We're Going Backwards!

Day1378.

Sometimes I feel like there is work to be done and that I can offer my hand to that. But today I feel like it’s hopeless as I read that:

Federal grants have been frozen on the research of non addictive pain medication.

Drug deaths are through the roof.

Initiatives to stem the crisis have been cut.

People are fatigued by the drug crisis that is now eclipsed by Covid, despite an astronomical rise in overdoses.

Fentanyl has been allowed to roll in from China via the United States Postal Service, as they were granted extensions on implementing the safeguards imposed on private carriers by repeated legislation because of the cost. The Chinese dealers were quoted as saying that USPS was slower but would guarantee un-intercepted delivery, according to the Washington Post.

There are people and politicians doing great work but if the helpful legislation is not enforced it’s all for naught. And instead the cost is borne by those who bury their children.

And meanwhile back in the world of pharmaceuticals the politicians are distracted by the new shiny issues in the face of an opioid-crisis-fatigued electorate, sucking the hope out of any proposed measures and a Pharma lobby can out power it all.

The Sacklers are dodging discovery in the Purdue lawsuits by filing for bankruptcy.

The FDA, complicit in the opaque licensing deal to approve OxyContin for chronic pain and long term use without scientific support, continue to go unchecked despite discovery documents and scientific evidence to the contrary and endless campaigns to reverse it by Dr Andrew Kolodny and Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP).

...and now the CDC are planning to weaken their 2016 guidelines on pain medication prescribing!

How the fuck can anything change? We are going backwards!

In Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, Beth Macy writes: America’s approach to it’s opioid problem is to rely on Battle of Dunkirk strategies—leaving the fight to well-meaning citizens, in their fishing vessels and private boats—when what’s really needed to win the war is a full-on Normandy Invasion.

Well, right now, my boat is letting on water.

The Washington Post (paywall)
The Guardian