Unless you've had your head buried in the sand you've read a lot about the opioid epidemic. I read a story this weekend that Blue Cross/Blue Shield will no longer pay for the pain killer OxyContin, who some say is the beast of addiction to opioids.
I read most of the article, but quickly came to the conclusion that it was nothing more than a policitally-correct dog-and-pony show. Not only Blue Cross/Blue Shield but the Drug Enforcement Agency and everybody else wants you to think they are taking positive steps to curb the opioid 'epidemic'.
I remember when I was in college and read the book 'All the President's Men' that later turned into a great movie about how two journalist from the Washington Post took down President Nixon over the Watergate break-in. What I remember most was 'deep throat' telling the journalists - “follow the money”.
I think the same theory of following the money is the right fit for the opioid 'crisis'. I'm still not convinced its an 'opioid crisis' vs. a drug crisis. People are dying every day smoking synthetic marijuana laced with poison; inhaling meth made with battery acid and even marijuana that gets sprayed with things like roach poison to help with the high.
But saying we have an 'opioid crisis' helps free the money to help solve the problem.
It appears that Oxytocin is the current target, but taking it off the market or making it more expensive to get will not solve the problem.
I remember when Oxytocin or Oxycodone first came on the market and had members of a drug task force agency tell me it would become a problem. I don't think I'm lying here because I heard it from multiple law enforcement officers. The Oxy brand was originally created to treat terminally ill people, especially those dying of cancer.
Drug companies and doctors weren't concerned about addiction because they were prescribing the drugs to people who were dying and in the last stages of their life. No harm, no foul, they were going to be dead anyway.
But it quickly started being prescribed by doctors and dentists as a pain medication and the so-called epidemic began. Drug companies make money by selling drugs, don't forget that.
As I read the article, drug companies are now trying to develop new drugs that they claim are not so addictive.
Don't count on that and don't blame Oxy drugs for the epidemic. There's a story on the front page of this newspaper where three people were arrested for methamphetamine, crack cocaine, hydrocodone, marijuana and spice. Any of these drugs can either get you addicted or killed depending on what's been added or the amount ingested.
As I read the article I saw where they want to make pain medicines harder to alter. I can't remember anybody overdosing on taking what their doctor prescribed, but when you crush up Oxy drugs or other narcotics and start injecting them into your system, there are problems.
So, lets say they take Oxy drugs off the market or make them harder to get at the drug store. You're a fool if you think addicts won't turn to something else. I watched the meth 'epidemic' with those elaborate labs turning out the drug. We passed laws to prevent it. You have to show your driver's license to go to the pharmacy to get Sudafed now and cops monitor those purchases. So we went from labs to the so-called 'shake and bake' meth made inside a coke bottle. We've now got to the point that most of the meth found around here is being shipped in from Mexico.
There's too much money being made by the drug companies to stop any epidemic. Take the Oxyies off the market and it will be something else.
If you think somebody addicted to Oxytocin won't find that drug if it's not available at the local drug store, you are seriously mistaken.
I don't have the solution to the over-prescribing of pain medicines but all we are doing now is trying to be politically correct in acting like we are addressing the problem. That's not the case.
