Never forget that *this* is what countless people cited. Not a study but a single paragraph correspondence in a 1980 issue of #NEJM

#PublicHealth #MedMastodon #OpioidEpidemic

A generation later, the family's business company created #Oxycontin, and procured misleading and false research about the drug's safety kickstarting the #OpioidEpidemic, whose American body-count is closing in on a million dead. Armed with inflated claims about opioid safety, the Sacklers' pharma reps bribed, cajoled and tricked doctors into writing millions of prescriptions for oxy.

4/

Purdue Pharma is in the spotlight again with new Netflix special

https://endpts.com/netflix-special-on-purdue-pharma-opioid-epidemic-set-to-debut-amid-federal-challenge-to-bankruptcy-settlement/

#pharma #Purdue #PurduePharma #Netflix #opioidepidemic #opioids

New paper alert!
Gac, Yakubi & Apollonio -'Issues arising from the study design, conduct, & promotion of #clinicaltrials funded by #opioid manufacturers: a review of internal pharmaceutical industry documents' - https://doi.org/10.1332/174426421X16856230946027

#opioidepidemic #OIDA #Archives

I’ve been thinking a lot of heroin/fent/dope and the people who use it for the past, oh, decade or so. And lately I’ve been coming to some conclusions that have been pretty hard for me to accept.

Why do people cut drug users/addicts out of their life? (or “love them from a distance” as the saying goes) Why do mothers stop talking to sons, brothers ignore sisters, lifelong friends behave like strangers? The answer seems simple enough, because being a drug addict is awful and they don’t want to encourage or “enable” drug use. But *why* does being an addict suck?

It certainly isn’t just being dependent on a substance. Ask a cigarette smoker. A persistent cough aside, most ppl who smoke cigarettes live perfectly happy lives. So why then? Well, you could get arrested. That’s not great. But among the drug users I know, easily the worst part about addiction is being separated from the people they care about.

So we get this feedback loop. Addiction sucks because you’re alienated from your loved ones, and your loved ones alienate you because they don’t want you to suffer from addiction. However, the suffering is being caused *because* of the alienation!!

There’s one more thing. Overdose. Using drugs like heroin can kill you, and no one wants to encourage their family to do something that will kill them, right? To bring back the cigarette comparison, cigarettes are also potentially deadly. But most people are able to find the middle ground between “encouraging family members to smoke” and “refusing to speak with a smoker till they quit cigarettes.” Why can’t we do this with hard drugs as well? I know it *seems* like an absurd question, but imo there really is no good answer. If you are willing to have a cigarette smoker in your life, but not a heroin user your issue is not with the potential deadliness of the heroin.

The proliferation of narcan further shows the hypocrisy. If your concern is the addict you love dying, you can mitigate that risk by encouraging them to use in front of you more often than not. If, god forbid, they OD then you can reverse the OD with narcan. If you have any objection whatsoever to this arrangement, then you can’t also pretend that the addict’s well-being is the reason you’re against it.

I fear a lot of this comes down to heroin’s status as an illegal drug. Which, ya know, fine whatever- ppl have a hard time with illegal ≠ immoral. But it breaks my heart that the state’s decision about what we are and aren’t allowed to do with our bodies is more important to the ppl who love me than *my* well being.

Idk, this might have been a bit rambling but I had to put these thoughts down jnto writing. I hope we can build a world than is kinder to people who shoot dope, smoke crack, or whatever else than world we were born into.

If you use drugs, please don’t use alone! If you can’t find someone you trust to use with- there is a hotline called Never Use Alone. All they ask is your name (it can be fake, they just need something to call you) and your current location. You get high while on the phone, and if you stop responding then they will call a paramedic. I know the idea of giving a stranger your location might seem a bit “eh” but I can vouch for this organization. Their number is 1-800-484-3731

#addiction #recovery #heroin #OpioidCrisis #OpioidEpidemic #OverdoseEpidemic

We already know effective solutions to the fentanyl epidemic, but for some reason we aren't doing them.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/what-most-people-think-about-opioid-treatment-is-wrong-wa-researcher-says/

#Seattle #OpioidEpidemic

Document drop day!
We added more than 34,000 files to the #Opioid Industry Document's #Insys Litigation collection today. Total documents in the collection = 1,549,630!

