The feds think we need some help dealing with prescription painkiller abuse.
Get ready for the punchline here — because you’ll laugh until it hurts so bad you may need those drugs yourself.
Big Brother has turned to Big Pharma to help curb the abuse of opioid meds, which include morphine, oxycodone and methadone. And the drug makers have responded by calling for voluntary training for doctors and pharmacists… from the feds.
Naturally, they want you, Mr. and Mrs. American Taxpayer, to pay for it.
That’s what you get when you ask for Big Pharma’s help dealing with the problems created by their own meds.
Self-regulation has been a clear failure when it comes to drugs. Companies are routinely fined hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars for shifty, shady practices like illegal marketing.
And somehow, we’re supposed to trust THEM to come up with a risk-management plan to guide docs and pharmacists.
Isn’t that what the feds are supposed to be doing? If drug safety isn’t one of the prime functions of the FDA, someone please tell me what is.
Opioid painkillers caused 13,800 deaths in 2006 alone. In other words, in a single year these drugs alone killed more Americans than swine flu ever has, and probably ever will. In fact, these killer meds were responsible for 40 percent of all poisoning deaths that year.
And those aren’t even the scary numbers!
What’s really frightening is that 5.2 million Americans ADMIT to using these drugs inappropriately, according to a recent survey. And that doesn’t take into consideration all the users who won’t acknowledge their painkiller problem, and all the folks who simply lie about their drug use.
And Big Pharma won’t stop there, either. They’ve quietly gotten untold numbers hooked on these powerful and addictive meds for unproven off-label uses like migraine headaches.
But to the drug companies, these aren’t millions of people with opioid problems. They’re top customers — and anything that cuts back on their numbers will reduce profits.
So sure… they’ll help all right. They’ll help make sure there are no real changes to the status quo.
The FDA only wants "more specifics" from Big Pharma on its plan, but I can tell you specifically right now that it stinks.
The companies want the Drug Enforcement Agency to offer voluntary training to doctors and pharmacists.
Never mind that the DEA currently does no such thing. Never mind that only an act of Congress could make that happen. Never mind that this plan shifts the burden of addictive drugs to the taxpayers. Never mind that it wouldn’t stop the army of Big Pharma pushers… er… salesman from undoing any negative effects of a brief government-sponsored training seminar.
But that’s what happens when you let the crooks make their own rules.
Keep reading for more Big Pharma shenanigans — and how they target your wallet with "free" offers.