Anybody watch 60 Minutes tonight? Somebody please tell me how a Bill to protect opioid drug

[mobeau69]

distributors from DEA prosecution that was written by Marsha Blackburn and Tom Marino passed both houses by unanimous consent and then was signed by President Obama. I know about the drug lobby but WTF? This was a very disturbing report.

Related story in Wapo today: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/rep-tom-marino-drug-czar-nominee-and-the-opioid-industrys-advocate-in-congress/2017/10/15/555211a0-b03a-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.23d30eb155ef

[Rhiannon12866]

1. I watched it. I've also known people who have died.

These people have a lot to answer for.

[TheFrenchRazor]

41. do you know any one who suffers from chronic pain and are denied sufficient relief? i do, and you c

can find many such people right here on DU. why are the lives of chronic pain sufferers less important than the lives of people who overdose on drugs? and when have prohibitionist drug laws done anything to help to people they are supposed to help?

[Rhiannon12866]

44. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be available for people who really need them

I was given pain meds after major surgery. But they have definitely been over prescribed and the abuses were chronicled in the 60 Minutes piece. Unfortunately, the abuses have led to a backlash, doctors are now reluctant to prescribe sufficient pain meds for those who really need them.

[kcr]

2. Someone please tell me when we decided to start listening to and trusting Trump's picks?

I'm sorry. When there are bills signed protecting anything against the DEA, the DEA only has itself to blame.

[mobeau69]

4. You should read the article or at least my post before making a reflexive comment like that.

It happened before Dotard came to town. President Obama signed it.

[kcr]

5. I did

And I completely understand that. My point still stands.

[mobeau69]

6. LOL.

[kcr]

7. Glad you're amused! n/t

[Control-Z]

19. I missed the joke here.

Will you explain it to me, please?

[former9thward]

20. Read the thread.

The poster blamed Trump for something Obama signed.

[kcr]

22. Obama is president now and he's doing nominations? Huh. I didn't know we'd entered a time warp n/t

[former9thward]

23. Guess you did not watch either 60 minutes or read the thread.

Are you saying Obama did not sign it?

[kcr]

26. No

But tell me why the hell the take away from Trump's selection of Marino should be jumping on Obama's case for signing a bill that his AG backed against the DEA?

To clarify, my first post in this was confusion on my part, because I was looking at the 60 minutes article which was talking about Rannazzisi, and I was mistaken thinking he was the appointment.

[brewens]

3. You don't hear much about this but a lot of wrong was done in the alcohol business as well.

I worked at a Budweiser distributor for years and when they came out with that cheap higher alcohol beer, we hated it. We hated them expanding distribution of the cheaper beers in general, like bringing the Busch brand out west. We made more profit per case when all we handled was the premium brands.

They started a race to the bottom by pushing the cheap crap, then escalated it with the high alcohol garbage. You'd see someone that looked pretty rough shuffling down the street carrying a 12 or 18 pack of beer, chances were it was one of those high alcohol "ice" beers. Now you had guys that could get drunker for cheaper. That had to contribute to alcoholism significantly.

The lack of wage growth was part of it all of course. Guys that would only drink the best beer at one time, really needed a less expensive option.

We watched a National Budweiser convention tape one night at a meeting. I think it was "Auggie" Busch II speaking to his huge crowd of distributor owners and customers. He was talking about unions at one point and warned them to be careful what they asked for. He had a pretty good idea just who the guys that drank a lot of his best beers were. Looking out for himself there really, otherwise I think he was a right-wing asshole.

[Mariana]

17. No one cares about people drinking themselves to death.

They aren't anywhere near as important as people who overdose on opioids. Gotta have priorities, you know. Never mind that many, probably most of the opioid OD's were drinking too. Opioids and alcohol make a particularly deadly combination, but somehow that isn't widely reported, and we don't get to know how much alcohol is contributing to this "opioid epidemic". It's negligent as hell, because such reporting might save a lot of lives, but it's obviously more important to demonize the one drug, and pretend the other drug isn't a problem at all.

[Crunchy Frog]

21. My dad drank himself to death.

But at least I can thank God that he never got himself mixed up in those evil opioids. He was able to off himself in a fully legal, moral, and socially acceptable manner.

