Doctors Prescribing Opiates

The US Supreme Court is now hearing arguments in cases where physicians have been convicted and sentenced for illegally prescribing excessive amounts of opiates that can lead to addiction or overdose deaths.

This is while the bankruptcy proceedings and payments being arranged by Purdue Pharma, a leading manufacturer of the opiate Oxy-Contin, and its owners, the Sackler family. A $6 billion settlement is awaiting approval by bankruptcy judge Choose Robert Drain which would direct the settlement to addiction and prevention programs in a number of states.

There are, in actuality, five entities with a stake in the opiates situation. First, of course, are the addicts themselves, who may have become addicted to the product either through prescribed medication for pain or by using it recreationally, as heroin was and continues to be. Second is Purdue Pharma, a company that enthusiastically promoted its products, as all companies do, in search of profits in the great American capitalist marketplace. Next are the communities that have suffered the negatives of opiate abuse, described generally as economically backward rural localities inhabited by intellectual dwarfs, and the governments that attempt to regulate their behavior. One of the largest stakeholders in the attempt to solve the opiate problem is the family of the addict or, even worse, the recipient of an overdose. However, the key element of the situation is the doctor prescribing the Oxy-Contin, since it's a highly-regulated Category 2 narcotic.

Perdue Pharma couldn't legally sell its flagship product in a retail environment. It must be prescribed by a licensed physician for purchase from a licensed pharmacy. The basis for the many suits against the manufacturer is that they encouraged doctors to prescribe their product for alleviating pain. Manufacturers always attempt to encourage the individuals responsible for a purchase to make it one of their products. In this case, the product is a legal one and Perdue Pharma was acting legally in encouraging its sale.

The key figures in the opioid epidemic are the prescribing doctors, who run a gamut from dedicated family physicians to cash-only prescription issuers who don't bother to examine the patient. Aside from actual dealers of stolen or fake opioids, criminals by definition, physicians are the sole source of these addicting products. Yet in a crisis with a trillion dollar price tag, the doctors, regarded in society as cousins of the angels, are relatively ignored, at least compared to big pharma. Even collectively, the government/legal machine can't extract $6 billion from the nation's doctors and incarcerate the most flagrant RX issuers. People would go berserk if they had to visit the penitentiary to get their blood pressure taken by the kindly Dr. Welby. So, Purdue Pharma gets the blame and the bill.

Maybe the pharmaceutical complex, like almost every aspect of the US health scene, has become a gigantic financial redistribution system, akin and in league with the legal system. Well, no maybe about it.