#fentanyl #opioidepidemic #FromTheArchives

https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/opioids/collections/insys-litigation-documents/

💊There's a potential connection between the long-term use of opium-derived painkillers and an increased risk of cancer, say international researchers

#opioidepidemic #cancerprevention

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/opium-products-used-as-painkillers-may-be-linked-with-cancer

the neoliberal nanny-state has decided to tell us what medicine we should have access to because of ridiculous hysteria over the #opioidepidemic #healthcare #opioidcrisis #pain #painepidemic

major pharmacies getting sued for not denying people with legal prescriptions is ridiculous

the "pharma bro" narrative is garbage

the facts are people are not getting pain (and now mental health) relief by the millions

instead of watching netflix and hbo documentaries watch your parents die in agony

Stanford Psychiatry's Keith Humphreys talks more to policymakers than to other #psychiatrists. Why? As a globally recognized expert on drug #addiction, he offers his insights to help combat the devastation happening around the nation.

On the new installment of "What Makes Up Your Mind," Dr. Humphreys discusses the #opioidepidemic from his perspective as someone who has aided in crafting and implementing strategy to address it. https://stan.md/3ZySH4m

Feds seek to limit telehealth prescriptions for some drugs https://apnews.com/article/1f23131435341fd192f41f9db027255f #opioidepidemic #biden #democrats this is a single issue will not vote for biden in 2024 - stop using the so called #opioidcrisis as an excuse to keep people from having access to #healthcare #teledoc is great and benefits people with disabilities greatly- #dems please mind your own business and instead hurting us pass a higher federal minimum wage and medicare for all

The importance of genomic testing in medication prescription: an urgent need for change

#genomicmedicine #patientcare #opioidepidemic #medicationprescription

Ani Rostomyan is a nutrigenomics pharmacist.

https://youtube.com/shorts/rTRSTB7NvKY

Listen here: https://kevinmd.com/podcast

Niedrige Impfrate und #opioidepidemic: #Lebenserwartung in den USA sinkt auf niedrigsten Stand seit 1996.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-u-s-lost-years-of-life/

Feds to investigate nursing home abuse of antipsychotics https://apnews.com/article/ad76a524c9e97c5eaf857d89c4119b34

#endoflife #deathwithdignity #antipsychotics #opioids #opioidepidemic

this is a letter i wrote in the comments section of the NYTimes about the subject - please consider the current pushback against medication is inhumane

FAR too many people dying in this country bc of the opioid epidemic —we need effective drugs to combat this, ASAP. The FDA just fast-tracked Revive, an opioid-reversal drug,

⭐️ the nasal formulation reportedly yields 3x⬆️ blood levels vs IM shots.

Now #EmergentBiosolutions , let’s just make sure the drug is affordable (RX version selling for ~$100💰💰💰) so that the folks whose lives may depend on this, get access. #opioidepidemic #savelives #opiates

https://on.wsj.com/3GyzV6J

Free Narcan for New Mexico residents.

To get Narcan anywhere in New Mexico, call (505) 270-5943.

https://www.doseofreality.com/save-a-life/get-narcan/

#Narcan
#Nalozone
#NewMexico
#OpioidEpidemic

Media outlets push fears of officers overdosing from fentanyl exposures. Doctors say it doesn’t add up.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/media/fentanyl-exposures-reliable-sources/index.html

well ho ho ho whatdya know #opioidepidemic #fakeopioidepidemic #opioids #opioidcrisis

Bars/nightclubs/concert venues/etc. should be REQUIRED to have Narcan easily accessible & to employ staff trained in how to respond to medical fucking emergencies. Time to end the stigma on dependency and adopt the mindset of harm reduction. #opioidepidemic
/end rant

#chronicpain #opioids #opioidepidemic #opioidhysteria #disability #surgery I'm tired of the "opioid epidemic" talking points that are purposely misleading and out of context. Go read Oliver et al 2020 if you want to read more evidence based suggestions. It's available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31327624/.

Opioids are included in multiple treatment guidelines for surgical pain, as well as chronic pain because they are safe and effective.
(Continued)

El consumo de opioides en España, medido en DHD (dosis diaria definida, por 1000 habitantes y día) se sitúa dos veces por encima del consumo hace 10 años. Además, si nos fijamos en la última gráfica, podemos ver que el subgrupo que más crecimiento ha tenido es el N02AJ: opioides combinados con analgésicos no opioides, entre los que se incluye el N02AJ17, oxicodona+paracetamol. ¿Os suena el OxyContin?
#opioidepidemic #opioids #opioides