Go Blue Eyes

April 8th, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^

In reading the article it seems like there are a lot of other people besides the cartels making money - and lots of it - off the backs of those people who need it the most, the patients.  Or the patients' insurance companies rather.

LSAClassOf2000

April 8th, 2018 at 12:59 PM ^

...except that the article demonstrates that this is clearly not the case (and you would be foolish to think that it was the case quite honestly), and indeed, one of the greatest tragedies of the "war on drugs", again as the article demonstrates, is that people suffer at the hands of those ostensibly there to help them. 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 8th, 2018 at 4:45 PM ^

Yes... it seems to me that "people are dying from these drugs so we should legalize them" is a really fucking bizarre conclusion.  The problem in this instance is not that the drugs are illegal.  It's that they are legal and they're obtainable through legal channels that are being abused by unscrupulous bad actors who use this kind of situation to take money from insurance companies.

bacon1431

April 8th, 2018 at 8:41 PM ^

Not really that bizarre. Public funds that are currently used toward enforcement of the criminalization of drugs could be put toward treatment, oversight of treatment, cops trained in saving people from ODs and prevention programs. Would probably be much more effective in saving lives and decreasing drug use.

30swk18

April 8th, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^

If you mean we should stop absurdly long sentences, misplaced priorities, etc then I agree. But you hopefully realize that cracking down on big pharma, drug education, etc are also part of the war on drugs. Not as simple as the “end the drug war” crowd likes to portray.

Gobgoblue

April 8th, 2018 at 11:37 AM ^

doesn't really happen, Congress just calls pharma in to the principals office once in a while, but not much changes. And that's a bipartisan effort. Shkreli didn't dance for them and it was a good PR move, so he got in trouble, but that's about it. Prices haven't changed, really.

Monkey House

April 9th, 2018 at 6:46 AM ^

i live in the middle of the opiate crisis! ive lost more friends in the last 10 years than i can count. marijuana has ZERO to do with the opiate problem. ZERO.

attimack311

April 8th, 2018 at 3:35 PM ^

this reads just like someone scared of 'reefer madness'...weed has proven medicinal benefits. the death toll of weed is non existent. meanwhile opiates and alcohol kill thousands upon thousands. and who gives a shit if someone wants to get high? bet you have no issue with someone getting drunk, right? glad you only teach 8th grade health, so most of your rhetoric is irrelevant and will be forgotten by your students.
maybe read up a little bit, a lot of the propaganda about mj has been proven false in the last decade. obviously, smoking anything is bad for you, but you don't have to smoke it anymore. there are edibles.

I live in VA, where the Senate just voted 40-0 for medicinal mj, and you know who pushed for it? doctors! there is a huge opiate crisis they understand being able to offer mj instead is better for the patient instead of pushing oxys down their throats.

BlueWon

April 8th, 2018 at 4:47 PM ^

I was a second semester senior when he was going through simply horrendous chemotherapy treatments at Children's Hospital in DTW. I spent a lot of time with him after the first two treatments rubbing his back while he puked his guts out. 

I read that MJ really helped with the nausea and smoked a fair amount at the time. My dad took him to my aunt's place about thirty minutes away from our house after the third treatment as my grandfather had died. After going to the funeral home I grabbed him and stuck him in the back seat of my '72 Cutlass, started driving, and lit a joint. Within five minutes he was off his back and telling me to jam some Van Halen -- loud. He was fine by the time we got back home.

Went to see his oncologist with my mom a week later and told her what happened. She said she had heard of such effects but could not legally recommend it. My mom dragged me out of class the day of his next treatment and whispered "buy two" over the phone in the grade dean's  office.

He never got sick after a treatment from that point forward.

It was night and day -- if you know someone going through chemo and you're not giving them pot you're doing them a real disservice.

attimack311

April 8th, 2018 at 5:16 PM ^

for your brother. good thing now, in a lot states, is he could have legally obtained it and not had to have worried about spending years in prison just to get some relief. the dude above me wants to cut off hands and shit for drug dealers. unbelievably archaic and asinine. the one thing I do agree with him on is rehabilitation and not incarceration, although there is no dependency when discussing mj.

