OxyContin – Opiate Nation

The Politics of Drugs: Purdue & the DOJ

(Seventh in a series of topical blogs based on chapter by chapter excerpts from Opiate Nation. Translation into most languages is available to the right.)

When public health is at risk, one can only wonder about the motives behind politicians’ decisions – our “public servants” as they used to be referred to – regardless of what they may say. But we don’t have to guess their motives because actions speak louder than words and the actions of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) this week regarding Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family are unconscionable. This deal is not justice for the victims and their families for this pervasive and criminal corporate greed.

Where the Buck Stops and Where It's Hiding

Arizona brought a case to the Supreme Court that sought to stop the Sackler family, who own Purdue Pharma, from transferring billions of dollars from the company in an attempt to avoid paying the claims made against them concerning flooding communities with the prescription opioid painkiller Oxycontin. The Court said they would not hear the case – the justices like to hear rulings from lower courts first.

One of the places the Sackler’s have hidden their money is in an estate in England. A recent article* states: “A complex web of companies and trusts are controlled by the family, and an examination reveals links between far-flung holdings…The estate is proof of the great wealth belonging to the family accused of playing a key role in triggering the US opioid epidemic. But there’s little evidence of that connection. On paper, the land is owned by a handful of companies, most based in Bermuda, all controlled by an offshore trust.” Read the rest of the article which cites the Associated Press’ findings of the deceptive and convoluted practices of a family dynasty that has lived like kings and queens off the misery and deaths of millions of people world-wide. Our son was one of them.

An estimated 10.3 million Americans aged 12 and older misused opioids in 2018. These estimates are likely too low. How many people who are taking opioid Rx’s for pain that could be relieved by physical therapy or a change in lifestyle actually report they are “mis-using” them? My next blog will delve further into this aspect of a country that has become averse to pain…

America’s Love Affair with Opioids

Andrew Sullivan’s 2018 article for the NY Magazine entitled “The Poison We Pick”, wrote: “…For millennia, the Opium Poppy has salved pain, suspended grief, and seduced humans with its intimations of the divine. It was a medicine before there was such a thing as medicine. Every attempt to banish it, destroy it, or prohibit it has failed…This nation pioneered modern life. Now epic numbers of Americans are killing themselves with opioids to escape it…According to the best estimates, opioids will kill up to half a million Americans in the next decade.

“Most of the ways we come to terms with this wave of mass death…miss a deeper American story. It is a story of pain and the search for an end to it. It is a story of how the most ancient painkiller known to humanity has emerged to numb the agonies of the world’s most highly evolved liberal democracy. Continue reading “America’s Love Affair with Opioids”

The Well-Known Effects of Opioids

I was re-reading a book by George MacDonald, entitled The Curates Awakening. I had forgotten an aspect of one of the main characters plight: opioid addiction. What struck me as I read this paragraph was the age-old, well-known addictive qualities of opioids:

“From a tragic accident of his childhood, he had become acquainted with the influences of a certain baneful drug (opium), to which one of his Indian servants was addicted. Now…to escape from gnawing thoughts, he began to experiment with it. Experimentation called for repetition, and repetition first led to a longing after its effects, and next, to a mad appetite for the thing itself…on the verge of absolute slavery to its use.”

This was written in 1870. Laudanum – an opium tincture that contains almost all of the opium alkaloids, including morphine and codeine – was developed in the 16th century. By the 18th century, the medicinal properties of opium and laudanum were well known.

By the 19th century, laudanum was used in many patent medicines to relieve pain, to produce sleep, to allay irritation.The Romantic and Victorian eras were marked by the widespread use of laudanum in Europe and the United States. The early 20th century brought increased regulation of all narcotics as the addictive properties of opium became more widely understood. By mid 20th century, the use of opiates was generally limited to the treatment of pain, and were no longer medically accepted “cure-alls”. (Wikipedia)

How is it that the manufacturers of OxyContin (Purdue Pharma) and other prescription opioids claimed and advertised that they were not addictive? Their scheme was so persuasive that I have friends today that believe that if you are truly in pain, opioids are not addictive. This is absolutely false. And how did the FDA let this go on?

Yes, we can be thankful that new ways to deliver pain relief were developed for patients with extreme pain from cancer and terminal illnesses. I have seen the need for it when I cared for my sister who was dying of brain cancer and had a morphine drip. But the wholesale promoting – pushing – of these drugs for every ache and pain while knowing how absolutely addictive they were is unconscionable. Had we really understood the power of opioids when we first learned our son was addicted, we would have taken a much more pro-active approach to his initial recovery program.

On October 30, 2017, The New Yorker published a must-read multi-page exposé on Mortimer Sackler, Purdue Pharma, and the Sackler family, by Patrick Radden Keefe:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain

“The Sacker dynasty’s ruthless marketing of painkillers

has generated billions of dollars – and millions of addicts.”

The article links Raymond and Arthur Sackler’s business acumen with direct pharmaceutical marketing and the rise of addiction to OxyContin. The article implies that the Sackler’s bear moral responsibility for the Opioid epidemic. During the sixties, Arthur got rich marketing the tranquilizers Librium and Valium using techniques were sometimes blatantly deceptive. In 1974 Mortimer renounced his US Citizenship and lived a flamboyant life in his many residences in Europe.

OxyContin was introduced in 1996 and just since 1999, two hundred thousand Americans have died from overdoses related to OxyContin and other prescription opioids.Many addicts, finding prescription painkillers too expensive or too difficult to obtain, have turned to heroin. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, four out of five people who try heroin today started with prescription painkillers. Our son is one of those statistics – and fatalities.