Semuels, Alana. “Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 2 June 2017,
In the article, Alana tackles the issue of opioid on a legal aspect. The author acknowledges the existence of the opioid epidemic and is convinced that the pharmaceutical companies should shoulder the blame. The author is banking on attorneys’ concerns on the marketing activities of the pharmaceutical companies which are trivializing the addictive aspect of the opioid. Also, the author reveals the defensive culture of these firms who are fond of pinning the blame on innocent consumers. Hence, this article will be resourceful in my argument because it will offer the legal angle on why pharmaceuticals should be blamed for the opioid epidemic.
Lopez, German. “Want to Understand How Big Pharma Helped Create the Opioid Epidemic? Read This Report.” Vox, Vox, 6 Sept. 2017
In this investigative article, Lopez reveals how the need to get profits from the opioid makers and distributors created the opioid epidemic. She talks of the conspiracy by the pharmaceuticals to mislead both doctors and patients with the aim of making profits from the addictive drug. The author gives an investigated insight of the crook dealing by the pharmaceuticals companies like falsifying information about opioid, and unethical procedural manufacture of the drug. The article is credible because it is based on McCaskill ’s report whose findings collaborate with reviews from public health and other credible statistical reports. I will use this article to give convincing evidence on why pharmaceuticals are to be blamed for the opioid crisis.
Introduction
For many decades, opioid overdose has claimed the lives of more than 300,000 U.S citizens. Currently, about 19 million Americans are addicted to the drug hence there is a risk of close to 500,000 becoming casualties. The situation has created an epidemic. However, there is a back and forth blame game regarding the matter. Though this issue is of public interest opinion, there is divided on who should take responsibility. Most people believe that doctors and patients are to be blamed. That doctors are responsible for giving wrong prescriptions to patients and that patients disregard doctor’s opinions. However, there is a deviation from fundamental issues in this situation. The primary concern should be whether opioid should have ever been a licensed pharmaceutical drug. Such argument points the blame to pharmaceutical companies because the licensing of opioid as a painkiller was out of the conspiracy. Secondly, the companies have to trivialize the addictiveness of the drug. Finally, the companies have been involved in unethical practices to increase the sales of the drug at the expense of patients. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies are to be blamed for the opioid epidemic.
The opioid epidemic has caught the eyes of the public and the government after because of the alarming statistics of over 300,000 casualties and close to 19 millions of U.S citizens being addicted to the drug. Such statistics are raising the accountability issues on who should take the blame. Attorneys are discussing how pharmaceuticals should be made legally liable for the menace. It is a task which they find difficult because such firms tend to blame doctors and patients. Hence, the approach suffers from lack of hard evidence (Semuels 1). However, they also believe that pharmaceutical firms are responsible for the opioid epidemic.
The opioid crisis is a result of a conspiracy between the medical researchers and the pharmaceutical companies. According to Lopez, the conspiracy is traceable from the medical study which was published in New England Journal of Medicine in the 1970s. Despite opioid being classified under narcotics by Narcotics Tax Act, the researchers colluded with the pharmaceutical companies to wood-wink the authorities and the medical fraternity that the drug caused less addiction and had less than 1 % death rate despite early physicians finding that the drug was harmless. Hence, they classified the drug as a painkiller for cancer patients (Lopez 2). Such research opened gates for opioid usage, and pharmaceutical companies used such avenue to manufacture opioid medicines without control thus disrupting the cautious prescription needed.
The opioid crisis is as a result of greed by pharmaceutical firms. Lopez, in her article, reveals how Insy Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical manufacturer of fentanyl introduced the drug to noncancer patients. In her investigation, Lopez states that Insy Therapeutics formed The Insys Reimbursement Center (IRC) to sell fentanyl. The drugs were purposely sold to patients who did not need it and employees who administered the scheme were offered good benefits. Insurance companies were also coerced into insuring the drug (Lopez 2). It has also been revealed that pharmaceutical firms paid medical practitioners to give falsifying information to the public through their marketing campaigns. Hence, the crisis is a creation of greed.
The pharmaceutical firms have not substantiated the effectiveness of opioid. The firms have not conducted both clinical studies on the addictive properties of the drug or the possible abuse of such drugs across the shelve and the effectiveness of the drug. For instance, contrary to the claim by Perdue Pharma that its opioid drug, OxyContin actively lasts for 12 hours, the medicine only lasts for less than 3 hours thus triggering addiction to patients who cannot wait for next prescription time (Semuels 2). Finally, by pleading guilty before a Virginian federal court for misleading the public regarding the effectiveness of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma confirms that pharmaceutical firms are to be blamed for the opioid epidemic.
Conclusion
The pharmaceutical firms are to be blamed for the opioid epidemic. Opioid epidemic has claimed many lives and millions of addicts. The epidemic is as a result of conspiracy and corruption funded by pharmaceutical companies. Such firms do not have medical and clinical evidence to ascertain the effectiveness of opioids.
