Another Day, Another Story About Opioids and Holding Pharma To Account

This story originates in Oklahoma, but it could be anywhere.

Why is it that we’ve left it to smaller districts to have to figure out for themselves how to reign in the excessive destruction of Big Pharma? Where are our national or international governments saying ‘time’s up – you’re done here’?

In one missive, a sales representative dismissed a doctor’s fears that patients might become addicted to the company’s opioid painkillers by telling him those who didn’t die probably wouldn’t get hooked. Another proposes targeting sales of the powerfully addictive drugs at those most at risk: men under 40.

This story, as we discover, is slightly different than the multitudes that are creeping up and being largely ignored by mainstream media.

This court case zeroes in on the reckless irresponsibility of the pharma industry, writ large, and how they are obviously more about profits than people.

Johnson & Johnson [is accused] of joining with other companies to create a false narrative of an epidemic of untreated pain in the US to which opioids were the solution, in part by funding front organizations such as the American Pain Society. The strategy helped drive a surge in opioid prescribing as narcotic painkillers ballooned into a multibillion-dollar-a-year market.

Should this trial evolve against Johnson and Johnson it will pivot the spotlight to the important question of the relation of the industry to their intent. As intent becomes more obvious, Big Pharma may finally find itself being reigned by various levels of government across the globe.

But what does this mean?

In Canada, our government has just proposed a very expensive universal drug plan. That’s great, especially as we have an ageing population, but what does that REALLY mean for the taxpayers that will be paying top dollar for drugs we may not even need?

In the process, what are we doing to investigate the soaring cost of basic treatments like insulin, which is needed by roughly 3 million people every day, month and year in Canada? That’s an insane amount of money to be pissing away, mainly to keep the CEO payrolls going at Big Pharma.

I’ve asked questions before about vaccines. Not about their efficacy, but about their cost and ingredients. What happens when we continue to see these costs increase, despite drops in effectiveness?

The cracks in the armour of Big Pharma have finally started to materialize and we must keep poking away at them to ensure that they deliver health and not hysteria.