US studies: More misery brought to you by Big Pharma
Sharp rise in fentanyl overdose deaths, ADHD-drug-induced psychosis, prescription drug rationing due to cost
A week rarely passes without the publication of a major study documenting the misery unleashed on Americans by the US pharmaceutical industry and its rapacious drive for profits.
Earlier this month a study analyzing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data found that more than 150,000 Americans died from alcohol and drug-induced fatalities and suicide in 2017, the highest number ever recorded.
The biggest factor in this shocking number of “deaths of despair” were drug overdoses, in particular from synthetic opioids like fentanyl. While illicitly manufactured fentanyl and related drugs are now responsible for increasing numbers of deadly overdoses, blame for the rising rates of opioid addiction lies with Big Pharma, which has flooded neighborhoods across the country with prescription opioids, fully aware of their addictive and potentially deadly properties.
A Boston trial beginning in January heard testimony of how Insys Therapeutics executives pushed prescription narcotics through bribing doctors to prescribe an addictive fentanyl nasal spray.
Also in January, portions made public of a lawsuit filed by the state of Massachusetts allege that one of the founders of Purdue Pharma, who developed OxyContin, said in 1996 on the debut of the opioid painkiller that it would “be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.” Dr. Richard Sackler, whose family developed OxyContin, wrote at the time that they would push the drug by vilifying its addicted victims. “They are the culprits and the problem,” the email read. “They are reckless criminals.”
2011–2016: Fentanyl overdose deaths soar
A study released Thursday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provided more grim detail on overdose deaths from fentanyl. In 2011–2012, fentanyl was involved in roughly 1,600 overdose deaths in the US in both years. From 2012 through 2014, fentanyl-related deaths more than doubled each year. By 2016, deaths attributed to fentanyl had skyrocketed to more than 18,335, a tenfold increase over 2011–2012 .
While researchers found exponential increases in fatal fentanyl overdoses among all age groups, the largest average annual percent change occurred among young adults aged 25–34 and 15–24. Men are dying from opioid overdoses at nearly three times the rate of women. Overdose deaths are also increasing faster among blacks and Latinos.
Fentanyl can be 50 times more powerful than heroin. It can shut down breathing in less than a minute. It is more likely to cause an overdose than heroin due to its potency and also because the high fades more quickly than with heroin, which means drug users may inject it more frequently, increasing the risk of overdose.
The New England states—Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont—saw the largest increase in fentanyl overdose deaths, with a 102.2 percent increase per year from 2011 to 2016. This compares to the region comprising Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada, which saw a very small annual increase. Although researchers had no firm explanation for these geographical disparities, one theory is that it is easier to mix a few white fentanyl crystals into the powdered form of heroin that is more popular in the eastern part of the country.
Newly prescribed ADHD medications may cause psychosis
Published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine was a study that found that certain medications used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in teens and young adults may be more likely to cause psychosis, including symptoms such as paranoia, hallucinations, delusions and hearing voices.
Researchers found that patients ages 13 to 25 who had been newly prescribed amphetamines, such as Adderall and Vyvanse were more likely to develop psychosis than those prescribed methylphenidates, such as Ritalin and Concerta.
The rate of psychosis with either class of medications is relatively rare, occurring in one in 660, according to researchers. However, the CDC estimates that 11 percent of US children ages 4 to 17 are diagnosed with ADHD, making the potential pool of patients very large. While the study’s findings only showed the relationship between newly prescribed medications and psychosis, with over 3.5 million children currently taking an ADHD drug, this still amounts to tens of thousands of patients at risk each year.
According to data from IMS Health, US prescriptions to treat ADHD rose from 67.4 million in 2010 to 87.5 million in 2015. Sales of ADHD medications rose from $7.9 billion to $11.2 billion during this same period, a more than 40 percent increase.
Doctors are also prescribing these medications off-label for those who don’t have an ADHD diagnosis. Nonmedical use of ADHD medications on college campuses is exploding, with students obtaining the drugs from friends or family with a prescription, by obtaining a prescription by claiming to have ADHD, or from classmates selling their own prescriptions.
In these cases, the companies selling the drugs—including Shire and Teva—are profiting off of the use of “study drugs” on campuses across the country. Students dealing with the scramble for grades under the pressure of student debt, working in addition to studying, and competing for dwindling job opportunities upon graduation, are using the drugs to help them pull all-nighters to ace exams.
The drug companies are always striving to increase the appeal of their products, through consumer targeted advertising and other means. In 2016, the FDA approved Adzenys, a fruity-flavored film from Neos Therapeutics that dissolves in the mouth. The portability, convenience and tasty delivery increase the risk of abuse of the potentially addictive drug, not to mention the danger of psychosis documented in the study published in NEJM.
One-third of uninsured adults don’t take drugs as prescribed due to cost
An NCHC Data Brief published in the center’s March 2019 edition examined the strategies used by adults aged 18-64 to reduce the costs of prescription medications. In 2017, those who were uninsured were far more likely to take measures to cut costs than those with either private insurance or Medicaid.
To reduce the burden of skyrocketing drug prices, the uninsured asked their doctors to prescribe a cheaper medication, used “alternative therapies” to manage their conditions, or did not take their medication as prescribed. More than 33 percent of uninsured adults did not take their medications as prescribed by their doctor, by either leaving their prescription unfilled, dividing doses or spreading them out.
