Counties sue narcotics makers, alleging 'campaign of deception'

[Newsjock]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Two California counties sued five of the world's largest narcotics manufacturers on Wednesday, accusing the companies of causing the nation's prescription drug epidemic by waging a "campaign of deception" aimed at boosting sales of potent painkillers such as OxyContin.

Officials from Orange and Santa Clara counties — both hit hard by overdose deaths, emergency room visits and escalating medical costs associated with prescription narcotics — contend the drug makers violated California laws against false advertising, unfair business practices and creating a public nuisance.

In sweeping language reminiscent of the legal attack against the tobacco industry, the lawsuit alleges the drug companies have reaped blockbuster profits by manipulating doctors into believing the benefits of narcotic painkillers outweighed the risks, despite "a wealth of scientific evidence to the contrary." The effort "opened the floodgates" for such drugs and "the result has been catastrophic," the lawsuit contends.

... The 100-page lawsuit brought on behalf of the entire state seeks compensation for the damages allegedly caused by the drugs, as well as a court order forcing the companies to forfeit revenue based on the contested marketing campaign.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-rx-big-pharma-suit-20140522-story.html

[Warpy]

1. They're suing the wrong people

They need to sue those pill mills in Florida, that's where a lot of the supply is coming from.

[NBachers]

2. Pain-killing narcotics kept my brother from catastrophic agony while slowly died of cancer

If I ever find myself in screaming pain, I want pure smack, or whatever will make the pain go away.

I see no point in withholding pain medication when it's needed. I have no problems with dying in peace, instead of agony.

[riverwalker]

6. and that has always been their purpose

for decades. Morphine and it's derivatives were reserved for severe pain and end of life.
Now it's every little ache.

[passiveporcupine]

10. From personal experience, I'd have to say you are wrong.

And not everyone who uses it abuses it.

[mrmpa]

13. Ditto............

I use vicodin for extreme agonizing pain from spinal stenosis and a bad repair of a broken hip. I am prescribed 2 a day, with tramadol as needed in between the doses of vicodin. I have never run out of it between refills, nor have I ever called the doctor for an early refill,etc.

I am afraid of what will happen when I will no longer be able to get it.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. You Exactly Described My Wife's Situation

I would have thought she wrote it, but she doesn't do DU. She is Rx'd 2 per day but usually takes one unless things are tough. (For the same reason as you, as well. Not the hip thing though, just the stenosis.)

It helps her a lot, and not every user is an abuser.

[Dustlawyer]

17. I am allergic to most medication that treat a very painful chronic disease so I have to use

some narcotics combined with other drugs to be able to function and not have the pain drive me crazy. The problem could be much better managed by the AMA and state medical boards cracking down on the pill doctors. It has already gotten better and I know this because I have a sister and brother that abuse them. They had all of their doctors busted about a year ago and haven't been able to find another yet.

[phazed]

3. Sigh.. and Marijuana (and the potential research benefits from it) are still largely illegal

worldwide. I'll just add that we still do not have a single reported case of a death from the ol' Mary Jane.

[truthisfreedom]

29. Well, there was the college student who ran over the rail on his deck and fell

to his death recently after eating a pot cookie for the first time, and the guy who killed his wife or girlfriend in an apparent fit of paranoia (if I recall correctly) after eating some kind of pot confection. Confectionary pot is something that should come with a big warning sticker. It can cause someone to ingest far more pot than they'd remember to smoke.

[phazed]

30. No, you can't draw that correlation with any certainty

There is quite a difference from overdosing on Heroin (for instance) and jumping to your death because you thought you could fly. The official report lists Levy Thamba as concluding "Thamba's death was caused by multiple injuries due to a fall from a height" and that "We have no history of any other issues until he eats a marijuana cookie and becomes erratic and this happens," she said. "It's the one thing we have that's significant." - Denver Post

Let's not forget to include that Thamba was seemingly in a fit of rage before this happened and was pulling stuff off the walls in his hotel room. This is not typical of THC ingestion, therefore, should be treated as a one-off incident unless it is seen a lot more often than once.


As for the other case, I remember reading about it but can't find the article. I can point you to many cases where a boyfriend has killed their girlfriend without being high on anything. Perhaps this guy is simply scapegoating marijuana for his ill-conceived actions. Whatever the case may be, I'm confident that something else was at play in that relationship, not just pot confections.

But I digress, the real issue should be that if big pharma is allowed to sell products (or even cigs, alcohol) that are killing 10's of thousands of people, pot is a still potentially a better alternative. There have not been any direct deaths from marijuana, as in an overdose situation.

[Tsiyu]

4. HALLELUIAH

It is about time.

We oldsters remember the Pusher Man?

Big Pharmco is the authorized legal Pusher Man, killing many in the process of making bejillions off their addictive narcotics.

It's time for people to demand they pay for the consequences of their deadly products.

And why congress and Obama allow them to continue profiting off deadly addiction, while keeping cannabis a Schedule I drug, is simply irresponsible and criminal in my opinion. I don't give a damn how much they got or get for their campaigns from Pharmco; as long as our leaders continue to give Pharmco a pass to create addicts for profit, they are just as culpable in all the resulting deaths.