BOX House

April 8th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^

I'm reading Ken Daniels' "If These Walls Could Talk" book right now. He's a class act, worked his way up from the bottom of the radio industry in Toronto. 

Next up on my reading list is Keith Gave's "Russian Five". 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 8th, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^

Not Konstantinov's accident.... Kozlov's.  He was the driver in a really bad wreck back in Russia when he was still a teenager - his car was hit by a bus, which killed his passenger and severely injured him - and the Wings were able to use the situation to help leverage his move to the NHL.

bacon1431

April 8th, 2018 at 2:49 PM ^

I don’t think anyone should be surprised by this. The money is in the treatment of societal ills, not the success of treatment nor the prevention of the issue.

Obviously, some people will do things regardless of how good treatments are or what supports they’re given, but there are plenty of people that fall through the cracks because of profit driven responses

micheal honcho

April 8th, 2018 at 10:49 AM ^

That big pharma is not absolutely complicit in the opioid crisis is naive. They make more $$$ by producing and selling more opioids. Their stock holders want returns.



Anyone who does not see this or agree needs to show me one concrete example of a company doing something that they know will result in lower stock value via decreased sales of its product.

lhglrkwg

April 8th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^

you'll never - or at least probably will never - see a direct link between a corporate officer and the crisis like an email saying "Yeah we're ok with people dying to keep sales up" but it's implied. Corporations report to shareholders and are perpetually pushed to get better returns year to year. So when these guys get a product that works and sells, they're going to push, push, push that product to maximize their profits. They'll issue statements about how the opiod crisis is very sad and they want people to use their products responsibily and maybe call this 800 number for help, but they'll also be pushing hard to get as much of it out there as they can and then say it's just people's fault for abusing it

Njia

April 8th, 2018 at 11:56 AM ^

But let’s not look too far past our own mirrors to find that our desire to rid ourselves of whatever we think might ail us is the itch that all “Pharma” companies - including the ones run out of back alleys and sold on street corners - help us scratch.

theintegral

April 8th, 2018 at 12:59 PM ^

Heard this statistic in church this morning:  11.7 million opioid prescriptions written in Michigan in 2016.  That is 115 for every 100 people.

sdogg1m

April 8th, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^

Starting to conclude that Michigan State excels at producing substance abusers and sexual predators. I will be in fear if my children decide to attend.

darkstar

April 8th, 2018 at 1:22 PM ^

I laid it all out for my kids a few weeks ago - my oldest will be a HS freshman next year and is killing it so far she should have solid options. After what I told them I'd be surprised if Staee was one of their first choices.  It was as much out of concern for my kids going to a school that they feel safe as it was for my dislike of Staee.

HailHail47

April 8th, 2018 at 1:22 PM ^

First this is an incredibly tragic story, I can’t even imagine being the parent going through this.

I’m not quite sure what to make of all this from a macro perspective. It doesn’t surprise me that this scam occurred in Florida, which is probably the scam capital of the US.

Many of these prescription drugs are over-prescribed, which I don’t think is a coincidence due to the money incentives. The onus is on the doctors to use far greater discretion when writing these prescriptions. There is a legitimate need for these drugs in moderation. The trouble with that is that people will sell on the black market, but at least the initial supply would be reduced.

On rehab, I have to think that these kinds of scams will get cleaned up over time. There are people who do good work in this field, and they don’t want their reputation ruined by shit like this.

arrowhead

April 8th, 2018 at 1:24 PM ^

on this very subject. Costa Mesa, Malibu and Lake Arrowhead are big draws for these homes that preportedly do a service. Strike another for Obamacare by making the insurance companies pay for treatment. Insurers are slowing payments and slowly strangling the Lake Arrowhead homes. In fact, I know an operator of these homes. His last career was in construction.