Current Events > Trump declares "public health emergency" over opiod crisis

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-declares-public-health-emergency-opioid-crisis-can-generation-ends-epidemic-200509548.html

I'm glad to see this and I hope something is done to take down big pharmaceutical. Their painkillers are just FDA approved heroin.
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Time to go invest in RTX...

southcoast09 posted...

I hope something is done to take down big pharmaceutical.

So do I, but I don't expect it from this administration
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41643080

US President Donald Trump's nominee for drug czar is accused of helping relax enforcement on pharmaceutical firms blamed for fuelling the opioid crisis.

Pennsylvania congressman Tom Marino pushed a bill that reportedly stripped a government agency of the ability to freeze suspicious painkiller shipments.

His co-sponsor on the act was Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Both their states have been ravaged by opioids.

Experts estimate the drugs could kill 500,000 Americans in the next decade.

Deadly addiction to opioids - a class of drug covering everything from legal painkillers to heroin - has been described as America's biggest public health crisis since the spread of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s.
...
Mr Marino and Ms Blackburn, both Republicans, helped force out an official at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who was taking on the drug firms, report the Post and 60 Minutes.

According to the investigation, they also introduced and lobbied for an "industry-friendly" bill called the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act.

A DEA whistleblower said the legislation made it harder for the agency to prevent distributors from shipping pills to rogue pharmacies and corrupt doctors around the US.

The so-called suspension orders - which the DEA slaps on suspicious shipments - have not been issued for at least two years, according to the report.

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Trump hires the best people to drain the swamp smh i can guarantee you nothing will come from this the big pharma is to powerful
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Of course, anyone who assumes an immediate ban on opioids will somehow magically solve the problem, is completely goddamn delusional.

Fuck drug users
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Big pharma isnt the issue with the opioid crisis, but they sure as hell aren't doing anything to stop it.

Its mainly doctors and lawyers at fault for making the perfect storm. Doctors that aren't well versed in them doesn't help, and if they do know what they were doing, there were laws that override them.

There's atleast one case in Cali where a doctor was jailed for refusing to prescribe his patient pain meds.
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unless they ban chinese imports of fetanyl nothing will change you can easily import that shit from china

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/anatomy-opioid-overdose-outbreak-how-one-georgia-doctor-sounded-alarm-n802786

tl;dr
Person gets in pain somehow.
Doctor prescribes awesome drugs.
Person takes awesome drugs a little bit too often.
Person runs out of awesome drugs, and can't get prescription refilled easily or timely.
Person buys "percocet" from the back of someone's car.
Turns out the "percocet" is actually bathtub fentanyl, oops!
Person dies.
Repeat about fifty thousand times, each year.

Unsugarized_Foo posted...

Big pharma isnt the issue with the opioid crisis, but they sure as hell aren't doing anything to stop it.

Its mainly doctors and lawyers at fault for making the perfect storm. Doctors that aren't well versed in them doesn't help, and if they do know what they were doing, there were laws that override them.

There's atleast one case in Cali where a doctor was jailed for refusing to prescribe his patient pain meds.

Pharmaceutical companies literally pay doctors extra to push certain drugs.
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CADE FOSTER posted...

Trump hires the best people to drain the swamp smh i can guarantee you nothing will come from this the big pharma is to powerful

Trump is the only president in recent history who didn't accept hundreds of millions of dollars from them. That means they no longer have the influence and protection they once had. The DEA has said numerous times that they are the source of the problem, but they are too protected.

We'll see now that they aren't shareholders of the executive branch.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/anatomy-opioid-overdose-outbreak-how-one-georgia-doctor-sounded-alarm-n802786

tl;dr
Person gets in pain somehow.
Doctor prescribes awesome drugs.
Person takes awesome drugs a little bit too often.
Person runs out of awesome drugs, and can't get prescription refilled easily or timely.
Person buys "percocet" from the back of someone's car.
Turns out the "percocet" is actually bathtub fentanyl, oops!
Person dies.
Repeat about fifty thousand times, each year.

