The pharmaceutical industry has very little fear of repercussions and the best example may be how OxyContin competes for sales with black market heroin. OxyContin is a synthetic opiate that is supposed to be prescribed strictly for severe pain. As you may remember, OxyContin used to be the drug of choice for the former drug war advocate Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh’s story clearly touches upon some of the hypocritical aspects of the drug war. Mind you, he was a fully functional drug addict who harmed no one but himself, like thousands and maybe millions of other Americans, and didn’t need to be arrested. Yet, in 2003 he criticized “liberal judges” and supported mandatory minimum sentences just months before he announced to his radio audience that
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Their business was concentrated in Florida because the state didn’t have a prescription drug monitoring program until late 2010. In fact, of the top 50 physicians who prescribed OxyContin all 50 were in Florida. This activity was even more concentrated than you may imagine. To demonstrate, merely four pharmacy locations in Florida sold 12 million OxyContin pills over a three year period. Florida pharmacies essentially served as a wholesaler of black market OxyContin throughout the U.S. Likewise, addicts were able to “doctor shop” by traveling from clinic to clinic and purchase as much supplies as legally possible in each location. OxyContin was distributed in Florida pain clinics, informally known as pill mills, that often only accepted cash, didn’t accept insurance, were equipped with security guards, and were in many cases owned by ex-convicts. One report mentioned that the lines were so long that employees could make $1,000 a week in “tips” by moving people to front of the …show more content…
Many politicians have demonstrated no compassion with this issue because they were never arrested for their past drug use. For instance, it seems quite unlikely that Barack Obama would have become the first black President of the United States if he had been arrested for cocaine and marijuana, both of which he has admittedly used. In fact, Obama was reportedly such a weed aficionado that he mandated “Total Absorption” or “TA” when smoking among his group of close friends. According to David Maraniss, an Obama biographer, if someone didn’t fully absorb their hit off of a joint, they “were assessed a penalty” and their “turn was skipped the next time the joint came
Their business was concentrated in Florida because the state didn’t have a prescription drug monitoring program until late 2010. In fact, of the top 50 physicians who prescribed OxyContin all 50 were in Florida. This activity was even more concentrated than you may imagine. To demonstrate, merely four pharmacy locations in Florida sold 12 million OxyContin pills over a three year period. Florida pharmacies essentially served as a wholesaler of black market OxyContin throughout the U.S. Likewise, addicts were able to “doctor shop” by traveling from clinic to clinic and purchase as much supplies as legally possible in each location. OxyContin was distributed in Florida pain clinics, informally known as pill mills, that often only accepted cash, didn’t accept insurance, were equipped with security guards, and were in many cases owned by ex-convicts. One report mentioned that the lines were so long that employees could make $1,000 a week in “tips” by moving people to front of the …show more content…
Many politicians have demonstrated no compassion with this issue because they were never arrested for their past drug use. For instance, it seems quite unlikely that Barack Obama would have become the first black President of the United States if he had been arrested for cocaine and marijuana, both of which he has admittedly used. In fact, Obama was reportedly such a weed aficionado that he mandated “Total Absorption” or “TA” when smoking among his group of close friends. According to David Maraniss, an Obama biographer, if someone didn’t fully absorb their hit off of a joint, they “were assessed a penalty” and their “turn was skipped the next time the joint came