Pharmas O'Death

Pharmaceutical manufacturers do not make a profit unless they are selling pharmaceuticals. In order to maximize profits these companies may resort to unscrupulous business practices. And then they go to jail, but only after a number of people die.

BOSTON – Several pharmaceutical executives and managers, formerly employed by Insys Therapeutics, Inc., were arrested today on charges that they led a nationwide conspiracy to bribe medical practitioners to unnecessarily prescribe a fentanyl-based pain medication and defraud healthcare insurers.

The indictment alleges that Michael L. Babich, 40, of Scottsdale, Ariz., the former CEO and President of the company; Alec Burlakoff, 42, of Charlotte, N.C., former Vice President of Sales; Richard M. Simon, 46, of Seal Beach, Calif., former National Director of Sales; former Regional Sales Directors, Sunrise Lee, 36, of Bryant City, Mich. and Joseph A. Rowan, 43, of Panama City, Fla.; and former Vice President of Managed Markets, Michael J. Gurry, 53, of Scottsdale, Ariz., conspired to bribe practitioners in various states, many of whom operated pain clinics, in order to get them to prescribe a fentanyl-based pain medication. The medication, called “Subsys,” is a powerful narcotic intended to treat cancer patients suffering intense episodes of breakthrough pain. In exchange for bribes and kickbacks, the practitioners wrote large numbers of prescriptions for the patients, most of whom were not diagnosed with cancer.

These men should rot in hell for they are contributing to a crescendo of drug overdose deaths.

CONCORD, N.H. – Drug overdose deaths have increased by 33 percent in the past five years across the country, with some states seeing jumps of nearly 200 percent.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 states saw increases in overdose deaths resulting from the abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers, a class of drugs known as opioids. New Hampshire saw a 191 percent increase while North Dakota, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine had death rates jump by over 100 percent.

"Too many Americans are feeling the devastation of the opioid crisis either from misuse of prescription opioids or use of illicit opioids," said Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC. "Urgent action is needed to help health care providers treat pain safely and treat opioid use disorder effectively, support law enforcement strategies to reduce the availability of illicit opiates, and support states to develop and implement programs that can save lives."

Last year, more than 52,000 people died from drug overdoses, with almost two-thirds involving prescription or illegal opioids. Deaths from synthetic opioids, including illicit fentanyl, rose 73 percent, to 9,580. And prescription painkillers took the highest toll but posted the smallest increase. Abuse of drugs like Oxycontin and Vicodin killed 17,536, an increase of 4 percent.

Hospital ER overdose admissions are skyrocketing. Narcan (narloxone) has helped prevent many deaths, but I fear that its use also reduces the fear of an overdose, leading to more overdoses. In an age group known for risk taking behavior, this is disastrous.

Sure, some jackasses are gonna take a dirt nap at an early age no matter what you do. But a lot of these kids lack the common sense that a decent set of parents would give them.

H/T DC Clothesline

Another Plague

I can feel sorry for the families of idiots who use drugs, not so much for the users. And it looks like there is going to be a lot more heartache for those families as dealers are cutting heroin with another drug - elephant sedatives. Heroin is a downer, I can only imagine what another powerful sedative will do in conjunction with a shot of horse.

Sweet dreams baby, go to sleep in the nice pretty box.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A drug used to sedate elephants and other large animals, 100 times as potent as the fentanyl already escalating the country’s heroin troubles, is suspected in spates of overdoses in several states, where authorities say they’ve found it mixed with or passed off as heroin.

The appearance of carfentanil, one of the most potent opioids known to investigators, adds another twist to the fight against painkillers in a country already awash in heroin and fentanyl cases.

Each time authorities start to get a handle on one type of drug, another seems to pop up, said Joseph Pinjuh, chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and narcotics unit for the U.S. attorney in Cleveland.

“You feel like a kid with his finger in the dike, you know?” he said. “We’re running out of fingers.”

More here.

We need to enact laws like the Philippines did - just shoot the dealers wherever you find them. They did 300 last month alone.