This is why marijuana should be federally legalized. It is medically proven to be a more effective pain reliever than the opiate based ones.

When the opioids bind to your neurosensors, your tolerance builds up. Ever hear the term "chasing the dragon?" They say you chase it because the effects diminish over time and people use more and more to get the desired effects.

Then, they go sober and use once more at the same level they used to take, and die.
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CADE FOSTER posted...

Trump hires the best people to drain the swamp smh i can guarantee you nothing will come from this the big pharma is to powerful

Yeah people who want to replace it with a wasteland where nothing thrives.
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Didn't he declare this months ago, then proceeded to do nothing?
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It also depends on the person taking the opiods. Often people get mentally addicted, and that's what can lead to dangerous consequences. But I'm a cancer patient and get pain killers prescribed to me pretty regularly and without hassle, and I believe if I hadn't been a first hand witness to addiction in both of my parents that I'd probably end up like them, but I've never had an issue where I couldn't stop taking them.
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A quick and easy way to mitigate the problem significantly and immediately, is to move oxycodone and hydrocodone to over-the-counter (or behind it, with the allergy pills and cough syrups).

Most of these deaths are desperate addicts buying mystery drugs (usually fentanyl) from shady street dealers, not from binging on a prescription.

Bullet_Wing posted...

Phantom_Nook posted...

Didn't he declare this months ago, then proceeded to do nothing?

Wouldn't surprise me. Trump is the most incompetent president in recent memory if not all time.

yes indeed he did the reporters asked him about that and he said declaring it an emergency is huge
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Bullet_Wing posted...

Phantom_Nook posted...

Didn't he declare this months ago, then proceeded to do nothing?

Wouldn't surprise me. Trump is the most incompetent president in recent memory if not all time.

No, he's not.
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southcoast09 posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/anatomy-opioid-overdose-outbreak-how-one-georgia-doctor-sounded-alarm-n802786

tl;dr
Person gets in pain somehow.
Doctor prescribes awesome drugs.
Person takes awesome drugs a little bit too often.
Person runs out of awesome drugs, and can't get prescription refilled easily or timely.
Person buys "percocet" from the back of someone's car.
Turns out the "percocet" is actually bathtub fentanyl, oops!
Person dies.
Repeat about fifty thousand times, each year.

This is why marijuana should be federally legalized. It is medically proven to be a more effective pain reliever than the opiate based ones.

When the opioids bind to your neurosensors, your tolerance builds up. Ever hear the term "chasing the dragon?" They say you chase it because the effects diminish over time and people use more and more to get the desired effects.

Then, they go sober and use once more at the same level they used to take, and die.

they made a video game about it.

It's called heroin hero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBVkk5rW0lw
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Looks like his master plan is an ad campaign.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-foolishly-thinks-he-can-solve-the-opioid-crisis-with-zero-cash-and-a-dumb-ad-campaign
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Tanya Basu? That's officially the most butthurt "writer" I've seen. Nice find.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAa1clWcFOc
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Yeah, isn't his solution to use DARE or some stupid shit?
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Normally this would be a good thing, but with Trump thisll either turn into nothing or a focus on the war on drugs.

Fucking legalize marijuana, fund suboxone clinics, stop prescribing as much opiates for trivial shit and if we need to go extreme, make clean opiates available so people don't buy poisoned fentanyl/heroin and either die or contribute to crime.
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He made it sound like he wants to do the DARE program. I don't know if they still do that, but he said he wants to do programs to convince kids not to do drugs in the first place. Sounds like he wants to do a lot more DARE.
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They won't crack down on pharma but crackdown on poor people who have oxys and percs on them and hit them with 10 years prison for possession with intent.

Don't beg for this shit because it will backfire hard and the ghettos and rural areas will still be riddled with these addictive drugs.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

He made it sound like he wants to do the DARE program. I don't know if they still do that, but he said he wants to do programs to convince kids not to do drugs in the first place. Sounds like he wants to do a lot more DARE.

