Harvard Medical School professor Bertha Madras said on Tuesday that the opioid crisis has its roots in the international drug trade, calling it an "epidemic of poisoning by international entities."
"The trans-shipment of fentanyl into our country has really made the opioid crisis far more dramatic, far more drastic than we've ever seen before," Madras, who serves on President Trump's commission on combatting the opioid crisis, told Hill.TV's Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on "Rising."
Madras said the issue began after the U.S. pharmaceutical industry pushed the idea that opioids could safely cure chronic pain.
"After that, when the controls began to tighten on the supply of opioids, there was a shift toward heroin, and then the producers in China began to produce a much more potent form [of] opioid, which is fentanyl," she continued. "Since 2013, it has been fentanyl that is developing the lion's share of causes of death."
"We now have an epidemic of poisoning by international entities, international drug cartels, and that's one of the biggest problems we have currently," she said.
ETC...
What the author gets wrong is the wording. Chronic Pain is NOT the same as INTRACTABLE PAIN. Chronic pain can have alternative treatments. INTRACTABLE PAIN is 24.7.365 for the rest of your life.
Intractable pain, also known as Intractable Pain Disease or IP, is a severe, constant pain that is not curable by any known means and which causes a bed or house-bound state and early death if not adequately treated, usually with opioids and/or interventional procedures.
Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts at least 12 weeks. The pain may feel sharp or dull, causing a burning or aching sensation in the affected areas. It may be steady or intermittent, coming and going without any apparent reason. Chronic pain can occur in nearly any part of your body. The pain can feel different in the various affected areas. CHRONIC pain is Temporary.
This whole "opioid crisis" is a farce. People need pain meds. Somehow the politicians have demonized legitimate prescription drugs because of a few junkies who will take anything.
The real issue is the illegal heroin, fentanyl, carfentanyl, and their various derivatives which are flowing into this country like sewer water from China and Mexico.
For some reason the legitimate prescription medication is intentionally getting lumped in with all the illegal stuff and being called a crisis. Yeah, it's a crisis of illegal stuff!
So to all those people who argue that the war on drugs is a big failure, why is it that places like Singapore, China, Malaysia, and many other countries don't have this rampant illegal drug problem? It couldn't be because they don't toy around with users and dealers, could it?
This is all rubbish.
When I worked in London, we used diacetyl morphine (heroin) all the time for pain, it’s quite effective and lasts a bit longer than morphine sulfate.
The problem with drug addicts is not the drug. It’s the pain they use the drugs to treat. Physical pain, sometimes, psychological pain 95% of the time.
In our current state, we are grinding out damaged people faster than we can help them.