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As noted in the film, opioids kill more people than any other drug on the market, and it’s the only type of drug that can condemn a person to a life of addiction after a single week of use.
According to the BBC, “1 in 8 American children live with a parent who suffers from a substance abuse disorder,” and “every 15 minutes, a baby in America is born suffering from opioid withdrawal.” Middle school-aged children interviewed also say they have easy access to drugs, should they want them.
Many now blame the drug companies that make these drugs and have falsely promoted them as safe and nonaddictive for patients of all kinds, including children.
Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty and Folds
One of the most prominent drug companies involved in the creation of this opioid addiction crisis is Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. At the end of October 2020, Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges relating to its role in the opioid crisis, including violating a federal anti-kickback law, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.Legal Painkillers Now the Gateway Drug to Heroin
While marijuana was long known as the gateway drug to other illicit drug use, that distinction now belongs to prescription opioids. According to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, prescription opioid use is a significant risk factor for subsequent heroin use.The incidence of heroin use is 19 times higher among those who have used opioids nonmedically than among those who have no history of opioid use, and 86 percent of young, urban injection drug users report using opioid pain relievers nonmedically before starting heroin. Overall, nearly 80 percent of heroin users now report using prescription opioids prior to heroin.
Similarly, data from the University of Michigan shows just under 1 in 3 people (31.8 percent) who misused opioids during their high school years ended up using heroin by age 35.
When it comes to children and teens, a major source of opioids are dentists, who wrote a staggering 18.1 million prescriptions for opioids in 2017. Opioids are frequently prescribed when extracting wisdom teeth, even though there’s no evidence to support this strategy.
This is especially true if you see a biological dentist who knows what they are doing. Earlier this year I had a periapical abscess and had to have the tooth extracted. I saw one of the best dentists in Florida, Dr. Carl Litano, just south of Tampa. He used platelet rich plasma (PRP) at the extraction site and I had zero pain and no swelling without any medication. Afterward, no one could tell I had an extraction the previous day.
Children are also recklessly prescribed addictive opioids for minor surgical procedures. For example, insurance claims data from 2016 and 2017 reveal 60 percent of children between the ages of 1 and 18 with private insurance filled one or more opioid prescriptions after surgical tonsil removal.
An Epidemic Caused by Greed
As noted in the film, this is an epidemic caused by greed within the medical system. Purdue Pharma was exceptionally skilled at marketing its product, cleverly disguising its advertisements as educational material. (The same can clearly be said about many other drug companies and their wares today.)The fraud has its roots in a short letter to the editor published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1980. The letter—which was simply commenting on a cursory examination of patient files in a Boston hospital—stated that narcotic addiction in patients with no history of addiction was very rare.
Purdue built its marketing of OxyContin on this letter, for years falsely claiming that opioid addiction affects less than 1 percent of patients treated with the drugs. According to Purdue’s marketing material, featured in the film, “the most serious risk with opioids is respiratory depression.”
As noted by David Powell, a senior economist at Rand, to produce the most lethal drug epidemic America has ever seen “you need a huge rise in opioid access, in a way that misuse is easy, but you also need demand to misuse the product.”
According to the documentary, Purdue made more than $1 billion a year from its sales of OxyContin. OxyContin’s success also quickly led to other drug companies mimicking Purdue’s tactics. Other companies being called to account include Allergan, Cephalon, Endo International, Egalet Corporation, Insys Therapeutics, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Mallinckrodt plc, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
In the final analysis, it’s clear that unconscionably deceitful marketing tactics have resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Americans; 46,802 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2018 alone. As of June 2017, opioids became the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50.
Purdue Lured in, Then Abandoned Doctors
Steven May, a former Purdue sales rep, also highlights yet another scandal. The company came up with a plan to help doctors better document their treatment of pain. Sales reps were taught how to instruct doctors to use these tools.No Remorse
Adding insult to injury, when it became clear that people were dying in droves from opioid overdoses, Purdue launched an extensive damage-control operation that included the suggestion that those dying from opioids were already addicts, and that this wouldn’t happen to patients who were not already addicted to drugs. It was basically just a variation on the original lie.Unemployment and Poverty Fuel Addiction
Many of the opioid and heroin abusers featured in “Addicted” live on the streets. Desperation and despair are evident in all. Several investigations seeking to gain insight into the causes fueling the opioid epidemic have been conducted in recent years.Among them is a 2019 study published in the Medical Care Research Review journal, which looked at the effects of state-level economic conditions—unemployment rates, median house prices, median household income, insurance coverage, and average hours of weekly work—on drug overdose deaths between 1999 and 2014. According to the authors:
“Drug overdose deaths significantly declined with higher house prices … by nearly 0.17 deaths per 100,000 (~4 percent) with a $10,000 increase in median house price. House price effects were … only significant among males, non-Hispanic Whites, and individuals younger 45 years.”
“Our findings suggest that economic downturns that substantially reduce house prices such as the Great Recession can increase opioid-related deaths, suggesting that efforts to control access to such drugs should especially intensify during these periods.”
Similarly, an investigation published in the International Journal of Drug Policy in 2017 connected economic recessions and unemployment with rises in illegal drug use among adults. Seventeen of the 28 studies included in the review found that the psychological distress associated with economic recessions and unemployment was a significant factor:
A review of available research by scientists in the Netherlands and United Kingdom concluded: “The current evidence is in line with the hypothesis that drug use increases in times of recession because unemployment increases psychological distress which increases drug use. During times of recession, psychological support for those who lost their job and are vulnerable to drug use (relapse) is likely to be important.”
Trauma Raises Addiction Risk
Abuse-related trauma is also linked to unemployment and financial stress, and that too can increase your risk of drug use and addiction. As noted in The Atlantic, when the coal mining industry in northeastern Pennsylvania collapsed, leaving many locals without job prospects, alcohol use increased, as did child abuse.Many of these traumatized children, in turn, sought relief from the turmoil and ended up becoming addicted to opioids. All of this is particularly pertinent today, as many parts of the U.S. have been shut down for extended periods of time over fears of COVID-19.
I also urge you to listen to my interview with Dr. Sarah Zielsdorf. She explains how low-dose naltrexone (LDN), used in microdoses, can help you combat opioid addiction and aid in your recovery.
Using microdoses of 0.001 milligrams (1 microgram), long-term users of opioids who have developed a tolerance to the drug are able to, over time, lower their opioid dose and avoid withdrawal symptoms as the LDN makes the opioid more effective.
Nondrug Pain Relief
Many types of pain can be treated entirely without drugs. Recommendations by Harvard Medical School and the British National Health Service include the following:- Gentle exercise
- Physical therapy or occupational therapy
- Hypnotherapy
- Distracting yourself with an enjoyable activity
- Maintaining a regular sleep schedule
- Mind-body techniques such as controlled breathing, meditation, guided imagery, and mindfulness practice that encourages relaxation. One of my personal favorites is the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
- Yoga and tai chi
- Practicing gratitude and positive thinking
- Hot or cold packs
- Biofeedback
- Music therapy
- Therapeutic massage
Additional approaches include helpful supplements and dietary changes. These can be used separately or in combination with the strategies listed above to control both acute and chronic pain.