Rosenberg: After pain became a "vital sign," the field of "addiction medicine" was born.
Golbom: The drugs to treat OxyContin addiction like buprenorphine, sold as Suboxone, are opioid derivatives that are 10 to 20 times stronger than OxyContin. After 8 hours of training, addiction specialists have a wonderful revenue stream. MAT--medication-assisted treatment--has doubled Pharma's revenue.
OxyContin addiction also drives other drug sales. To quote the medical director behind the Muckler opioid marketing in my book, "People are hooked on OxyXR and the psychiatrists are diagnosing them as either depressed or bi-polar. If I took an OxyXR for a month I'd be depressed too. With the diagnosis of addiction as a disease, psychiatrists salivate knowing a five minute office call every month is in the future."
Very early in its marketing of OxyXR, the Mucklers draw a line in the sand between "used as prescribed" and "abuse" to insulate the company from the growing thousands of deaths. By dismissing the overdose casualties and addicts as "abusers," they are able to maintain that OxyXR is the leading "pain reliever" with no safety issues if used as prescribed.
Rosenberg: Do you feel your book will be an eye-opener to many because of its spell-binding story and make a difference?
Golbom: I think the older generation is pretty hopeless. They have been duped into our present drug culture. The baby boomers have bought into the powerful "drugs for everyone" Pharma message whether it's the use of statins and GERD medicines, mood drugs or opioid-based pain pills. But I hope the younger generation can escape our present day drug culture.
For example, the long-term effects of the ADHD drugs millions of children are prescribed are dangerous and starting to emerge. One promoter of ADHD meds recently developed atrial fibrillation, a possible side effect from the powerful amphetamines parents pour down their children's throats. The effects of the SSRI depressants millions are on are also shocking--they are linked to bizarre homicides and suicides, including among young people in the military. In the last decades, people addicted to drugs no longer go to mental health facilities which have been shut down--they increasingly go to prison.
We are also experiencing a huge autism epidemic which clearly has outside factors since I doubt our gene pool has changed.
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