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How big pharma hooked America on legal heroin
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-big-pharma-hooked-america-on-legal-heroin##snip##
"Frank Morris was only 23 when he ended up in rehab. But he was already a full-blown junkie, smoking crack on the streets of San Francisco, and nearly losing his left arm after accidentally pumping a full shot into his artery. He tells me the drug that led him down this path that helped him accelerate from a teenager smoking pot in his parents basement to a young man shooting heroin in a filthy apartment was OxyContin, a pain medication that has proved dramatically helpful to those in pain, and dangerously addictive too."
More:
"Next April, the patent on the original formulation of OxyContin expires; what happens next depends upon, to a large extent, whats already happened. And its been a mess.
"The active ingredient behind the drug, oxycodone, isnt new. The compound was originally synthesized in Germany in 1916. The patent on the medication had expired well before Purdue Pharma, a Stamford, Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company and the industry leader in pain medication, released it under the brand name in 1996. The genius of Purdues continued foray into pain-management medication they had already produced versions of hydromorphone, oxycodone, fentanyl, codeine, and hydrocodone was twofold. They not only created a drug from an already readily available compound, but they were able to essentially re-patent the active ingredient by introducing a time-release element. Prior to the 1990s, strong opioid medications were not routinely given for miscellaneous or chronic, moderately painful conditions; the strongest classes of drugs were often reserved for the dying. But Purdue parlayed their time-release system not only into the patent for OxyContin. They also went on a PR blitz, claiming their drug was unique because of the time-release element and implied that it was so difficult to abuse that the risk of addiction was under 1%.
"To cement the brands reputation among doctors, Purdue conducted more than 40 national pain-management and speaker-training conferences at resorts in Florida, Arizona, and California between 1996 and 2001. They invited over 5,000 physicians, pharmacists, and nurses to these all-expenses-paid symposia. Many were recruited and trained for Purdues national speaker bureau. Purdue offered starter coupons offering a free 7-30 day trial of their medication, a practice thats common among pharmaceutical companies for everything from skincare medicine to contraceptives. OxyContin became an instant hit among doctors, many of whom saw it as a wonder drug in the battle against the debilitating effects of chronic pain. As the good news spread sales of the drug mushroomed, rising from $40 million in 1996 to more than $1 billion in 2001, outstripping even Viagra. Meanwhile, Purdues campaign to extend the use of powerful narcotics to ordinary chronic ailments for which the drug has been well documented to help proved highly successful. By 2003, over half of the OxyContin prescriptions written in the United States were written by a primary care physician."
##snip##
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How big pharma hooked America on legal heroin (Original Post)
Iwillnevergiveup
Feb 2014
OP
Iwillnevergiveup
(9,298 posts)1. The governor of Vermont
addresses heroin addiction head on in his State of the Union message:
http://governor.vermont.gov/newsroom-state-of-state-speech-2013
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)2. I wonder
"By 2003, over half of the OxyContin prescriptions written in the United States were written by a primary care physician."
And picked up by Rush's housekeeper.
Iwillnevergiveup
(9,298 posts)3. I wonder
if he was one of those addicts who switched from Oxy to heroin.