The cost to our society from these deadly narcotics affects all of us,

May these CA counties prevail.

[riverwalker]

5. YES

Twenty years ago, the narcotics industry was hemmed in by a small market because the long-held fear of addiction stopped doctors from prescribing powerful painkillers for anything but cancer pain and end-of-life suffering. To expand their market, the drug companies engaged in a dishonest campaign that "reeducated" doctors and revolutionized the treatment of pain associated with a wider array of aliments, the suit alleges.

[Archae]

7. I am against this...for a damn good reason.

I do *NOT* want politicians deciding who gets painkillers or not.

Most politicians are not doctors, and have no idea what chronic severe pain is.

I do, I get it.

Severe headaches, feels like a band clamp is squashing my head and in one place near my forehead it feels like someone is driving a railroad spike into my skull.

When I get those, only 2 Vicodin we'll ease the pain off, gradually.
(Tylenol 3's give me horrible stomach cramps)

I will *NOT* let some grandstanding politician or state bureaucrat tell me I can't have some real relief.

[Psephos]

9. Yes, you are telling it like it is.

This is a matter exclusively between doctor and patient.

Sounds like these counties are looking for revenue enhancement. The idea that they actually "care" about those in pain is laughable.

[DebJ]

14. Then there is our local ER, which prescribes the stuff for anything more than a hangnail.

I'm not kidding. I've been a bit of a klutz over the course of my life, and the local ER pushes
narcotics for everything you might be in the ER for. Drug abuse is a big problem in this area
in the city and it makes me very angry. I went in for some minor thing, and did not request
pain killers at all, and was handed a narcotics prescription. I said IF I might end up needing
something to sleep, can't you give me a non-narcotics choice instead? And I probably won't
need anything. They said that the hospital pharmacy ONLY carries narcotics, no extra strong
Tylenol or whatever, so that's why they pass it out like candy. So much for doctor wisdom.

[Archae]

11. BTW, anyone else notice rich and or famous have no trouble getting painpills?

I can think of two right off the bat.

Brett Favre, former Green Bay Packer/Minnesota Viking quarterback, admitted to Vicodin addiction, says he's clean.

Rush Limbaugh, oxycontin addict, says he's now clean but still has many of the side effects from his abuse of oxy.
Most noticeably totally insane ramblings and needing a replacement cochlear implant for deafness caused by abuse of oxy.

[tridim]

18. I'm 100% certain that your headaches are not caused by a lack of opioid painkillers.

Which begs the question (that I would certainly ask myself)... What is causing my headaches?

Ask yourself, not a politician. Demand an answer.

From there it's a matter of research and making the life changes necessary to get rid of your headaches.

[Control-Z]

19. What makes you so certain?

I use fentanyl patches to control severe headache.

Research and life changes have not been a reasonable treatment.

[UglyGreed]

20. Those who do not suffer

always see it as easy as pie to find out what is wrong and of course modern medicine has the solution just waiting for you. I'm sure that if we had single payer, finding cures would be a hell of a lot easier on those with a very limited funds. I wish you luck with your headaches.

[tridim]

23. It's not easy to find a solution, but it's worth it to make the effort. nt

[UglyGreed]

24. Well most people, if not all

who require this type of treatment have been through test after test, treatment after treatment and are directed to pain management as a last resort.

[tridim]

25. I hope so. Have they all tried Magnesium?

I don't know anyone IRL who is currently taking pain meds who even knows what Magnesium is, let alone knows that nearly everyone is deficient or that it cures pain all over the body. Narcotic pain meds are their first and last choice, no personal curiosity or research whatsoever.. They do what they're told. Sure, opioids numb the pain, but they will never cure the problem (which is the whole point of medicine). Big Pharma's profit margin counts on doctor/patient ignorance.

[Control-Z]

28. Thanks, UglyGreed.

Not only do they think it's easy as pie, they don't have the capacity to appreciate how violent pain can be.

[tridim]

22. I'm certain that the LACK of fentanyl isn't causing your severe headaches.

Something else is causing it.

Every pain has a cause, and that pain provides a big clue.

[Control-Z]

27. Funny, because

without it I do, in fact, get migraine. This is after 25 years of trying every Rx, supplement, vitamin, botox, bio feedback, and any other treatment known to doctor, woman or man. After 14 minimum trips every year to the ER for 20 years, strong narcotics daily, self injecting triptans.... I could go on and on. A low dose fentanyl patch works.

You have no clue what I've been through or what I need and I am offended that you think you do.

[DesertDiamond]

8. At some point down the road, the manufacturers of chemo will be hit with the same kind of lawsuit

[littlemissmartypants]

12. kick. nt

[postulater]

16. Many of those prescriptions were written by non-physicians

John Fauber has written about this for MedPage and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

http://m.jsonline.com/more/news/watchdog/watchdogreports/millions-of-painkiller-prescriptions-written-by-non-doctors-b99210384z1-247700361.html

[UglyGreed]

21. That may be due

to the pain management doctors who pawn off those who are not cash cows (injections are big bucks) to their nurse practitioners. Or perhaps they do this so to protect themselves from the DEA.

[bleedinglib]

26. HEMP!!

LEGALIZE NOW !!!!