feb. 24, 2019.
- "Drugmakers Allegedly Inflated Prices Over 1,000% and 44 States Are Now Suing." CNBC, May 11, 2019.
- Ballantyne JC. Safe and effective when used as directed: the case of chronic use of opioid analgesics. J Med Toxicol, 2012 Dec;8(4):417-23.
