3 ms·

I'm surprised the pharma companies are still even producing opioids. They've been so demonized for it, why should they?

by skookumchuck 8y ago

favorited 8y ago
Because there is truly no other viable solution for pain management in certain situations.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- evincarofautumn 8y ago
  Obviously, in certain circumstances only traditional opioids will do, but for alternative pain management, people speak highly of cannabis and kratom. For those who haven’t yet heard of it, kratom (variously pronounced “KRAY-tum”, “KRAT-um”, and “kra-TOME”) is a southeast Asian tree in the coffee family, whose leaves are chewed or ground into powder and swallowed in capsules or brewed into tea; it acts as an atypical opioid agonist, which appears to be less addictive and significantly less dangerous than traditional opioids, while offering comparable pain relief. The DEA and FDA have been making moves toward banning it for a few years now, lacking both sufficient evidence that it’s dangerous, and sufficient research to confirm the considerable anecdotal evidence that it’s safe and useful as a mild natural remedy for pain, anxiety and depression, and addiction—particularly opioid withdrawal. So I hope cannabis legalisation continues to proceed and that kratom achieves secure legal status so that it can be used directly, as well as studied and used to produce derivatives, for safer and less addictive pain management. Thousands of people claim that it has saved their lives from opioid addiction and pain. Personally, I’ve found it useful for my minor chronic pain, but it truly gave me my life back from alcoholism by greatly reducing my desire to drink. I fear that if it’s banned, it will result in needless deaths and further worsen the opioid crisis.
civilitty 8y ago
They're not the ones who are liable for the consequences of the opioid epidemic. Once the FDA approves a drug, unless someone can prove that the researchers knowingly misled investigators, it is nearly impossible to sue the pharma companies. The doctors who prescribe the medication (using guidelines provided by the pharma company) become their human liability shields. They couldn't care less about bad PR because their patents are a massive barrier to entry and they're pretty much the only ones hiring highly educated biologists outside of academia and medicine.
code_duck 8y ago
It's not exactly a nonprofit enterprise. I doubt if they have personal concerns about the corporation facing criticism when they're making billions and billions of dollars.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  It's not just criticism. It's going after them with criminal charges.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    Okay, that isn't called demonization though.
jdietrich 8y ago
They haven't been demonized for making opioids. They've been rightly criticized for deceptively marketing them to patients and doctors as safe and non-addictive[1]. They've been rightly criticized for allegedly bribing doctors to overprescribe opioids to patients who don't need them[2]. They've been rightly criticized for failing to properly monitor and control the supply of opioids.[3] Some pharmaceutical manufacturers have made billions of dollars from oxycodone, hydrocodone and other synthetic opioid drugs. They used bad science, deception and outright criminality to flood the United States with powerful narcotics, sparking an epidemic of addiction. Nobody forced them to do it. Nobody asked them to do it. They should bear the consequences of their actions. [1]https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html [2]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-26/insys-therapeutics-founder-charged-in-opioid-fraud-case https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-26/insys-the... [3]https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/mckesson-agrees-pay-record-150-million-settlement-failure-report-suspicious-orders https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/mckesson-agrees-pay-record-15...

I'm surprised the pharma companies are still even producing opioids. They've been so demonized for it, why should they?

favorited 8y ago

Because there is truly no other viable solution for pain management in certain situations.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
evincarofautumn 8y ago
Obviously, in certain circumstances only traditional opioids will do, but for alternative pain management, people speak highly of cannabis and kratom. For those who haven’t yet heard of it, kratom (variously pronounced “KRAY-tum”, “KRAT-um”, and “kra-TOME”) is a southeast Asian tree in the coffee family, whose leaves are chewed or ground into powder and swallowed in capsules or brewed into tea; it acts as an atypical opioid agonist, which appears to be less addictive and significantly less dangerous than traditional opioids, while offering comparable pain relief. The DEA and FDA have been making moves toward banning it for a few years now, lacking both sufficient evidence that it’s dangerous, and sufficient research to confirm the considerable anecdotal evidence that it’s safe and useful as a mild natural remedy for pain, anxiety and depression, and addiction—particularly opioid withdrawal. So I hope cannabis legalisation continues to proceed and that kratom achieves secure legal status so that it can be used directly, as well as studied and used to produce derivatives, for safer and less addictive pain management. Thousands of people claim that it has saved their lives from opioid addiction and pain. Personally, I’ve found it useful for my minor chronic pain, but it truly gave me my life back from alcoholism by greatly reducing my desire to drink. I fear that if it’s banned, it will result in needless deaths and further worsen the opioid crisis.

civilitty 8y ago

They're not the ones who are liable for the consequences of the opioid epidemic. Once the FDA approves a drug, unless someone can prove that the researchers knowingly misled investigators, it is nearly impossible to sue the pharma companies. The doctors who prescribe the medication (using guidelines provided by the pharma company) become their human liability shields. They couldn't care less about bad PR because their patents are a massive barrier to entry and they're pretty much the only ones hiring highly educated biologists outside of academia and medicine.

code_duck 8y ago

It's not exactly a nonprofit enterprise. I doubt if they have personal concerns about the corporation facing criticism when they're making billions and billions of dollars.

skookumchuck 8y ago
It's not just criticism. It's going after them with criminal charges.
- code_duck 8y ago
  Okay, that isn't called demonization though.

jdietrich 8y ago

They haven't been demonized for making opioids. They've been rightly criticized for deceptively marketing them to patients and doctors as safe and non-addictive[1]. They've been rightly criticized for allegedly bribing doctors to overprescribe opioids to patients who don't need them[2]. They've been rightly criticized for failing to properly monitor and control the supply of opioids.[3] Some pharmaceutical manufacturers have made billions of dollars from oxycodone, hydrocodone and other synthetic opioid drugs. They used bad science, deception and outright criminality to flood the United States with powerful narcotics, sparking an epidemic of addiction. Nobody forced them to do it. Nobody asked them to do it. They should bear the consequences of their actions. [1]https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html [2]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-26/insys-therapeutics-founder-charged-in-opioid-fraud-case https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-26/insys-the... [3]https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/mckesson-agrees-pay-record-150-million-settlement-failure-report-suspicious-orders https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/mckesson-agrees-pay-record-15...