[Mariana]

37. I'm so sorry about your dad. nt.

[Sienna86]

8. Very disturbing report by 60 Minutes/WaPo

Wow. Take a look at the WaPo article and the comments by Republicans and Democrats who pushed this legislation. I wonder what campaign contributions did for these folks. No other reason to push this.

[badhair77]

9. I was hoping more people had watched this segment and commented on it.

I don’t know whether to feel hopeless, angry or sad. We are definitely outnumbered by the drug lobbyists, unethical pharma executives, and dishonest legislators. I really feel disheartened by the whole thing. I hope this 60 Min/ WaPo segment brings some attention to the whole mess.

[mobeau69]

10. Apparently, it's worse than I thought.

No roll call. Not one Dem stood up in opposition. President Obama signed it. Extremely disturbing.

[badhair77]

15. We're done.

It's like there is no answer to the opioid problem. My cousin's son died last month from an opioid overdose but she would never stray from her love and support of Trump who promised he'd do something about the problem. But my disillusionment is not just with the opioid situation, it's with the way every issue is approached. We're handing everything over to those in power, mainly those who have ulterior motives, and we have no one fighting for what's right in general.

As you said, no one is standing up in opposition. Very disturbing. Sorry, I usually more eloquent and positive but I'm tired and depressed after t60 Min and the WaPO article. Maybe tomorrow will look better.

[Motownman78]

27. How about following portugals path

They have a very low rate of opioid deaths from ODing. Do you know why? They provide addicts with clean, medical grade heroin twice a day.

[kcr]

30. Yep. It's a shame America is in love with its War on Drugs.

I'm disturbed at how popular the DEA seems to be in this thread, and they'd never go for policies like that in a million years.

[TheFrenchRazor]

43. word; it is a bit disapointing. nt

[TheFrenchRazor]

42. yep, you'd think people here have no idea how the war on drugs has utterly failed in every way possi

possible. it seems like they can't wait to double down on it now, regardless of who suffers.

[Archae]

11. "60 Minutes" botched it, just like they botched their SSI "expose."

Did not talk to ANYONE who has chronic pain, or any doctors who treat it.

Just some DEA flunkies.

(Who BTW still to this day have a policy on marijuana that was written by Harry Anslinger.)

[Trust Buster]

12. When they send 9 million opioids to a town with a population of 5,000, then you know whats up.

[Archae]

14. Notice they BARELY mentioned the crooked pain clinic doctors who prescribed all those pills...

What about the legitimate doctors and pharmacies, and legit patients, all of whom now have to jump through hoops to get relief?
(Like me!)

[Lucinda]

16. I'm there with you. I'm under-medicated, and my doc has to jump through

hoops to prescribe what she is able to....it's insane.

[stevenleser]

25. Yep, I knew it. See my #24 below. 60 minutes often does completely 1-sided reporting.

There are probably a lot of good reasons why this bill was passed.

But if 60 minutes has decided it wants to show a particular angle, you won't hear anything from the other side.

[kcr]

29. 60 minutes is awful.

They really don't have much credibility anymore for that reason. You can't trust you're getting the full picture.

[mobeau69]

31. So Marsha Blackburn and Tom Marino did good then and it had nothing to do with Drug money?

My bets still on the money.

[kcr]

34. Put down the word shovel, please.

Because I'm not a member of the Both Parties are Samesies! crowd. Just because Obama signed the bill doesn't mean he's just like Marino and Blackburn and has the same motivations they do. I'm not a fan of the DEA and I don't get one red cent from Big Pharma.

[Trust Buster]

13. But Benghazi........

[Rhiannon12866]

18. From Twitter:

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[mobeau69]

32. Thank you. n/t

[Rhiannon12866]

36. You're more than welcome, and here's the 60 Minutes link, too

Ex-DEA agent: Opioid crisis fueled by drug industry and Congress

Whistleblower Joe Rannazzisi says drug distributors pumped opioids into U.S. communities -- knowing that people were dying -- and says industry lobbyists and Congress derailed the DEA's efforts to stop it

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/

I posted it on this thread:
The Drug Industry's Triumph over the DEA
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016194654

[mobeau69]

38. Watched it again. Thank you.

The fact that these people interviewed for the story were whistleblowers fighting the DEA should be noted by some.

