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Big Pharma: The World's Biggest Drug Pusher is Killing Hundreds of Thousands
Sun, 2016-03-20 23:15
#1
Big Pharma: The World's Biggest Drug Pusher is Killing Hundreds of Thousands
Sun, 2016-03-20 23:15
#2
Beginning in the early 1990s, Big Pharma began pushing for deregulation of opioids, arguing that their own research showed this could help many people suffering from chronic pain with less than 1% of users becoming addicted. The result has not only been a large growth in prescription opioid use,but an explosion in opioid addiction and deaths, so great that United States Center for Disease Control has finally issued new guidelines (unfortuately voluntary in nature) to try to decrease the tragic toll of 40 deaths a day in the US and more than 200,000 deaths in the US alone since the 1990s.
Unfortunately, the Canadian government doesn't even have reliable statistics on the problem.
The nation's top federal health agency urged doctors to avoid prescribing powerful opiate painkillers for patients with chronic pain, saying the risks from such drugs far outweigh the benefits for most people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its first ever guidelines for dispensing the morphine-like, addictive drugs, such as Vicodin and OxyContin, said it took the action Tuesday to combat the nation's deadly prescription painkiller epidemic. The guidelines carve out an exception for patients receiving cancer treatment or end-of-life care. When doctors determine that such drugs are necessary in other situations, the CDC advises doctors prescribe the lowest possible dose for the shortest amount of time.
About 40 Americans die each day from overdosing on prescription painkillers, according to the CDC. In 2013, an estimated 1.9 million people abused or were dependent on prescription opiates. "We know of no other medication routinely used for a nonfatal condition that kills patients so frequently," said CDC director Thomas Frieden. "We hope to see fewer deaths from opiates. That's the bottom line. These are really dangerous medications that carry the risk of addiction and death." The CDC directed the guidelines to primary care physicians, who prescribe nearly half of opiates. Doctors aren't legally obligated to follow the recommendations, which are intended for adult patients, but such directives often have influence. ...
"For the first time, the federal government is communicating clearly that the widespread practice of treating common pain conditions with long-term opioids is inappropriate," Kolodny said. "The CDC is making it perfectly clear that medical practice needs to change because we’re harming pain patients and fueling a public health crisis.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/15/cdc-issues-new-guidelines-...
Sun, 2016-03-20 23:51
#3
The number of deaths from prescription opioids continue to climb in the US as the following graph shows.
The second graph shows the astronomical recent growth in heroin deaths, which is related to the growth in prescriptionopioid abuse. As prescription opioids have soared in price in recent years, an increasing number of addicts have turned to illicit heroin to feed their addiction, contributing in a major way to the large spike in heroin deaths
National Overdose Deaths
—Number of Deaths from Prescription Drugs. The figure above is a bar chart showing the total number of U.S. overdose deaths involving prescription drugs from 2001 to 2014. The chart is overlayed by a line graph showing the number of deaths by females and males. From 2001 to 2014 there was a 2.8-fold increase in the total number of deaths.
National Overdose Deaths—Number of Deaths from Heroin. The figure above is a bar chart showing the total number of U.S. overdose deaths involving heroin from 2001 to 2014. The chart is overlayed by a line graph showing the number of deaths by females and males. From 2001 to 2014 there was a 6-fold increase in the total number of deaths.
https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-deat...
Sun, 2016-03-20 23:58
#4
The collusion between Big Pharma and the US Federal Drug Administration regulatory agency is outlined in this Al Jazeera video.
Behind the recent flurry of headlines about a massive surge in heroin use is a much more widespread wave of addiction to legal opioids—OxyContin, Vicodin and other painkillers.
One recent study found that 4 in 5 heroin users previously abused prescription opioids. In the last 15 years, at least 100,000 people have died from prescription opioid abuse.
