Why opioids are such an American problem

[donotpissoffacow]

In two years, the town of Kermit in West Virginia received almost nine million opioid pills, according to a congressional committee.
Just 400 people live in Kermit.
...
Unlike most European countries, the US does not have universal healthcare paid for by taxes.
Instead, Americans must get their own insurance - usually via an employer or the government.
...
"Most insurance, especially for poor people, won't pay for anything but a pill,"
...
For the past four years, the US government has published the amounts paid by drug and device companies to doctors and teaching hospitals.
The total in 2016 was more than $8bn. More than 630,000 physicians had payment records.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41701718

Question?
Has anyone else noticed we always have a drug crisis whenever Republicans are in the White House? Reefer Madness may mess with that anecdotal hypothesis.

[underpants]

1. Great set of facts there

Thanks

[pbmus]

2. Capitalism and healthcare are like oil and water...

[sandensea]

3. Another legacy of Bush's Afghan invasion

Which, make no mistake, was a modern-day opium war and nothing more. Trillions to be made.

[TheFrenchRazor]

4. the anti-opioid hysteria doesn't do anything to help the people who really need it; all it does it

make it harder for chronic pain sufferers to get needed and appropriate pain relief. expanding the war on drugs will do NOTHING to help potential ODers; it will only increase the suffering of people who are already suffering enough.

[wellst0nev0ter]

5. And crack cocaine equals broken black communities

And a war on drugs

[applegrove]

6. We have an opioid crisis in canada too.

[lindysalsagal]

7. Has to be a questionable distribution facility of some kind. Should be investigated.

[Staph]

8. 9 million pills in two years.

400 people in Kermit. (The entire county has 25,000, but there are other pharmacies in other towns, including a Walmart pharmacy just over the river in Kentucky.)

9,000,000 pills / 400 people / 2 years / 365 days = 30.8 pills per day for every man, woman and child in that town.

There's the problem. The distributors are making a fortune. And the people of small town West Virginia (and everywhere else in this country) are paying the price.

[donotpissoffacow]

9. It's called Capitalism.

Making profit on the needs of others.