The Opioid Crisis: How Pharmaceutical Companies Created an Epidemic

More than 130 people die every day in the USA from opioid overdoses. An estimated 500,000 have died since the late 1990s. It is the most severe drug crisis in US history – set off not by criminal drug dealers, but by the pharmaceutical industry.

OxyContin and the Sackler family

In 1996 Purdue Pharma brought OxyContin to market. Purdue claimed the extended-release formulation made the medication less liable to cause dependence. The FDA initially let that claim stand. Both assertions were false.

The marketing model

Thousands of sales representatives visited physicians and care facilities. Doctors who prescribed heavily received paid “training sessions” at luxury resorts. Prescribing rates and physician profiles were monitored systematically. OxyContin prescriptions rose from 300,000 in 1996 to more than 7 million in 2002.

From the pill to the street

When prescribing was restricted, people who were already dependent switched to cheaper heroin. When heroin was targeted, synthetic fentanyl flooded the market – 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. The result: today's fentanyl crisis.

The legal consequences

In 2019 Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy. The Sackler family paid billions – without a criminal conviction. Other companies (Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health) also paid billions. No executives were convicted.

Why this is relevant to kratom

People living with chronic pain, wanting to come off opioids or looking for a way out of the crisis come from a health system that made them dependent and then dropped them. That explains the context in which the kratom debate takes place.

Legal notice

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Its content is not intended to encourage consumption. Laws may change; the applicable regulations and information from official bodies are authoritative. Image source: https://www.kratoein.com/

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