Last fall, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a powerful, new painkiller called Zohydro, a pure form of hydrocodone that contains five to 10 times the opiate level of Vicodin. The FDA approved Zohydro even though its own advisory committee voted 11 to 2 against approval, citing the drug’s potential to exacerbate the opioid abuse epidemic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkkF9M9h3XA
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Mon, 2016-03-21 00:17
#5
Another documentary, “Heroin USA”, by Soledad O'brien:
traces the origins of the epidemic in suburban America to the increased availability of and marketing for prescription opioids – such as Oxycontin and Vicodin – with sales quadrupling from 1999 to 2010. However, prescription painkillers also have become more regulated, making them harder to come by and more expensive. Dr. Andrew Kolodny, Chief Medical Officer of Phoenix House, a non-profit drug treatment organization, explains that a “$10 bag of heroin will do exactly what a $30 pill of oxycodone would do.” Heroin is the most addictive of all illegal drugs, and Dr. Kolodny explains that four out of five heroin users actually become addicted to prescription opioids first.
http://america.aljazeera.com/tools/pressreleases/al-jazeera-america-pres...
The video can be found at
Mon, 2016-03-21 00:51
#6
Although we have reasonably accurate data on the number of opioid prescriptions, we have no national system for collecting death rates and the provincial governments, many of which get campaign funding from the pharmaceutical industry, keep some of the most dangerous drugs on their prescription funding lists. Exactly what Big Pharma wants.
In 2012, the year OxyContin was delisted from provincial drug plans, 18.3 million opioid prescriptions were dispensed in Canada. Last year, that figure jumped 18.6 per cent to 21.7 million, according to IMS. ...
There are currently no national-level data available for prescription opioid-related mortality in Canada. Provincial data is available from Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.
The overall rate of opioid-related mortality increased by 242% between 1991 (12.2 per 1,000,000) and 2010 (41.6 per 1,000,000).22 In 2010, 12.1% of all deaths among those aged 25–34 years in Ontario were opioid-related, an increase from 5.5% in 2001.23 ...
In Canada, 3.8 infants out of 1,000 births were born to mothers who used opioids during pregnancy and displayed a recognizable set of withdrawal symptoms that together are called neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).17
In Ontario, the rate of NAS increased from 0.9 to 5.1 per 1,000 live births from 2002–2003 to 2011–2012, a fourfold increase in prevalence over this ten year period.18 Another study showed that the incidence of NAS increased 15-fold from 0.28 to 4.29 per 1+000 live births over the 19-year period from 1992 to 2011.19 In a sub-study of mothers who were public drug plan beneficiaries, 67% received an opioid prescription in the 100 days preceding delivery, including 53.3% who received methadone.
First Nations: Among First Nations individuals aged 18 and older living on-reserve or in northern First Nations communities across Canada, 4.7% reported past-year use of illicit (heroin) or prescription opioids, including morphine, methadone and codeine, without a prescription in 2008–2010.11 Among First Nations youth aged 12–17 years, 1.3% reported using illicit or prescription opioids without a prescription during the previous 12 months.
http://www.ccsa.ca/Resource%20Library/CCSA-Canadian-Drug-Summary-Prescri...
Mon, 2016-03-21 00:53
#7
Canada's record with regard to regulation of opioid use is even worse, despite being #2 globally in opioid use behind the US. We don't even have national statistics on use and abuse.
One statistic alone is alarming: "12.1% of all deaths among those aged 25–34 years in Ontario were opioid-related, an increase from 5.5% in 2001.23"
Prescriptions for dangerous alternatives to OxyContin are soaring, showing that a crackdown on the popular painkiller has failed to curb Canada’s opioid crisis.
OxyContin, a brand-name version of oxycodone, was once the top-selling long-acting opioid in Canada. But it became a lightning rod in the early 2000s as reports of addiction and overdose exploded, prompting every province except Alberta in 2012 to stop funding the drug and its reformulated, tamper-resistant version, OxyNEO, which is difficult to crush or chew for a quick high.
Similar restrictions were not placed on other addictive opioids, a move many experts say had the unintended consequence of shifting patients from one drug to another and escalating the prescription-drug crisis.
