The deadliest drug epidemic in American history did not involve peddlers, gangsters or smugglers, but painkillers. Between 2006 and 2014, more than 127 million prescription opioid pills were supplied to a single county in West Virginia—142 pills a year for each person—which fueled an opioid-addiction crisis that’s still ongoing. . On Monday, a federal judge dismissed charges against three of America’s biggest drug distributors levied by Cabela’s County and Huntington City, which were ground zero of the pandemic in that state, selling opioids in cities with far fewer people. To ignore the really alarming amounts. The judge acknowledged the enormity of the harm caused to local people, but ruled that these channels that funneled legal pills made by drug makers into pharmacies and hospitals could not be held responsible for the leak, which led to widespread abuse and There were more deaths. No violation of law was found in this case. The legal victory of the pill funnel, however, shouldn’t distract us from the pharma-medical complex responsible for a serious problem.
The epidemic can be traced back to 1996, when Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin, a narcotic pain reliever that was widely marketed as a pill that users were far less likely to become addicted to. At least compared to other options in a class of approved drugs — called opioids. Either derived from opium or lab-made to mimic it, these were used by American doctors for as long as they caused severe pain in the seriously ill. With faulty data on low addiction risk already making room for Purdue’s pitch, its wonder drug was sold by sales agents to doctors in such heavy quantities that it found its way into bathroom cabinets across the country. Though the brand had rivals, it would soon be popped by the millions, which allowed it to rake in eye-popping sales: more than $30 billion over the years. The consequences of bulk opioid access have been disastrous. Even minor injuries have led many Americans to overuse such drugs. As use increased in both volume and power, so did recreational pop-ins. Unable to escape their need to recover, some users become embroiled in heroin abuse. A spurt in overdose deaths, whose graph has long tracked a rise in opioid uptake, was slow to alert the US. According to its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdoses involving prescription opioids killed more than 263,000 people in the country from 1999 to 2020. As one frontline worker says in Heroin(e), a documentary on the battle for Caballe County to save people from bullets, “I’m afraid we’ve lost two generations.” Purdue was dissolved last September after being sued. Pull as the liability matters, its owners have expressed regret and requested to be caught unawares. Still, BOOM should have alerted them.
The massive opioid threat that ripped through the US should serve as a cautionary tale for countries that tend to rely on all scientific ‘progress’ backed by the authorities. The risk of regulatory capture can be high if the financial stakes are so large that they affect both business ethics and public vigilance. In India, thankfully, we didn’t have the same problem. If anything, we struggle to deliver morphine to those in need for end-of-life care patients. Our drug approval process is slow, but doctors have a poor record on risky prescriptions, with various powerful off-patent drugs (and counterfeits) too readily available for comfort. The loose regulation of what is pumped with citizens should not be allowed to be exploited by greedy people who do not have time to investigate. There is no quick fix pill for that.