CBS 60 Minutes Piece on Opioids

Tidewater · Oct 17, 2017

I give journalists a ration of crap for lousy reporting (which generally they richly deserve), but here is a good piece of journalism. The Whistleblower.
Hat tip to CBS and especially to Bill Whitaker.
It has had an impact on public policy. Tom Merino withdraws his name from nomination for "Drug Czar."

It still is possible to do good journalism in these United States. The name "Kardashian" was not mentioned at all in this entire story.

92tide · Oct 17, 2017

Tidewater said:
I give journalists a ration of crap for lousy reporting (which generally they richly deserve), but here is a good piece of journalism. The Whistleblower.
Hat tip to CBS and especially to Bill Whitaker.
It has had an impact on public policy. Tom Merino withdraws his name from nomination for "Drug Czar."

It still is possible to do good journalism in these United States. The name "Kardashian" was not mentioned at all in this entire story.

i've been seeing a lot about this issue in the past few days. i hope they keep shining a light on it.

Jon · Oct 17, 2017

I've wondered for a long time why the DEA was doing nothing about this. CBS and the Washington Post killing it here with some great reporting.

AUDub · Oct 17, 2017

Watched the piece. Joe Rannazzisi and all those who did their damnedest under him are to be commended.

Jon · Oct 17, 2017

Tidewater said:
I give journalists a ration of crap for lousy reporting (which generally they richly deserve), but here is a good piece of journalism. The Whistleblower.
Hat tip to CBS and especially to Bill Whitaker.
It has had an impact on public policy. Tom Merino withdraws his name from nomination for "Drug Czar."

It still is possible to do good journalism in these United States. The name "Kardashian" was not mentioned at all in this entire story.

so it got Marino, can it get Blackburn too? She is awful

RollTide_HTTR · Oct 17, 2017

Lol my uncle is a partner at one of the law firms mentioned. I'll be interested to talk to him next time I can. He used to head their probono department and he's a pretty "save the world" kind of guy so I'm sure his thoughts will be interesting.

92tide · Oct 17, 2017

Jon said:
so it got Marino, can it get Blackburn too? She is awful

hatch is doing some nice tap dancing in the npr piece that tw linked in the op.

Tidewater · Oct 17, 2017

Yeah, what was the figure? A pharmacy in Kermit, WV, a town with a population of 392 ordered like nine million opioid pills over two years? There must be a lot of pain in Kermit.

Aledinho · Oct 17, 2017

Tidewater said:
Yeah, what was the figure? A pharmacy in Kermit, WV, a town with a population of 392 ordered like nine million opioid pills over two years? There must be a lot of pain in Kermit.

gman4tide · Oct 17, 2017

Tidewater said:
Yeah, what was the figure? A pharmacy in Kermit, WV, a town with a population of 392 ordered like nine million opioid pills over two years? There must be a lot of pain in Kermit.

Shoot, I bet the pain doc down the hall from the chiropractor I was using dished out 9mil a week! Every day I went down that hall, there were people lining the hall waiting to get their 'scripts. It was really sad.

day-day · Oct 17, 2017

Rep. Marsha Blackburn: Drug law had 'unintended consequences,' should be revisited 'immediately'

Tidewater · Oct 17, 2017

day-day said:
Rep. Marsha Blackburn: Drug law had 'unintended consequences,' should be revisited 'immediately'

"You mean the unintended consequences that DEA reps testified before your commitee telling you about?"

OreBama · Oct 18, 2017

Opioids kill people for sure. The problem is that there is no better alternative for many people. I live in a state where I can go out and buy the "dankest" weed available, but opioids are somehow taboo. I wish medicine would come out with an effective and safe alternative, but, so far, has not. Are people supposed to live with pharmaceutically manageable pain, because some junkie can't control himself?

Tidewater · Oct 18, 2017

OreBama said:
Opioids kill people for sure. The problem is that there is no better alternative for many people. I live in a state where I can go out and buy the "dankest" weed available, but opioids are somehow taboo. I wish medicine would come out with an effective and safe alternative, but, so far, has not. Are people supposed to live with pharmaceutically manageable pain, because some junkie can't control himself?

