Community Chat

[Spurt]

• A historic trial: Oklahoma's attorney general is taking on Johnson & Johnson over opioids, alleging the company acted as a drug "kingpin," created a public nuisance that cost the state billions of dollars and destroyed thousands of lives.
• It's the first of many: The Oklahoma trial is the first major trial of nearly 2,000 cases around the country, testing whether a state can make a pharmaceutical company pay for the opioid epidemic

[Cakers3]

It is truly sad that opioids were dispensed so freely and so carelessly.

There are other ways to control some types of pain.

People have lost so much to addiction; a very troubling part of our society that should have been addressed so long ago.

[Carmie]

These trials are crazy.  A few states are suing the drug companies stating that the manufactures did not disclose that opioids were addictive.

We have known for centuries that these drugs are addictive.  Someone dropped the ball..especially the doctors who prescribed these drugs over and over again.  The drug companies paid the doctors well to prescribe their products.

I just hope and pray that we can as a nation get control over these drugs and help those who are now addicted. We need to remove the stigma associated with addiction and tackle the problem and stop looking to point the finger and blame.

[this is my nic]

So, the war is on against opioid meds.  Great.  What happens to the people who need them for pain relief?  I personally know 2 people who have tried everything including accupuncture, numerous spinal injections, physical therapy, and other forms of treatment for back pain.  Surgeons have said "no" to surgery for their problems.  It came down to opioids to help alleviate the pain.  What happens to them if this category of drugs becomes illegal?  I predict a rise in suicide, street drugs, alcoholism,and/or many people becoming bed bound because the pain cannot be relieved.   These people need to have pain relief in order to have a life;  if opioids are the only things that help they should be allowed to have them.  

[Carmie]

@this is my nic   I agree, these pain meds are necessary for many people, mostly for short terms use though some people will need them for life.

These trials are about $$$.  The states will get billions if they win.  They say the money will be used to help those who are addicted and to educate people so they do not become addicted.  But, I don't believe that for a minute.

I can't wait to see how this turns out.  Trying to accuse the drug companies of not informing the doctors and the public that opiates were addictive should be a long shot.

This has been public information for thousands of years.  Many people were addicted in the 1920's in the US.

[momtochloe]

My dad suffered from crippling RA for years and after Tylenol 3 with Codeine was no longer effective his elderly doctor prescribed Percodan which he admitted he didn't know much about but it was 'being pushed" by his pharma representative (this is back in the late 80's).  My parents didn't even drink so we were totally clueless in terms of drugs as was my dad's primary physician.  The damage that prescription did to my father and my family was devastating.  I have zero sympathy for the pharma companies now being held accountable for pushing these drugs on unsuspecting doctors and patients.

[hckynut]

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@Cakers3 wrote:

It is truly sad that opioids were dispensed so freely and so carelessly.

There are other ways to control some types of pain.

People have lost so much to addiction; a very troubling part of our society that should have been addressed so long ago.

@Cakers3 

I agree there is a crisis,  but!  The company manufactures them, but who dispenses them?  Somewhere my belief is that too many are quick to blame other entities, but there also some blame for those that take them.

I understand addiction from having my own, and dealing with them is a daily part of my life. Guess I could blame entities, or other people, but because something is "available" does not require me to partake in them.

The whole thing is sad when there were over 70,000 deaths last year attributed to opioid overdoses. There are countless reasons that could be brought up, and very legitimate ones. I just have a problem with trying to place 100% of the blame on the manufacturer.

I was witness to an auto wreck, subpoena  to court to testify because I saw who ran the red light. Long story short, a grandmother was driving a Dodge Caravan. She ran the red light. She had her young grandchild in the vehicle, no car seat. 

He was so severely injured he requires constant care the rest of his life. First she sued our city, defective stoplights, she lost. Next she tried to sue the other driver, they threw the case out. Next she went after Chrysler Motors for a defective door, which had nothing to do with anything. She lost.

Sad story there too, but her trying to get mental relief by blaming someone other than her own negligence?  With the opioids see a lot of finger pointing, except?

hckynut

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[momtochloe]

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@hckynut wrote:

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@Cakers3 wrote:

It is truly sad that opioids were dispensed so freely and so carelessly.

There are other ways to control some types of pain.

People have lost so much to addiction; a very troubling part of our society that should have been addressed so long ago.

@Cakers3 

I agree there is a crisis,  but!  The company manufactures them, but who dispenses them?  Somewhere my belief is that too many are quick to blame other entities, but there also some blame for those that take them.

I understand addiction from having my own, and dealing with them is a daily part of my life. Guess I could blame entities, or other people, but because something is "available" does not require me to partake in them.

The whole thing is sad when there were over 70,000 deaths last year attributed to opioid overdoses. There are countless reasons that could be brought up, and very legitimate ones. I just have a problem with trying to place 100% of the blame on the manufacturer.

I was witness to an auto wreck, subpoena  to court to testify because I saw who ran the red light. Long story short, a grandmother was driving a Dodge Caravan. She ran the red light. She had her young grandchild in the vehicle, no car seat. 

