America

Epidemic Nation?

One in every 5 deaths in young adults is opioid-related in the United States

The study, published today in JAMA Network Open and led by St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, ON, found that the percentage of deaths attributable to opioids in the U.S. increased by 292 per cent from 2001 to 2016, with one in every 65 deaths related to opioid use by 2016. This number varied by age group and sex. Men represented nearly 70 per cent of all opioid deaths by 2016, and the highest burden was among young adults aged 24 to 35 years. This study expands on research in Canadian populations. 

Origins of an Epidemic:

Purdue Pharma, the company that planted the seeds of the opioid epidemic through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has long claimed it was unaware of the powerful opioid painkiller’s growing abuse until years after it went on the market. 

But a copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about “significant” abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug’s introduction in 1996 and concealed that information.

Based on their findings after a four-year investigation, the prosecutors recommended that three top Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, which could have sent the men to prison if convicted.  

But top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration did not support the move, said four lawyers who took part in those discussions or were briefed about them. Instead, the government settled the case in 2007.

DYI:  Big pharma the new drug dealers.  Are we going to have gang warfare between Purdue Pharma and a national drug cartel over customers?  As silly as that sounds this is just another ongoing saga of corruption seeping through American society.  Until we as a nation demand to a stop to this; this will continue unabated with corporations only receiving a fine significantly less than their illicit profits – slap on the wrist – and continue on their merry way.  What we need are handcuffs for these corporate criminals.

DYI