1) They've already paid out BILLIONS in lawsuits due to their deceptive marketing practices, minimizing the risk of addition in the early 2000's and paying kickbacks to doctors for Rx'ing their medications
2) They've stopped that marketing strategy a long time ago
3) The VAST majority of 'opioid overdoses' are, in reality, drug and alcohol overdoses wherein opioids are one of MANY CNS depressant drugs in the dead person's system. Benzos like valium and xanax, and ESPECIALLY alcohol are almost inevitably also found.
4) And when it's a pure opioid OD, that is almost always caused by either extremely strong heroin, or fake heroin actually made with Fentanyl. Almost NOBODY overdoses and dies taking Rx'd opioids AS PRESCRIBED. Which is what a Pharma company should be 'responsible for', legally, IMHO.
5) And you know who else is responsible? The Government is also partly responsible, and not just because of lax early 2000's regulations, but also because of how LITTLE is paid to Social Security recipients, and people on Disability. I promise you that MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of Opioids on the street originate from Elderly and Disabled legitimate pain patients foregoing their medication in order to sell it off because they desperately need the money to put food on the table or pay OTHER medical bills. A decent-sized monthly Oxy or Dilaudid Rx is worth MORE if 'sold' ... than most people's entire monthly SS check. While I sympathize with the Old people, they are partly responsible as well.
6) And then there's the addicts, breaking the law in the vast majority of cases. They also bear some responsibility, don't you think? I say this ... as one of them, who was hooked on Oxy's in the Early 2000's, badly ... now in recovery. But I had to go out and FIND and PAY FOR the pills I consumed. Nobody 'gave them to me'. And they were HARD to get, most of the time. Purdue ... did NOT get me 'hooked'. I DID. My stupidity. And NOT from a lack of knowledge, I'd already seen my best friend get completely strung out on opioids years before. I was not 'naive'.
And the fact remains, there are many people who legit NEED these drugs, and driving the makers of them out of business with massive fines/damage awards simply for doing ... what they are meant to do ... make these drugs for the people who need them ... is not a winning strategy in this 'opioid war'. All that's going to happen is MORE fentanyl and heroin will flood the streets, because where there's addicts, there will be opioids (at least, in a reasonably free country, that has some bucks laying around to spend on drugs).
You know what we need THE MOST? Is a drug or combination of drugs that can be used to get people off of opioids WITHOUT the process being so UNBELIEVABLY painful and horrific. The vast majority of addicts really would LOVE to get off the roller-coaster, and are really only 'using' anymore ... to avert getting horrifically dopesick. If we had drugs available that it could make NOT so freaking HORRIFIC ... a LOT of people would avail themselves of them.
We sure as SHIT ... need more public money for treatment in general.
And we need cheaper and easier to access Buprenorphine for people who aren't able to get and stay clean entirely. Long-term opioid abuse re-wires the brain, and for MANY patients makes the optimal solution of 'life-long sobriety' ... no longer a practical option. It literally becomes 'a medical condition', similar to Diabetes or MS or whatnot. We should accept the fact, as a society, that there's millions of people now who are going to need replacement therapy like buprenorphine and methadone ... the rest of their lives ... and make it easier and cheaper for addicts to get into programs that provide them.
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