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Artist Nan Goldin takes on the billionaire family behind OxyContin
- dumbfounder 9y agoWhy don't doctors simply stop prescribing these drugs?
- killjoywashere 9y agoMomma needs a new pair of shoes.
- dang 9y agoWould you please not post snarky and/or unsubstantive comments?
- rdruxn 9y agoBecause at the end of the day, they still work and truly do help a vast number of people.
- 09bjb 9y ago"Really work" in this case meaning probable addiction and potential death in exchange for a month or two of pain relief. If it "really worked" as advertised (maximum of one dose needed per 12 hours) we wouldn't have this problem at all. OxyContin's much-marketed delayed release mechanism is BS and it's costing thousands of lives and livelihoods.
- refurb 9y agoThat's highly inaccurate. Opioids are the most prescribed drug in the US. The vast majority never become addicted. And if you have an issue with the 12 hour dosing of Oxycontin, take it up with the FDA. They approved it.
- efitz 9y agoI had surgery in 2011 and was prescribed OxyContin for post-operative pain. I was very satisfied with the therapy as I had very little post-operative discomfort. I took the medicine for several days, the prescription ran out, and I felt no incentive to request a refill nor did I turn to street drugs. I am truly sorry for people that struggle with addiction. I have family members who struggle with that and I know the devastation that it causes. However, I do not want the government to eliminate an effective class of medications, either through banning them or through scaring doctors into not using them.
- tinymollusk 9y agoThe problem, of course, is the misuse. Either by doctors who misprescribe (chronic pain relief is a common use case for opioids, and probably an exceptionally bad one), patients who misuse or abuse, and marketing companies like Purdue who push for profit. The question, to me, is this: where do we balance benefits/freedoms from overall harm? This is also the crux of many issues like alcohol abuse, gun rights, etc. Is it more harmful for the government to intervene than to not attempt to legislate away the source of the problem, at the cost of losing something valued by people in the society?
- tytytytytytytyt 9y agoThey really work and/or are the best/only thing that works for some people?
- look_lookatme 9y agoThey haven't completely stopped, but they've scaled back quite a bit. This has created a whole host of new problems. From the article: > In the past five years, as prescriptions for opioids fell in response to the crisis, Americans didn’t shake the habit or seek rehab; they turned to heroin instead. Four out of five people in the US who try heroin today started with prescription painkillers, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Then street heroin started being secretly cut with the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl. I appreciate Nan Goldin as an artist but I'm not sure what she can do here, as this is more powerful than even the Sacklers at this point. In a kind of irony, her work was an inspiration for the first wave of heroin chic in the 90's.
- mr_overalls 9y agoBecause a lot of people have lives filled with chronic pain: post-surgical pain, spinal/lower back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain neurogenic pain (pain caused by nerve damage), etc.
- staunch 9y agoMany of us knew about the Home Loan Fraud the Prescription Drug Fraud for years before it "exploded" and yet there didn't seem to be anything to do about it. The media and government proved their incompetence and corruption with the ruined lives of millions. I'm hopeful that the internet is changing this and the time between new massive scams and their exposure shrinks so that fewer people are hurt. That's the best we can hope for right now.
- killjoywashere 9y agoNan Goldin to the rescue! Brilliant! The Sacklers fancy themselves as philanthropists for the arts. For an artist to bite the hand that feeds them is usually suicide, but not for Nan. Nan's name is made. And heroin was a constant backdrop. The Sacklers made her whether they wanted her or not.
- kjgkjhfkjf 9y agoI don't think it is appropriate to blame doctors in the US for this. She was initially prescribed the drug in Berlin. The article mentions that she was in a high-risk group that should not be prescribed the drug, but it is likely that the European doctor was legitimately unaware of that. "When, back in New York, doctors refused to supply her any more, she turned to the black market, and to cheaper hard street drugs whenever she ran out of money." I think this person should take responsibility for her own mistakes, rather than trying to blame them on other people.
- beat 9y agoI don't think you quite understand how drug addiction works. It's not a simple matter of "take responsibility". Particularly since she didn't set out to be a drug addict - she was prescribed a painkiller, and took it by prescription. That has happened to rather a lot of people.
- rubicon33 9y agoI hate this response. It's such a classic copout and one that attempts to completely nullify any argument for personal responsibility. We just don't "understand" how drug addiction works. Right. How have some people come to believe that simply being prescribed these medications and taking them as prescribed STRIPS the patient of mental faculty to notice a problem, and renders them utterly dependent and hopeless? That's just not the case, at all. There's plenty of information available to patients about the risk of dependency and many choose to avoid it because, well, it feels good. I know some addicts. Those that are clean today are clean because (in addition to many other proactive steps) they recognized that it WAS within their power to stop. They admit and recognized that they ABUSED the medication willingly, and despite sobriety being very difficult, is still a choice they can make.
- luckydata 9y agoSounds like textbook "not understanding how addiction works" to me.
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- anonymous43777 9y agoA profile of the Sackler family: https://forward.com/fast-forward/385375/the-jewish-family-making-billions-from-the-opioid-crisis/ https://forward.com/fast-forward/385375/the-jewish-family-ma...
- nostromo 9y agoStop this insane vilification of opioids. This is turning into another moral panic; yet another iteration of the never ending war on drugs. We keep doing this: from prohibition of alcohol to banning pot and psychedelics. It doesn't work. Opioids are incredibly useful. Vilifying people for providing a pain-relieving medication because they are sometimes misused is disgraceful.
- jgalt212 9y agoDon't you know people can't be trusted? e.g. compulsory seat belt use laws.
- dmix 9y agoWhat about the hundreds of millions car companies invest in safety features now? Would they not care about it and the endless industry safety reviews ratings had we not had seat belts pushed onto every car company in the 70s? Private companies invented the seat belt in the late 40s without any regulation asking them too. There is a strong demand for safety features both by pure sales demand and liability by the courts. The revelation back then was exactly how dangerous cars were and the importance of safety practices. And it's good it was formalized in things like driver training courses and licensing which verifies people understand that before entering a vehicle. As well as advertising campaigns and other efforts to push the idea.
- dawhizkid 9y agoWhat an incredibly naive statement.
- nostromo 9y agoHow so? I've used Oxycontin before. I used it for one week, as prescribed, and it helped me recover from a painful medical issue. I'm grateful it was available to me. For the photographer profiled in this piece to take zero responsibility for her predicament, particularly since she's struggled with opiod and other types of addiction currently and in the past, is absurd. She's in effect saying, "I abused this drug, so other people should be barred from using it." I reject that full stop. Some people abuse alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, etc., but that doesn't mean that it should be banned.
- JohnnyConatus 9y agoWhile the pharmaceutical companies deserve penalties, it's ridiculous that someone with a pre-existing Valium addiction and a history of "hard drug" addiction is blaming the pharmaceutical companies. Nan, admit it, you like getting high.