I've taken opioids myself and while I find them mildly effective, they also cause the side effect of, shall we say, "plugging me up," so I am always reluctant to take them.

NationalTitles18 · Oct 18, 2017

OreBama said:
Opioids kill people for sure. The problem is that there is no better alternative for many people. I live in a state where I can go out and buy the "dankest" weed available, but opioids are somehow taboo. I wish medicine would come out with an effective and safe alternative, but, so far, has not. Are people supposed to live with pharmaceutically manageable pain, because some junkie can't control himself?

Very frustrating. The mantra now is no more than a week, even after surgery - or for terminal illness like cancer.

The pendulum had swung fast and hard. Extremist and reactionaries have a difficult time finding a happy medium, it seems.

92tide · Oct 18, 2017

OreBama said:
Opioids kill people for sure. The problem is that there is no better alternative for many people. I live in a state where I can go out and buy the "dankest" weed available, but opioids are somehow taboo. I wish medicine would come out with an effective and safe alternative, but, so far, has not. Are people supposed to live with pharmaceutically manageable pain, because some junkie can't control himself?

agreed. thing is, it's not just junkies that are taking too many opioids. they are highly addictive and there are quite a few "normal" folks who get hooked on them during the course of normal pain management and i would hesitate to call them junkies. iirc, oxycontin and other types of these opioids were originally marketed as not being addictive.

92tide · Oct 18, 2017

NationalTitles16 said:
Very frustrating. The mantra now is no more than a week, even after surgery - or for terminal illness like cancer.

The pendulum had swung fast and hard. Extremist and reactionaries have a difficult time finding a happy medium, it seems.

when i had my brain surgery a couple of years back, the neurosurgeon gave me a huge prescription and said take whatever you need for the next 3-4 weeks and if needed come back for more. i was a little surprised, but I guess that was also due to the nature of the surgery. lucky for me, i can't stand the effect they have on me (cloggage and feeling like i am hungover all of the time) so i was weaning myself off of them as quickly as i could

Jon · Oct 18, 2017

92tide said:
agreed. thing is, it's not just junkies that are taking too many opioids. they are highly addictive and there are quite a few "normal" folks who get hooked on them during the course of normal pain management and i would hesitate to call them junkies. iirc, oxycontin and other types of these opioids were originally marketed as not being addictive.

The 60 minutes piece didn't go into it but if you watch the episodes of Drugs Inc on Nat Geo that cover opioids and heroin they talk to plenty of people who came into their Heroin problems through legal doctor ordered scripts. It wasn't that long ago that the drug companies had their hottie sales reps rubbing up against every doctor they could claiming that these were a "new generation of safer, less addictive pain management tools" and getting Docs to hand them out like candy. I have a bottle somewhere from a dental crown I needed a few years back (never took them as I hate them too) sitting in a drawer. I didn't need them for that. There are many stories out there of people getting hooked and then going to pain management clinics to keep supplied and then when the Government finally decided to crack down they simply cut everyone off. So what does an addict do but find a way. A lot of these folks found their way to back alley pill sellers or needles full of something. Often lately that something is a Chinese Fentanyl derivative that killing people left and right. All in, all opioids are killing around 150 people a day in the US. The only place where the trend is reversing, to a degree is legal weed states. Colorado came out this week showing a 6% drop in opioid deaths since legalization.

Displaced Bama Fan · Oct 18, 2017

gman4tide said:
Shoot, I bet the pain doc down the hall from the chiropractor I was using dished out 9mil a week! Every day I went down that hall, there were people lining the hall waiting to get their 'scripts. It was really sad.

I've mentioned my buddy who was hooked as well. He's finally clean, but he said it was so easy to get them. They need to put these pain docs out of business.

day-day · Oct 18, 2017

This link shows fairly recent data on death by drug overdose in 22 states. Even though opioid deaths may have dropped in some states, drug overdose deaths seem have risen in almost all of the states shown. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/monthly-drug-overdose-death-estimates.pdf

2016 was a record year for Colorado in drug overdose death rate. Some of the speculation is that opioid users switched to herion due to the crackdown on opioid prescriptions. Deaths due to heroin increased; deaths due to opioids dropped.

CBS 60 Minutes Piece on Opioids

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