The shift to other opioids has helped Purdue Pharma Canada, the manufacturer of OxyContin and OxyNEO, remain a key player in Canada’s opioid market. Hydromorph Contin, also made by Purdue, is now the most popular long-acting opioid in Canada, with prescriptions reaching 1.6 million last year, up 60 per cent since 2011, according to a Globe and Mail analysis of figures provided by IMS Brogan, which tracks the drug industry. ...
Canada is the world’s second-largest per capita consumer of opioids and the fallout is being felt across the country. Last week, a report found that from 2009 to 2014, at least 655 Canadians died as a result of fentanyl, a powerful opioid that is available by prescription and is also manufactured in clandestine labs and sold on the street. ...
Many experts are particularly concerned about the explosive growth of Hydromorph Contin. Meldon Kahan, a Toronto addiction specialist, said the drug comes in “dangerously high formulations” much more potent than OxyContin. He said it is “hypocritical” of Purdue to promote the safety of OxyNEO, yet continue to promote some of its non-tamper-resistant drugs that could easily be abused. ...
Asked why the government continues to fund Hydromorph Contin despite high rates of addiction and abuse, Joanne Woodward Fraser, a spokeswoman for Ontario’s Health Ministry, cited a provincial program to monitor narcotic prescriptions. Karen Scott, a spokeswoman for New Brunswick’s Health Department, said the drug is covered because “it is an important treatment option.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/sales-of-opiod-drug-prescri...
Mon, 2016-03-21 02:52
#8
Frrom the Centers for Disease Control website:
Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including nearly 42,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.
I don't want to minimize the damage done by heroin. but compared to tobacco it doesn't even register on the chart. In the 15-year period mentioned, with 100,000 opioid deaths, there were over 7,000,000 tobacco deaths (of which roughly 10%, or 700,000 deaths were non-smokers). Then there's the roughly 35,000 gun related deaths per year in the USA, or 525,000 in the same 15-year period.
I suggest if you want to cut down on useless deaths in the USA, you stop tobacco smoking, and take away the guns.
Mon, 2016-03-21 13:14
#9
Frrom the Centers for Disease Control website:
Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including nearly 42,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.I don't want to minimize the damage done by heroin. but compared to tobacco it doesn't even register on the chart. In the 15-year period mentioned, with 100,000 opioid deaths, there were over 7,000,000 tobacco deaths (of which roughly 10%, or 700,000 deaths were non-smokers). Then there's the roughly 35,000 gun related deaths per year in the USA, or 525,000 in the same 15-year period.
I suggest if you want to cut down on useless deaths in the USA, you stop tobacco smoking, and take away the guns.
Though one should take into account age at time of death
Mon, 2016-03-21 16:18
#10
Frrom the Centers for Disease Control website:
Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including nearly 42,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.I don't want to minimize the damage done by heroin. but compared to tobacco it doesn't even register on the chart. In the 15-year period mentioned, with 100,000 opioid deaths, there were over 7,000,000 tobacco deaths (of which roughly 10%, or 700,000 deaths were non-smokers). Then there's the roughly 35,000 gun related deaths per year in the USA, or 525,000 in the same 15-year period.
I suggest if you want to cut down on useless deaths in the USA, you stop tobacco smoking, and take away the guns.
Working on one problem does not prevent working on other problems. Following your logic, one should ignore cigarette smoking because global warming is enormously larger problem.
Wed, 2016-03-23 13:03
#11
...Working on one problem does not prevent working on other problems. Following your logic, one should ignore cigarette smoking because global warming is enormously larger problem.
You're quite right. But it was you who brought up the issue of the number of deaths, not me. I merely pionted out that there is another drug with a far more serious death toll attached.
Wed, 2016-03-23 13:06
#12
...Though one should take into account age at time of death
In fact, all of those 7,000,000 victims of tobacco were going to die anyway, so why worry...
Sat, 2016-03-26 12:40
#13
If you're so interested in the dangers of smoking, there is a simple solution: start a thread on the topic rather than hijacking another thread.