NBC reports a rising number of children getting sick and dying from opiod abuse.
The leading manufacturer of opioids (OxyContin) is Purdue Pharmaceuticals, based in Connecticut.
Oxycontin has made the Sackler family of Connecticut very rich. Forbes says they have a net worth of $15 billion. A fortune built on death and ruined lives. Pharmacists have been murdered by opiod addicts in search of the pills.
Jonathan Sackler is a major donor to the charter movement. He launched ConnCAN and 50CAN to sell privatization. Killing public schools too.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You should finsh the post with: “Killing communities and establishing school to prison pipelines which destroy people of color’s lives and ensuring an abusable/disposable low wage labor pool which can only benefit the rich.”
Joey V.,
I held back on what I wanted to say because of libel laws.
There is no way to be too harsh on someone who gets rich by harming others.
But I long ago realized it is a bad idea to be sued by a billionaire. Trump threatens to sue people to intimidate them. It is an effective tactic even if no lawsuit ever happens.
Thank you for this Diane. Unfortunately I know a bit about this and I admire your balance of putting the facts out there with prudent restraint.
John Oliver says it as well.
I cannot see the connection between the pharmaceutical company and the charter sector. Between Sackler and the charter sector, yes.
As one who was unwittingly/unknowingly addicted to tramadol for a few years (I didn’t figure it out until I quit using them and had the accompanying 4-5 days of serious withdrawal) which I did not abuse, just followed the prescription properly, I can attest to the need for viable pain meds and to some of the accompanying bad side effects. The question becomes which ones to use to mitigate pain. I have been advised to switch NSAID pain meds and the new one doesn’t do squat. So I’m back to the previous one while waiting to get in to see an arthritis specialist. We’ll see.
And as one who has had a family member die from an opioid based drug, I understand the horrors that those addictions can entail-like leaving my niece with very young children to raise by herself (she has good family support luckily).
But I do not believe that condemning by association with the charter school problem those who make legal/legitimate pharmaceuticals for pain management as a viable argument. The two areas of social concern, charter schools and pain medications have nothing to do with each other, other than the chance occurrence that Sackler has chosen to support the charter sector with his money.
Really? Who’s fault was it for the meth labs that was the prior drug issue resulting in everyone having to show ID in order to purchase OTC Sudafed? You really cannot blame pharmaceutical companies for drugs being abused by people with addiction tendencies. You can blame pharmaceutical corporations for gauging people that need medicine they sell for insane profit margins, but not for people abusing meds.
The father of Mylan’s CEO (Epipen), when he was Governor of West Virginia, tried to get the Democratic legislature to pass pro-charter school legislation. (He’s now a U.S. Senator.) West Virginia’s Congress said no to charter schools stating that they create a “2 class system”. A major funder of Mylan also finances the charter school movement. (Read in the media about how the Mylan CEO got her degree from West Virginia University.)
At some point, connections among reprehensible people and plots, should make for a cautionary tale about our bank accounts, our families’ well-being and the welfare, of society, as a whole.
Opiods are not M&Ms and they can be dangerous substances if not properly used. Drug makers bear some responsibility to ensure their most dangerous products are safe and treat patients as intended. All drugs, even aspirin, are poison if abused. I also took tramadol as Duane did and it is playing with fire because it works, but it can be addictive. I’ve had to intentionally put up with severe pain rather than risk dependency. It isn’t like drug makers exist on Mars and just ship this stuff in. They need to accept personal responsibility.
No, as the patient/consumer you need to become informed. Your medical provider or pharmacist should answer any questions you have about the meds you choose to have filled by prescription, as well as OTC. There is also information to be found on line via the web that you can take to the pharmacist of the doctor and discuss it with him/her.
If you are choosing to take the medicine being prescribed, it is also your responsibility to become aware of the side affects and if the medicine has a known history of being addictive.
Plus, opioids are highly regulated prescriptions. If they are being abused, it is most likely being done illegally. (Honestly, they never helped touch the pain I had for a compressed nerve and spondylosis. I stopped taking them after a couple of days because they were useless in abating the pain.)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26568503:
PM R. 2015 Nov;7(11 Suppl):S236-47. doi: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2015.08.011.
