2b. Write down five statements from your research (sources).

then write some commentary that

responds to, or challenges, or embroiders upon, or adds to, or offers a bit of relevant information that's
missing--or any other kind of commentary--for each statement.

1.The opioid crisis wouldn’t be nearly as bad, where it is today, if it weren’t for
pill mills like these,” said David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation and a former police chief in Knoxville whose officers helped
investigate the clinics
(https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-pill-mills-linked-to-hundreds-of-deaths-20190614-story.html

Easy access to pills is one contributing factor, but probably not the only reason overdose deaths have
increased so heavily. Things like synthetic Opioids have also played a huge factor in overdoses post
2007. (https://www.kff.org/infographic/medicaids-role-in-addressing-opioid-epidemic/)

2.Hunter accuses Johnson & Johnson of joining with other companies to create
a false narrative of an epidemic of untreated pain in the US to which opioids were the
solution, in part by funding front organizations such as the American Pain Society.
The strategy helped drive a surge in opioid prescribing as narcotic painkillers
ballooned into a multibillion-dollar-a-year market.
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/22/johnson-and-johnson-opioids-crisis-lawsuit-latest-trial)

There are lots of different ways to manage pain, and opiates seem to be the most profitable and easiest,
which made them the easier to push in the United States. Many other management strategies could be
attempted before dangerous drugs are used.

“More than 30% of Americans have some form of acute or chronic pain.1,2 Among older adults, the
prevalence of chronic pain is more than 40%.2 Given the prevalence of chronic pain and its often
disabling effects, it is not surprising that opioid analgesics are now the most commonly prescribed class
of medications in the United States. “
(https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1507771)

3.The first wave began in 1991 when deaths involving opioids began to rise
following a sharp increase in the prescribing of opioid and opioid-combination
medications for the treatment of pain. The increase in opioid prescriptions was
influenced by reassurances given to prescribers by pharmaceutical companies and
medical societies claiming that the risk of addiction to prescription opioids was very
low.
(https://www.poison.org/articles/opioid-epidemic-history-and-prescribing-patterns-182)

“Medical prescriptions for opioids started to increase sharply in the mid-to late 1990s (NIDA, 2014).
Shortly thereafter, nonmedical opioid use also started to increase markedly, reaching a peak of 2.7
million new users in 2002”
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK458661/)
“In one study, about 80 percent of current heroin users reported that they began with prescription
opioids (Muhuri et al., 2013). Therefore, the public health effects of prescription opioids and heroin are
intertwined (Kolodny et al., 2015). “
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK458661/

4. The ensuing raids, telephone wiretaps and criminal charges against 140
people provide an unparalleled autopsy of how a handful of pill mills exacerbated the
nation’s opioid epidemic during a critical early period in its history.
(https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-pill-mills-linked-to-hundreds-of-deaths-20190614-story.html)

Most doctors were not as blatant as the ones in the article in regards to prescribing pills, but most who
were practicing from the 1990-2015ish have some part of blame in the astronomically high perscription
rates

“After a steady increase in the overall national opioid prescribing rate starting in 2006, the total
number of prescriptions dispensed peaked in 2012 at more than 255 million and a prescribing rate of
81.3 prescriptions per 100 persons.”
(https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/maps/rxrate-maps.html)

5.However, two major facts can no longer be questioned. First, opioid

analgesics are widely diverted and improperly used, and the widespread use of the
drugs has resulted in a national epidemic of opioid overdose deaths and addictions.
More than a third (37%) of the 44,000 drug-overdose deaths that were reported in
2013 (the most recent year for which estimates are available) were attributable to
pharmaceutical opioids; heroin accounted for an additional 19%. At the same time,
there has been a parallel increase in the rate of opioid addiction, affecting
approximately 2.5 million adults in 2014.9 Second, the major source of diverted
opioids is physician prescriptions.10,11 For these reasons, physicians and medical
associations have begun questioning prescribing practices for opioids, particularly as
they relate to the management of chronic pain.
(https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1507771)

It's important to note in the story, that prescription rates are dropping as the issue becomes more
prominent and looked at. Some counties in the U.S have opiate prescriptions that are 7 times higher
then average.

“The overall national opioid prescribing rate declined from 2012 to 2017, and in 2017, the prescribing
rate had fallen to the lowest it had been in more than 10 years at 58.7 prescriptions per 100 persons “
(https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/maps/rxrate-maps.html)

“However, in 2017, prescribing rates continue to remain very high in certain areas across the country.
• In 16% of U.S. counties, enough opioid prescriptions were dispensed for every person to have
one.
 • While the overall opioid prescribing rate in 2017 was 58.7 prescriptions per 100 people, some
counties had rates that were seven times higher than that. “
(https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/maps/rxrate-maps.html)