It was pointless and stupid when Nancy Reagan was doing it, and it will be pointless and stupid now.

so is he cracking down on big pharma? making weed federally legal and easy to get? no? then he obviously doesn't give a fuck and things will get worse. bigly.
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Soviet_Poland posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAa1clWcFOc

Thats pretty good
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metralo posted...

so is he cracking down on big pharma?

It's kinda misdirected to blame big pharma for all of this, regardless of it not really doing anything helpful in favor of adding an "XR" to name to stretch patents out another several years.

The various "crackdowns" on doctor-shopping and the state registries are more to blame. They practically created the black market full of fentanyl counterfeits and fentanyl-laced everything, and led to a situation it's actually easier to get heroin (which will be cut with fentanyl anyway) than it is to get oxy pills nowadays.

Questionmarktarius posted...

It's kinda misdirected to blame big pharma for all of this, regardless of it not really doing anything helpful in favor of adding an "XR" to name to stretch patents out another several years.

I've seen some cases where Big pharma classifies a drug as Class 3, then ups it to Class 2 several years later. Then the people who were dependent on these drugs have to go do drug Class 1 (heroin and shit) just because its easier to obtain than something like Fentanyl. It was super big here in Texas and effected a fuck ton of Vets because those guys are in constant pain killers
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CEs_EFG posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

It's kinda misdirected to blame big pharma for all of this, regardless of it not really doing anything helpful in favor of adding an "XR" to name to stretch patents out another several years.

I've seen some cases where Big pharma classifies a drug as Class 3, then ups it to Class 2 several years later. Then the people who were dependent on these drugs have to go do drug Class 1 (heroin and shit) just because its easier to obtain than something like Fentanyl. It was super big here in Texas and effected a fuck ton of Vets because those guys are in constant pain killers

The Controlled Substances Act is a crock of shit anyway. Quinine is illegal now. Quinine!

I would not be shocked if they brought that failure dare back another reagen shitty program
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Questionmarktarius posted...

The Controlled Substances Act is a crock of s*** anyway. Quinine is illegal now. Quinine!

it's pretty bullshit dude, I remember the amount of homeless vets rise significantly overnight when one of them went up a class. I wasn't into Emergency medicine when it happened but i remember it being all over the place and nothing happened.
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Based on that offhand comment in his speech about the border wall and how the administration later commented that as a non critical national crisis no additional funding would be required, only a reallocation, Im guessing this is a scam to pay for that stupid wall.

Or hell forget about it tomorrow.
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We all know how this is going to work out.

Opioids get banned, and the black market explodes.
Someone figures out an even more addictive tweak in a basement lab, crisis get much, much worse.
Then, the "tough on crime" firehoses emerge, and we've got entire cities (well, suburbs this time) collapsing into crime and shootings and crime and shootings and decay, and people going to jail roughly forever, all because there was a few pennies to be made on bad knees - and society deluded itself, again, into believing that banning something makes it magically go away.

The government made the crisis much worse. Efforts to crack down on opioid prescriptions led to patients with legitimate pain complaints being cut off and turning to heroin.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

We all know how this is going to work out.

Opioids get banned, and the black market explodes.
Someone figures out an even more addictive tweak in a basement lab, crisis get much, much worse.
Then, the "tough on crime" firehoses emerge, and we've got entire cities (well, suburbs this time) collapsing into crime and shootings and crime and shootings and decay, and people going to jail roughly forever, all because there was a few pennies to be made on bad knees.