Current Regulations Related to Opioid Prescribing.
Webster LR1, Grabois M2.
Author information
1PRA Health Sciences, 3838 South 700 East, Suite 202, Salt Lake City, UT 84106(∗). Electronic address: lrwebstermd@gmail.com.
2Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX(†).
Abstract
It is the responsibility of medical professionals to do all that is possible to safely alleviate pain. Opioids are frequently prescribed for pain but are associated with the potential for misuse, addiction, diversion, and overdose mortality, and thus they are strictly regulated. To adhere to legitimate practice standards, physicians and other health care providers who prescribe opioids for pain, particularly on a long-term basis, need current information on federal and state laws, treatment guidelines, and regulatory actions aimed at reducing opioid-related harm. The number of opioid-prescribing policies is increasing as federal and state governments increase scrutiny to alleviate opioid-related problems in society. Failure to adequately comply with opioid-prescribing laws and policies may put a prescriber at risk for legal or regulatory sanctions. Necessary actions include thorough documentation of prescribing decisions and assessment and follow-up of patient risk for opioid misuse or addiction. Tools to check for patient adherence to the prescribed regimen include prescription monitoring databases and urine drug screening. This article presents an overview of the legal and regulatory framework surrounding controlled substances law. It further discusses recent actions at the federal and state level to prevent opioid-related harm.
Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
How about the ADULT patients who get them, and when no longer needed, do the ADULT thing and dispose of them the ADULT way?
What is it with people here that are so quick to vacate personal responsibility???? For FORTY years or day, the nation has been made aware of the dangers of smoking – and ADULTS still smoke. ADULTS, by the way, who have grown up with these ads.
Seven of the eight I grew up with smoke. Mom and dad did it. First bad example.
My siblings grew up, most of them have kids of their own – and most of them smoke.
All eight of us were told how bad for your health it was. Mom died during surgery for esophageal cancer. Knowing that, still some of her great-grandkids are smokers. Three generations, two of which grew up KNOWING the results.
Sure, it’s the manufacturers fault.
Parents and grand parents should be better examples. Accept responsibility, for your kids sake!
WE are the best influencers of our children and grand children through OUR example.
I agree with transparency. But I disagree that a few simple questions at a grocery store pharmacy constitute effective monitoring and treatment. The drug makers research, sell, and, manage the products. They alone have the most information. It is far too easy to absolve them of all responsibility for their product simply because they move the product through a distribution channel. If drug makers were not concerned with post sales, there would be no patent laws in the overall market. Instead, once they sell the drug, they are done. Support is just as much of an implied contract of a sale as the product itself.
Enough pain and the drugs work if properly used. But no wave of the hand can dismiss the very real addictive affects. Some people respond differently than others and I can’t sit as judge and accuse them of simply being drug abusers when we really have no idea of their physical reaction and situation. The Just World view only goes so far. Good people become dependent on opioids even under a legal prescription and doctor care. They are powerful stuff.
M’s opposed to prosecution of doctors who operate pill mills?
Can I blame pharmaceuticals for creating a generation of amphetamine addicts, starting at age 5?
What are you talking about? ADHD meds?
Then stop pushing for their use in the schools as the primary solution for any behavior issues!!!
The parents I know that have placed their children on ADHD meds have struggled with that decision and it was not made lightly. And they only continued with them if they saw a beneficial effect.
If you want to start that thread look in the mirror because that’s where it’s use in children originates in most cases.
So if you want to poke that hornet nest I’m sure there are many parents that can tell you that the medication of children for ADHD is being pushed for by the schools or institutional settings, not by parents or the children.
M,
Opioids are painkillers, not meds for ADHD.
I’m pushing for amphetamine use in schools? Interesting take. Have you considered that pharmaceutical companies may be pushing to broaden this user base, not just in schools but across the board?
The Washington Post article linked, at this blog, about a week ago, referenced pharmaceutical investment and DEA enforcement. The richest 0.1%’s encroachment into (if not dominance of) government, is the overarching issue, about which, all Americans should be very concerned.
Agree, M!
