WaPo's explosive investigation of the flow of opioid pills

[Anonymous]

Really surprised this hasn't gotten any traction here. Basically the Post uncovered and analyzed data that big pharma and the government had wanted to keep under wraps, because it reveals the path of every opioid pill in the country, and it's not pretty - it reveals how the big pharma companies flooded the country with opioids and wherever they were shipped in large quantities to be peddled by pharmacies such as CVS and Walmart, that's where deaths increased. This was an engineered crisis.

This is what excellent journalism does - exposes nefarious things that the rich and powerful have tried to suppress and keep secret. When can we expect the president to voice his appreciation for this remarkable reveal by Post reporters, given how he likes to say that the opioid crisis is near and dear to him?

Surely all of you who bash the main stream media can acknowledge that this is an important piece of journalism and congratulate the Post on its fine work.

And yes, I am making this two topics - one about the opioid crisis. And the other about the demonizing of the main stream media by certain factions as the "enemy of the people." In fact they are an integral part of our democracy. Hat's off to yet another investigative scoop by the Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/opioid-death-rates-soared-in-communities-where-pain-pills-flowed/2019/07/17/f3595da4-a8a4-11e9-a3a6-ab670962db05_story.html?utm_term=.16587e9dc404

Death rates from opioids soared in the towns, cities and counties that were saturated with billions of prescription pain pills from 2006 through 2012, according to government death data and a previously undisclosed database of opioid shipments made public this week.

The highest per capita death rates nationwide from opioids during those years were in rural communities in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. In those seven years, those communities also were flooded with a disproportionate share of the 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills from some of the country’s largest drug companies, an analysis by The Washington Post reveals.

The national death rate from opioids was 4.6 deaths per 100,000 residents. But the counties that had the most pills distributed per person experienced more than three times that rate on average. Thirteen of those counties had an opioid death rate more than eight times the national rate, according to the government data. Seven of them were in West Virginia.

[Anonymous]

No one on the Acela corridor cares about the opioid crisis. It’s kind of like the polio epidemic in Pakistan. Sad, yes, but a world away.

[Anonymous]

I agree that it is an excellent series.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one on the Acela corridor cares about the opioid crisis. It’s kind of like the polio epidemic in Pakistan. Sad, yes, but a world away.

This is untrue. There are people who live in DC who know people who died in this crisis. People care but it is a huge complex problem that needs real action but Americans care more about illegal immigration. This is what the GOP decided to fixate on. (Notice I didn’t say fix because they have made it worse.)

[Anonymous]

Why were poor areas the focus? I guess I answered that myself. Don’t want to politicize this but most are very red, rural areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that it is an excellent series.

+1

It’s a shame the political monkeys aren’t concerned with this actual crisis.

[Anonymous]

I read it- excellent reporting. I'm sad that many in the comments blame these communities for their own problems. It's smug- these companies have made money off of the despair and pain of poor people.

[Anonymous]

Have they blamed Trump yet? No? I'll return in 5...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read it- excellent reporting. I'm sad that many in the comments blame these communities for their own problems. It's smug- these companies have made money off of the despair and pain of poor people.

If you read this forum on a regular or semi-regular basis, you will see that those here blame these communities. I can't tell you how many times posters will smugly refer to the "drug addicts in rural America" or the "opioid-addicted red states."

This thread is an example of the disdain folks on this forum have for those addicted.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/735305.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have they blamed Trump yet? No? I'll return in 5...

He is the president right now and could be pursuing punishing these people. But will he? Would he do something useful?

I guess it’s back to telling brown Americans to go back home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have they blamed Trump yet? No? I'll return in 5...

He is the president right now and could be pursuing punishing these people. But will he? Would he do something useful?

I guess it’s back to telling brown Americans to go back home.

Well, I'm sure as soon as he says or does something, it will be deemed offensive and hurtfull and will be condemned by our beloved media. Followed by yet another impeachment motion, to much joy of DCUM?

[Anonymous]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/opioids/

Yes, Trump totally ignores it. /sarcasm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have they blamed Trump yet? No? I'll return in 5...

He is the president right now and could be pursuing punishing these people. But will he? Would he do something useful?

I guess it’s back to telling brown Americans to go back home.

Well, I'm sure as soon as he says or does something, it will be deemed offensive and hurtfull and will be condemned by our beloved media. Followed by yet another impeachment motion, to much joy of DCUM?

Exactly. And, then, a lawsuit will be brought claiming discrimination of some kind or other. Or, charging that he has no authority to take action. Oh, and he will be called racist for doing it.
It's all very predictable at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.whitehouse.gov/opioids/

Yes, Trump totally ignores it. /sarcasm

1. He’s doing great with Part 1! Now how about Part 2?
2. Maybe tell him, as one of his followers, to stop focusing on division and start talking about this instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one on the Acela corridor cares about the opioid crisis. It’s kind of like the polio epidemic in Pakistan. Sad, yes, but a world away.

This is untrue. There are people who live in DC who know people who died in this crisis. People care but it is a huge complex problem that needs real action but Americans care more about illegal immigration. This is what the GOP decided to fixate on. (Notice I didn’t say fix because they have made it worse.)

We're in a weird state where it's clear to most people that there is some sort of drug crisis going on and our cities are increasingly filled with homeless people, who are increasingly young white people, with drug problems. But at the same time there's very little initiative to try to address the problem. The Republicans won't do anything because they don't care about poor people and believe them to be responsible for their own failures. The Demcorats won't do anything because it's white, not people of color, who are affected and the Democrats also don't like poor people either, which we clearly see in the utter failure of Democratic leadership to make any meaningful change in areas of deeply entrenched poverty in places like Baltimore. They'd rather spend their time writing pseudo-intellectual articles on some racial bogeyman as the origin of all problems rather than actually tackle the real roots of the problems behind opoids and other drugs.