Please watch the video of this Alabama educator who lost her son to opioids. She hopes that others will learn from what happened to her son. Addiction to painkillers can happen in the best of families.
The Sackler family of Connecticut became billionaires by manufacturing and marketing opioids, Oxycontin in particular. Their company is Purdue Pharmaceuticals. They are major funders of ConnCAN and 50CAN, organizations that promote charter schools. Their name adorns museums, libraries, and universities. Read about them here and here and here. The New Yorker called them “the family that built an empire of pain.” It said: “The Sackler dynasty’s ruthless marketing of painkillers has generated billions of dollars–and millions of addicts.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Sackler family is not the first family to build their wealth on the suffering and pain of others.
Many of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the United States built their wealth on the same foundation.
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The US and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that allow direct-to-consumer drug ads. (from the latest information that I can garner) Of course the big difference between the US and New Zealand is that NZ has universal health care and drugs cost a fraction of what they do in the US. All the other wealthy democratic countries have universal health care and drugs cost much, much less than in the US.
In the US, universal health care is impossible, cheaper drugs are impossible, unions must be smashed, everything must be privatized and taxes must be cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, especially on the rich. But money for wars, invasions, occupations, military bases, weaponry, bombings and more bombings……no problem, there’s always plenty of money for death not universal health care. How sick is that? Sigh.
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There are at least three sources in the US that negotiate from a position of strength with drug companies: Costco, the Veterans Administration (VA) andthe Department of Defense (DOD).
“The VA and DOD require that drug manufacturers offer them a discounted price—equal to 24 percent off of a drug’s average price or the lowest price paid by other (nonfederal) buyers—as well as further discounts if a drug’s price outstrips inflation. The two programs also directly negotiate lower prices with drug manufacturers. They may engage in these negotiations separately, or combine their substantial market share and negotiate together”
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/blog/2016/may/drug-price-control-how-some-government-programs-do-it
What happens if the VA is privatized?
“Costco’s Prescription Drug Prices Can’t Be Beat”
“A new study by Consumer Reports found shoppers could save more than $100 per month by shopping for generic drugs at Costco over major drugstore chains like CVS.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/prescription-drugs-cheaper-at-costco-vs-cvs-2013-4
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Costco is run by a Democrat that gets paid a modest salary for the work he does. He even made a speech at the DNC Convention.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-06-06/costco-ceo-craig-jelinek-leads-the-cheapest-happiest-company-in-the-world
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Walmart and Home Depot are owned by Trump supporters. I don’t ever shop at either. I used to spend at Home Depot until I read that the CEO said all Democrats are stupid.
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I’m sure you’ve heard of the old, old saying that “it takes one to know one — translated for the CEO of HomeDepot, to call anyone stupid even if’s untrue means that he is stupider than stupid.
But we can’t call Trump stupid because he has to have a brain before we could allege that he is stupid. Empty headed, yes.
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This is link and another inside of it shows how some recipients of Sackler money are dealing with the problem of publicity about the source of the family wealth. Lloyd is correct about the Sackler’s not being the only family to engage in what Robert Reich calls “reputation laundering.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/13/meet-the-sacklers-the-family-feuding-over-blame-for-the-opioid-crisis
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The CNBC show American Greed has an episode called “Deadly Opioids, Dirty Doctors” (available on Hulu) that explains how easy it is for doctors to profit from prescribing and selling addictive meds. Drug companies, doctors, and pharmacies all conspire to profit off of addiction, while regulators look the other way.
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This has got to be one of worst experiences a parent has to face. My heart goes out to the victim’s mother.
My adult son also has a back problem. He has two ruptured discs, and surgery was not recommended on someone so young. His condition is chronic. Rather than escalate the pain medication, the doctors severed some of the nerves in his back so he would not be on the pain medication merry-go-round. The procedure has given him some relief.
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Democracy Now had a great segment on the Sacklers and their opiod fiefdom. Just go to democracynow.org to view.
I have friends with migraines, & they are on medical marijuana, which is MUCH better than opiods. &, no, they are not addicted, nor has this led to them taking other drugs.
And, lucky for them, it is legal.
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Medical Marijuana also comes in cookies and candies if you don’t want to smoke it since our lungs were not designed to inhale smoke without risk of injuring the lungs.
Ther are edible Marijuana and Cannabis Cookies, Brownies and Chocolates. Be warned sugar is addictive.
“That doesn’t mean marijuana is harmless; in fact, the potency of current strains may shock those who haven’t tried it for decades, particularly when ingested as food. It can produce a serious dependency, and constant use would interfere with job and school performance. It needs to be kept out of the hands of minors. But, on balance, its downsides are not reasons to impose criminal penalties on its possession, particularly not in a society that permits nicotine use and celebrates drinking.”
And what about alcohol vs marijuana?
“Marijuana affects the cardiovascular system, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, but a person can’t fatally overdose on pot like they can with alcohol, Baler said.” …
“The long-term effects of drinking heavily are well known. “Excess alcohol is going to lead to very severe consequences, and chronic excess alcohol is the most likely to lead to a lot of threatening issues,” Murray said.
“Drinking can lead to alcoholic liver disease, which can progress to fibrosis of the liver, which in turn can potentially lead to liver cancer, Murray”
https://www.livescience.com/42738-marijuana-vs-alcohol-health-effects.html
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