Those living under 400 percent of the poverty line—about $65,000 for a two-person household—are much more likely to be uninsured. With 12 percent of adults aged 18-64 uninsured, millions of Americans are forgoing prescription drugs due to cost, endangering their health and, potentially, their lives. This is but another demonstration of the incompatibility of the for-profit health system in the US, which places the cash hoards of Big Pharma executives over the well-being of the population, particularly its most vulnerable.
THE LA RAZA DRUG CARTELS PARTNER WITH MEXICO AND CORRUPT
DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS FOR WIDER OPEN BORDERS.
VIDEO OF ACTUAL INVASION OF SAN DIEGO, SOUTHERN
GATEWAY FOR THE MEXICAN HEROIN CARTELS.
“It was all so very
orderly, actually. Border chaos? Not in the least. There's border order all
right, but it's cartels who control the order. They already are the ones
who take the fees (or promises of free labor or drug transport) from the
illegal migrants and anyone who doesn't pay doesn't cross. Cartels not
only sell access, they provide a package deal - with the legal
instruction, Mexico-based bus service from Central America to the border, and
the U.S. bus service to the U.S. workplaces, all for a tidy profit, made even
more profitable as economies of scale kick in. As Rick Moran noted in his blog
post yesterday, the conveyor belt has enabled the cartels to 'drastically lower their overhead
costs while maximizing profit.'” MONICA
SHOWALTER
////
(CARTELS, HEROIN, FENTANYL, OPIOIDS)
MEXICO K ILLS AMERICA TWICE OVER!
DHS Secretary: ‘ICE Interdicted Enough Fentanyl Last Year to
K ill Every American Twice Over’
Fentanyl is a
synthetic opiate that according to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. The
illicit drug has been attributed to the alarming increase in opioid overdose
deaths throughout the United States.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2019/03/dhs-secretary-ice-interdicted-enough.html
*
“Mexican Border States Net 320 Pounds of Meth in Two
Days” BREITBART
*
“Eight-Time
Deportee Accused of Trafficking $850,000 in Meth, Cocaine.”
MICHAEL CUTLER
JUDICIAL
WATCH:
“The
greatest criminal threat to the daily lives of American citizens are the
Mexican drug cartels.”
“Mexican
drug cartels are the “other” terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists
have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug cartels
are now accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in
virtually every community across this country.” JUDICIALWATCH
Opioid Crisis: Leftist Taunts Eric Bolling for Son’s Accidental Overdose Death
2:56
BlazeTV host Eric Bolling on Thursday evening released video of a confrontation he had at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. with a crude passerby who mocked his son’s death.
.@EricBolling was sitting with some friends at Trump Hotel in D.C. when a man walked by his table & said, loud enough for them to hear, Eric's son "killed himself because he was embarrassed by his dad.”
Eric followed the hateful man outside & started filming what came next...
15.7K people are talking about this
According to Bolling, he and conservative activist Hayden Williams were at a table in the hotel lobby Wednesday evening when an unidentified man approached the pair and said: “Eric Bolling’s son killed himself because he was embarrassed by his dad.”
“It was a drive-by hit on me using the most hateful words a human being can deliver to a grieving father,” Bolling of the remark on his program AMericA, adding “I got up and followed this hateful moron out of the hotel.”
Eric Chase Bolling, the host’s son, died in 2017 of an accidental drug overdose with cocaine, fentanyl and anti-anxiety medication in his system, according to an autopsy report obtained by TMZ.
Williams, an employee of the Leadership Institute, recounted the incident in a statement to Breitbart News: “I was in D.C. to attend President Trump’s campus free speech executive order ceremony, and Eric had graciously invited me to have dinner with him at Trump International the night before the signing. At some point in the evening, a man walked right up to Eric and said, ‘Your son killed himself because he was embarrassed by his father.’ Quite frankly, it was one of the most disgusting, despicable things I’ve ever heard anyone say to another person.”
“I was recently physically attacked at UC Berkeley by a stranger who walked up to me out of nowhere, and I don’t want to in anyway downplay the seriousness of what takes place on college campuses, but what happened to Eric was in many ways much worse than what I went through there,” Williams continued. “Attacking a man’s politics by targeting his deceased son is pure evil. People like that want to dehumanize conservatives because they disagree with us. It’s unreal and it needs to stop. We’re human beings, deserving of empathy & respect, just like them.”
Bolling released footage of him shouting and directing strong language at the man who made the hurtful remarks, blurring out his face as to not reveal his identity.
“I chased him down and yelled whatever comes to the mind of a man who has just been told his son killed himself because of him,” said Bolling. “Yep, I used some bad words. Yes, I followed him and yes, I shouted at him. But no, I do not apologize.”
“We’re all human beings here,” he added. “And some things are just off-limits.”
Bolling then drew attention to the opioid crisis plaguing the United States, telling his audience that the search for solutions should act as a uniting force.
“The drug problem is universal, it should bring us together, not be used as a tool of hate to the vulnerable,” said Bolling.
For more information on the opioid crisis, listen here for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson’s Tuesday interview on the issue with SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily.
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