He was so severely injured he requires constant care the rest of his life. First she sued our city, defective stoplights, she lost. Next she tried to sue the other driver, they threw the case out. Next she went after Chrysler Motors for a defective door, which had nothing to do with anything. She lost.

Sad story there too, but her trying to get mental relief by blaming someone other than her own negligence?  With the opioids see a lot of finger pointing, except?

hckynut

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@hckynut  I smell what you are cooking but this horrible mess started way back in the late 80's/90's.  Before the education we have now about the terrible addictive properties these drugs have.  My family was completely defenseless about what happened to my father along with the uneducated elderly physician that was in charge of his care.  And I don't believe for a second pharma didn't know it even at that point.  Big pharma should be on the hook for this and the aftermath of what they have caused.

[CatsyCline]

Its really about Oxycontin and how the doctors were played and incentified.  Sure the generics like hydrocodone and oxycodone play a role, but Purdue marketed Oxycontin for it's time release properties, and for this reason, because the dose was time-released, people were not "supposed" to become addicted. People who don't need painkillers will find a way to get a better high. They crushed Oxys pills and snorted them. For a long time Oxys weren't kept on drugstore shelves. We have to ask why this country seeks the highs  at these levels. What is it about the population that we need this fix

Chronic pain is a life sentence of its own. And surgeons now don't want to help. They are so convinced someone is doctor shopping and they protect their professional associates, because the associates have twice operated on an individual,  and the outcomes did not eliminate the life invasive pain. And they just don't care.  They publish in journals and patients come hundreds of miles to see them.  Chuckle at concerns about leg weakness and sciatica. Poo poos the Xray that shows a crooked spine, no MRI ordered. Promptly dismissed with a rec to go see a chiropractor. Already had months of  PT, steroids. This is a personal anecdote.

[Carmie]

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@momtochloe wrote:

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@hckynut wrote:

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@Cakers3 wrote:

It is truly sad that opioids were dispensed so freely and so carelessly.

There are other ways to control some types of pain.

People have lost so much to addiction; a very troubling part of our society that should have been addressed so long ago.

@Cakers3 

I agree there is a crisis,  but!  The company manufactures them, but who dispenses them?  Somewhere my belief is that too many are quick to blame other entities, but there also some blame for those that take them.

I understand addiction from having my own, and dealing with them is a daily part of my life. Guess I could blame entities, or other people, but because something is "available" does not require me to partake in them.

The whole thing is sad when there were over 70,000 deaths last year attributed to opioid overdoses. There are countless reasons that could be brought up, and very legitimate ones. I just have a problem with trying to place 100% of the blame on the manufacturer.

I was witness to an auto wreck, subpoena  to court to testify because I saw who ran the red light. Long story short, a grandmother was driving a Dodge Caravan. She ran the red light. She had her young grandchild in the vehicle, no car seat. 

He was so severely injured he requires constant care the rest of his life. First she sued our city, defective stoplights, she lost. Next she tried to sue the other driver, they threw the case out. Next she went after Chrysler Motors for a defective door, which had nothing to do with anything. She lost.

Sad story there too, but her trying to get mental relief by blaming someone other than her own negligence?  With the opioids see a lot of finger pointing, except?

hckynut

---

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@hckynut  I smell what you are cooking but this horrible mess started way back in the late 80's/90's.  Before the education we have now about the terrible addictive properties these drugs have.  My family was completely defenseless about what happened to my father along with the uneducated elderly physician that was in charge of his care.  And I don't believe for a second pharma didn't know it even at that point.  Big pharma should be on the hook for this and the aftermath of what they have caused.

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I don't understand how a doctor did not know that these drugs were addictive.  I was in high school back in the late  60's and early 70's and we were taught in school about drug and alcohol use.

Information was freely available at that time.  Of course Big Pharma knew that these drugs were addictive, and so did every doctor and the general public. America had a big drug problem back in the 1920's too.

The Pharma companies paid the doctors to write prescriptions for these drugs and they, the doctors, did so knowing what the outcome would be.  Their patients became addicted and the doctors kept writing the prescriptions. This was $$$ driven. Our family doctor in the early 80's was arrested for writing scripts for patients he never even saw to make money and he wasn't the only one.  It was happening everywhere.

You can't blame any one thing for this to have happened.  The Parma companies, the doctors and even the patients all share responsibility.

We all need to get on board to try to stop this problem and patients need to stop worshiping their doctors and be informed before they take any type of drugs.

From personal experience:  a few years ago, I broke my ankle on a Saturday afternoon.  I went to the ER.  I was x-rayed and advised that I would need to see an ortho doctor.  I was written a RX for an opioid, which I never filled.  The pain was not all that bad.

The next day, a Sunday, the ortho place called me and said they had an open appointment that day.  I went in for an appointment.  After seeing the doctor, I was given a walking boot that could be pumped up and another RX for an opioid for pain, which I never filled. At that point, I had two scripts for pain meds, that I did not need.

I was prescribed Oxycodin both times.