The Real Drug Dealers

The Real Drug Dealers

The prescription narcotic epidemic in America is banging on our national consciousness, almost as loudly as the issue of skyrocketing drug prices. The pharmaceutical industry and its front groups have tried in the past to conflate safe international online pharmacies with the illegal and dangerous online sale of controlled drugs, including prescription narcotics, and I’ve called them out over the years. Safe international online pharmacies do not sell prescription narcotics at all. But, unlike safe international online pharmacies, which sell non controlled medications at much lower prices, is Big Pharma pushing narcotics and fueling drug addiction in America? Apparently, yes.

As reported in The Fix, a documentary film called “Prescription Thugs” explores the connection between the pharmaceutical industry, the power it wields in Congress, and the painkiller addiction epidemic. It is the story of people who were introduced to painkillers when their doctors prescribed them, only to find themselves addicted. For years, the industry was making a certain formulation of the popular prescription opiate OxyContin that was easily abused by addicts and therefore driving astronomical sales. When a new form of the drug made it harder to crush and therefore inject intravenously, its sales tanked by 80%. You can view the film’s trailer at http://www.prescriptionthugs.com/.

The title of an investigative article written by Lee Fang in The Intercept that explores Big Pharma’s role in our nation’s drug abuse problem speaks volumes about what is going on: “Makers of OxyContin Bankroll Efforts to Undermine Prescription Painkiller Reform.” According to Mr. Fang, pharma front groups, under the guise of patient care, are actually hindering reforms to prescribing practices, ones developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to sharply reign in overprescribing of prescription narcotics. It’s pretty simple actually: the CDC is proposing that doctors and other licensed healthcare practitioners prescribe narcotics as more of a last resort – not for a toothache – so that fewer people get hooked on opiate-based medication. The pharma front groups are apparently sowing doubt and fear that these reforms are worthy, and powerful enough to postpone them. How many thousands more will die from overdoses (over 16,000 in 2013!) as Big Pharma fights reforms?

That script by Big Pharma is familiar. We also know that Big Pharma funds “non-profit” groups, such asAlliance for Safe Online Pharmacies and Partnership For Safe Medicines, to propagate the position that it’s unsafe for Americans to order lower cost medications over the Internet that are personally imported. How many Americans are not taking needed medications because of their efforts? How many more millions of Americans will go without prescribed medications due to Big Pharma’s scare tactics?

Real data shows that the Internet is not a major source of illegally obtained prescription narcotics and DEA officials are on record as saying it is an insignificant channel of abuse. In fact, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, shows that only .2% of illegal prescription narcotic purchases are made online.

I’ve backed that position up for the past few years because, well, it reflects hard data – but, admittedly, I’ve milked it out of frustration over Big Pharma lackeys saying “Oh, we have to stop international online pharmacies because of the prescription abuse problem in the U.S.” – when they are unrelated. I’m taking a step back to recognize that I do continue to see rogue websites pushing controlled drugs without a prescription, foreign and domestic. They are still out there! Online sales of controlled drugs need to be vigilantly tracked. The online drug pushers, whatever their number, need to be stopped. But since we know that overprescribing is the real culprit, a practice seemingly supported by the same people who make and sell those drugs, isn’t it time to clamp down on pharmaceutical industry drug dealers!?

Original Post By: Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com 

My Thoughts...

By: MrJackBrickhouse (@GotMYShades) cabdofficial.com

Close your eyes and imagine the characteristics of a drug dealer standing right in front of you. Many of you may picture a minority man dressed very sketchy standing near an alley. Others may fantasize about yet another minority man driving an expensive sports car with several pieces of jewelry covered in diamonds being trailed by his security detail as he enters an upscale restaurant. Both of these can be accurate descriptions of the common drug dealer who's life has been showcased and glamorized in many facets of the media. The biggest drug dealer of them all has not been identified yet. The largest of all drug dealers receives very little media attention, kills and injures thousands of individuals each and every year, and has their products for sale on corners across the country. These men and women are usually not flashy, not minority, and not harassed by law enforcement. The character traits I described belong to the CEO's and President's of pharmaceutical giants such as Eli Lilly and Pfizer to name a few of the big boys. For some of you, it may seem as if I am stretching the truth to make this analogy work in my favor. Let's examine a few similarities and see how far I am really stretching if at all. 

Maximizing profit is the primary motive of every drug dealer. Buy low and sell high is the agenda. Street pharmacist place their workers on popular corners where their clientele can access their product easily. Corporate pharmacist place their products in drug stores located on busy intersections where their pharmacy technicians serve their clientele with ease and great accessibility. Street pharmacist understand that their will be side effects that can include death with the use of their products. Likewise, corporate pharmacist acknowledge the same effects but try and soften the harshness by listing the possible side effects on the medication. I guess they figure because they warned you, it's OK. Go figure! The goal of both drug dealers along with maximizing profits is to maximize territory which brings me back to the above article. By eliminating foreign competition, corporate pharmacist can once again corner the market and become the number one suppliers of their marquee drugs which is all about maximizing profits and ceasing control of real estate to conduct as many transactions as possible.  

This article once again teaches us that it is all about perspective in this country. If I sell my marijuana on the corner without giving the government a piece, I am arrested and jailed. If I open a state approved "dispensary" I can then peddle my marijuana to an even broader clientele reach, that may include law enforcement, with no penalties or consequences. So the next time you are at your local pharmacy, be sure to be polite to the pharmacist and "Say Hello To The Bad Guy!"

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