No kidding and hence why Opioids are highly regulated and not sold over the counter like M &M’s!!! They are highly regulated drugs and they are being tracked in a database these days.
And if the patient is abusing their prescription, it is the patients own doing!
And yes pain can be intolerable and some people will do anything to stop it, including abusing prescribed drugs- but that still is their own doing.
Maybe if they legalized marijuana the Opioid crisis might subside a bit. The Opioid crisis escalated when the underground Sudafed chemists were put out of business and at the moment there is no legal alternative to use marijuana in most states.
Not that I’m condoning any illegal drug use but there is enough evidence that marijuana does provide a medicinal benefit for pain and other medical symptoms…
Legalizing it might be more of a benefit than a detriment for society in the larger picture, in comparison to misused Opioids or underground backyard meth labs, etc….
And a close family connection overdosed on Heroin leaving young children behind, but in the end that person was still the person that chose to misuse the drug. And I don’t know if they used it illegally or if they were prescribed it. Either way it was a tragic loss that the family left behind will have to confront daily. But again that individual made the choice to consume the drug that resulted in their own death yet if it was taken as prescribed, if it was obtained legally, should not have killed this young person in the prime of their life.
Yes, pharmaceutical companies are far from innocent about lots of practices but blaming them for an individual misusing the drug from how it was legally prescribe for use in my opinion is not one of them….
No frigging kidding Diane!!! I’m pretty clear on the fact that Opioids are pain killers which I will repeat are highly regulated and by prescription only and for the most part are cautiously prescribed due to the addiction issues known to surround this class of drugs!!!!
Just to clarify –
The ADHD topic was posed in response to FLERPs initial post about 5 yr olds and amphetamine use…. And inferred their use in children was leading to future addictions…
And my response was that if he wanted to go there to look in the mirror of how most schools are pushing their use for children they feel are behavioral problems as it’s easy to push any learning issues back on the student vs on the fact that the methods being used in the classroom are at least partially at fault many times as well!!! But if he wanted to poke that hornet nest there are lots of parents that will reapond that they felt the schools were pushing them to medicate the child when they really did not want to do so.
Brave New World: take your opiod prescription and hush up
Totally jumped the shark. How money is made by private individuals is unrelated to whether charters are effective.
I can make an argument without referring to opioids. An impressive body of rigorous evidence about Massachusetts charters indicates they are effective for traditionally underserved groups of students. An IES study finds charters are more effective in urban areas. Not all charters are better than traditional public schools.
Opioids might add to the number of clicks but is irrelevant to sensible discussions about charters.
Charters would not be numerous without the financial support of people like the Sacklers, Michael Bloomberg, the Waltons, Eli Broad, John Arnold, Michael Dell, and the hedge fund industry. It is of more than passing interest to know how the charter industry grew so rapidly, how much money its supporters have given to politicians to win their allegiance to charter schools, and which state and local school boards have been taken over by charter industry money.
Perhaps it is irrelevant to know that the Sacklers made their fortune selling Oxycontin. I guess I am expressing my frustration that there are no limits on the money that charter pushers can spend in any state or school district ($18 million in Massachusetts so far to promote Question 2). If the Waltons really want to demonstrate their love for poor kids, they should remember the adage that charity begins at home. The schools of Arkansas could use their millions. If they really wanted to improve the lives of poor kids, they could pay all their workers at least $15 an hour. That would improve the lives of the children. Walmart has more than 1 million workers in the U.S. But there I go talking about the source of the charter money. And that leads me to speculate that the real purpose of charters is to divert attention from doing anything significant about reducing income inequality. That would really cost the Sacklers and the Waltons.
Amen.
FYI- CIEDIE :
Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t have any Opioid prescriptions.
And as previously noted they don’t work as far as I could tell so didn’t bother with them after initial couple of days.
Instead I sucked it up and learned how to deal with the increasing pain for over 3 yrs and then had back surgery that helped to lessen it, and any pain in comparison was a relief and so I don’t take any meds routinely- not even OTC (NSAIDs /ibuprofen, etc) ,
I’m not an advocate of using ANY drugs lightly, including OTC meds!
Good nutrition and exercise is what I advocate for!