
The Family That Built an Empire of Pain (2017) - sova
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain
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hexxiiiz
As much as the pharma industry and medical practitioners were irresponsible in
their contribution to opioid addiction, there is a dimension to this problem
that does still does not get enough attention: that people may really be in
pain. Over the past couple decades economic conditions have stagnated at best
and for many declined causing a lot of people chronic stress, depression, and
anxiety. The food industry has raised generations of people on abysmal
nutrition causing a rash of chronic health conditions, many of them
inflammatory in nature. Whole cities have gone into decline and precarity
because their core industries have laid off workers in droves and left. ...
and so forth. The backdrop of the "opioid epidemic" has been a population that
had arguably been already been declining in physical and mental health for
decades. It is not too much of a stretch to suppose people are actually in
more pain. This does not mean that the right thing to do is to allow the
pharma industry to push pills on people, but if the underlying issues that
cause this pain are not addressed people in pain are just going to move on to
more alcohol and street drugs.

~~~
jmeister
Also cultural issues like weakening of family ties, death of community around
the church etc. Increasing alienation from the “coastal elites” and the
culture that is broadcast on mass media. Fall in sense of belonging to the
country.

The left tends to ignore these and focus solely on the material aspects.

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dang
Six large previous related threads, if anyone's interested:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E10%20sackler&sort=byDate&type=story)

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Gunax
It's not that I don't acknowledge the addiction problem, it's that I fear in
our quest for addicts we will forget the real good these drugs did. There are
a lot of people in pain.

Here are some _alternative_ facts not often discussed:

    
    
      most opioid abusers were never prescribed the drug
      most people prescribed opioids never become addicted

~~~
in_recorvery
do you have a source on the first?

on the second, some studies put the rate of addiction from a prescription at
8-12%, a full 4-6% transition to heroin [1]

Sure 50% of everyone who gets an opiate script doesn't end up sooting heroin.
but it's a damn high scary number.

And the main point is Purdue directly lied in their marketing about the abuse
and dependence %.

[1] [https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/opioids/opioid-
overdos...](https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/opioids/opioid-overdose-
crisis)

~~~
sam_lowry_
Many people who get opiates do not live long enough to become addicts. Think
of terminal cancer patients.

Also, mind that there is the inverse problem in some countries. Doctors are
afraid to prescribe opiates and pharmacies to distribute because of the risks
of prosecution. Russia is a notorious example that lets cancer patients die
without access to opiates.

~~~
in_recorvery
Yeah that's obviously horrible. But I don't know anyone in the US who is
advocating taking away pain management meds for terminal, cancer, etc patients
that are suffering greatly.

------
drtillberg
(2017)