[Rhiannon12866]

39. I was quite interested since I know people in recovery

Because they've been addicted, they refuse pain meds - even after surgery. But doctors keep prescribing them nonetheless. The 60 Minutes story was an eye opener for me.

[kcr]

45. Geeze, doctors prescribing pain pills for surgery. What quacks! :sarcasm:

[Rhiannon12866]

46. I'm referring to people who said that they couldn't take certain meds, but were given them anyway

I had major surgery and was given pain meds, wouldn't have managed without them. The unfortunate thing is that the abuses have led to a backlash and doctors are reluctant to prescribe pain meds now for those who really do need them which is equally irresponsible.

[kcr]

47. What are they supposed to do? Bite down on a bullet?

Any doctor who doesn't prescribe pain relief to someone who just had surgery should have their license yanked. There has to be an alternative other than none at all.

[Rhiannon12866]

48. What I said was that it's tough for those who need them now because they were over prescribed

I was given pain meds after major surgery because they were necessary. It's equally irresponsible that those who really need pain medication might not be given sufficient pain relief because doctors are reluctant to prescribe them.

[kcr]

49. Doctors are reluctant to prescribe them because of crackdowns by the DEA

We have a crisis not because they were overprescribed for pain. It's because this country doesn't know how to deal with addiction. This time it's an opioid crisis. They're cracking down on doctors because they're always cracking down on someone. It won't help now just like it never has. This rending of garments and flinging of spittle about what happened to the poor maligned DEA is nuts. It's right in the WAPO article about how most of the DEA comes from Pharma and how most of them went right back! They're all corrupt as hell. Other countries have successfully dealt with addiction crisis. It was not with punitive drug wars.

What's even more ridiculous about this manufactured 60 minutes/WaPo outrage? Were the DEA frogmarching these big distributors off to jail before this big meanie bill stopped them? No. Just fines. And not even big multi-million dollar fines, either. This is the big poutrage! That they were being stopped from slapping these big multi-million dollar distributors on the wrist. Big frigging deal!

So now, shady doctors at pill mills will go on as they always have. And the DEA will continue to scare legit doctors and keep patients who really need them from getting their meds. Only now they'll be even more emboldened thanks to the WaPo and 60 minutes.

[stevenleser]

24. I stopped watching 60 minutes after they completely botched a report on a company I was working for

my experience is they can be very sensationalist and one sided in their approach to issues. They will not report mitigating issues if they come across them. Mitigating issues that can completely change the tone of the story.

This story could be 100% correct, but I will not believe it until I have thoroughly researched it.

[mountain grammy]

35. I agree, same experience.

but did just watch this one. I remember reading about the law when it was passed and thinking it was drug companies influencing Congress, but I also distrusted the DEA, so I had mixed feelings and didn't give it much thought.
I think this report is accurate and I appreciate that is shows government empoyees working hard, in the trenches, trying to enforce reasonable regulations to protect and save American lives. These are bureaucrats that care more about citizens than our elected representatives, and this is the DEA! Mea culpa.

[Sunlei]

28. a wapo article answers a lot of questions posted. wapo still waits 18mon. for many FOIA requests

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/?utm_term=.938f113da984


The DEA’s top official at the time, acting administrator Chuck Rosenberg, declined repeated requests for interviews. A senior DEA official said the agency fought the bill for years in the face of growing pressure from key members of Congress and industry lobbyists. But the DEA lost the battle and eventually was forced to accept a deal it did not want.

“They would have passed this with us or without us,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Our point was that this law was completely unnecessary.”

Loretta E. Lynch, who was attorney general at the time, declined a recent interview request.

Obama also declined to discuss the law. His spokeswoman, Katie Hill, referred reporters to Botticelli’s statement.



Michael Botticelli, who led the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy at the time, said neither Justice nor the DEA objected to the bill, removing a major obstacle to the president’s approval.

“We deferred to DEA, as is common practice,” he said.

[mobeau69]

33. Thanks. This corroborates the 60 minutes report. n/t

Anything Blackburn and Morino work so hard for can't be good.

[TheFrenchRazor]

40. i frankly don't care; the drug war laws do nothing to help the people who need it, and harm people w

who are suffering extreme pain and are being denied pain relief.