That is exactly how it works already. They arent banned per se but such a pain in the ass to prescribe in my home state (NY) that a lot of clinics just stopped writing them out of policy. The primary says "nope, you gotta go to a pain management doc if you want them", the pain docs say "sorry, we're full", and now the patient who's dependent on the meds turns to heroin.
Look up Dr. Gosy. He was an incredible doctor who took care of thousands of patients no other doctor wanted to deal with, and the DEA dug into him and found a couple billing errors from 3 years ago as an excuse to shut down his practice.
Fun fact: telling doctors what to do doesnt ever end well.
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https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/26/16552440/opioid-crisis-public-health-emergency-donald-trump-heroin-epidemic

In August, the president announced that he intended to declare a national emergency on the opioid crisis, but then didnt take official action. A national emergency declaration (different from a public health emergency) would have quickly freed up federal money from the Disaster Relief Fund for states and cities to treat addiction and overdoses. That money is usually used to help states respond to natural disasters, not long-term public health crises. And the funds are nearly exhausted after a sweep of powerful hurricanes brought destruction to Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico this summer, according to Reuters. So this week, the White House decided that declaring a public health emergency instead of a national emergency would be more appropriate, according to NPR. A public health emergency doesnt give access to the Disaster Relief Fund; instead, it frees up money from the Public Health Emergency Fund, but that fund only contains $57,000, according to STAT.
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He's totally going to take big pharmaceutical down, while they're powerless. My goal: have 0% opiates on the market within a few years

Basically, these assholes like Merck and Pfizer are going to go the way of the dinosaur. Other companies will step up with non-narcotic alternatives and marijuana (which is 10x better pain relief) will be federally legalized. Then watch trump get 75%+ popular vote
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I believe these things will happen. Jeff sessions' is just a loudmouth and he is a direct recipient of big pharmaceutical's money.

Trump knows business and he knows that legalizing marijuana will not only help to defeat the pharmaceutical giants, but strategically, it would likely guarantee a reelection.

Many people are beginning to see the modern Democratic Party as wanting to take rights and impose restrictions on speech (their candidates also take money and would never legalize marijuana). If he took advantage of that, then many moderates would vote for him, even if reluctantly so.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/anatomy-opioid-overdose-outbreak-how-one-georgia-doctor-sounded-alarm-n802786

tl;dr
Person gets in pain somehow.
Doctor prescribes awesome drugs.
Person takes awesome drugs a little bit too often.
Person runs out of awesome drugs, and can't get prescription refilled easily or timely.
Person buys "percocet" from the back of someone's car.
Turns out the "percocet" is actually bathtub fentanyl, oops!
Person dies.
Repeat about fifty thousand times, each year.

Not only that, but many doctors get "commission" or "kickbacks" for prescribing drugs. Not to say this is all doctors, but I feel like it's so easy for doctors to take a look at you and be like "ok you need to take this and this, here's your script" and then they get some coin out of the deal.

Just kinda fucked up, I feel like we as a society are too quick to medicate or to find some kind of medicine to even people out. Or maybe it's just me being paranoid but I've heard too many stories and seen too many of my friends get easy scripts that I feel were lazily prescribed. Where there's smoke there's fire.
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Here's a controversial opinion: Addictions aren't inherently bad.
They only become "bad" when it manages to suck time and resources (money) away from everything else (rare, even among drunks), or the addiction becomes elusive somehow (extremely common when whatever it is is restricted somehow). It's an utter disaster when both happens.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/swiss-voters-give-boost-to-heroin-on-the-nhs-1042730.html

A pilot scheme established "shooting galleries" in London, Brighton and Darlington, where addicts could get drugs and inject under supervision. The scheme cut crime and stopped street sales. Crimes committed by the addicts dropped from about 40 to six a month after six months of treatment, said Professor John Strang, the head of the National Addiction Centre at the Maudsley hospital. A third of addicts stopped using street heroin and the number of occasions when the rest "scored" dropped from every day to four to five times a month, on average.

If anything, a gambling addiction is more destructive than an oxy addiction could ever be, because gambling can consume scarce time and money in large quantities, far more often. Meanwhile, someone hooked on oxy just takes a a few pills and goes to work, likely more productive than before because his back or knees or whatever is not longer a useless stack of pain.

I could be mistaken, but don't insurance companies get paid more by drug companies to push a certain drug and the insurance companies give doctors an incentive for meeting a certain quota?
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