The enormous Rand Corporation just issued a 265-page report discussing how and why fentanyl is plaguing the United States. Interesting stuff, but "itsy bitsy" ACSH was all over this years ago. See for yourself.
Policy & Ethics
Oklahoma now has 572 million extra dollars, thanks to a judge's ruling that Johnson & Johnson was partly responsible for the so-called opioid crisis. Other states will follow and J&J will cough up a bunch of money, regardless of whether the company did anything wrong or not. Other companies will be hit as well. Meanwhile, ponder these questions: Why would any company sell opioids from now on? And what will this mean for you?
Can we forget past misdeeds? If you have done the crime (and the time) are you forgiven? Or do you continue to carry that baggage? Forgetting is a topic journalists and hospital credential committees have been grappling with for some time.
Irrespective of whether you believe Roundup or opioids demand corporate liability, it is worth considering how corporations shift liability to others while attempting to retain their profits.
Who is the "decider?" For glyphosate, the EPA claims authority over California. But for a growing list of concerns, are small minorities demonstrating influence and control over the desires of the majority?
The University of California-San Francisco has become a strange place. While the university certainly hosts faculty doing world-class research, simultaneously it has become the academic home for conspiracy theorists, including anti-vaxxers and anti-biotech activists.
The protection of intellectual property is vital to innovation. If anyone can just take something you created -- be it a song or a drug -- without proper compensation, there would be little reason to develop anything new. That, however, is predicated upon innovators playing fairly. In other words, they cannot seek patent protection for things that are not patentable. Yet, some pharmaceutical companies are doing just that.
Consolidation in healthcare is not limited to hospitals or pharmacies. Medical practices are consolidating, too. But more worrisome is the arrival of private equity. They are predators hollowing out companies (like Toys R Us, leaving the shell to be cleaned up by others). Is that what we want for medical practices?
Do we act one way at work and another at home? Are ethics part of our personality or more situational? A new study offers some insight, at least based on our cheatin' heart.
Dr. Jeffrey Singer (pictured) is one of the brave physicians on the front line in the battle against anti-opioid madness. He graciously gave us permission to reprint his recent Cato Institute blog post. It speaks directly to the role of government in determining who gets what pain medicine, and how much. Dr. Singer addresses just this as he explains why Sen. Robert Portman (R-OH) went way off the deep end, proposing a national three-day limit on opioid prescriptions following surgery -- evidence be damned.
A new study tells us that since Florida passed a law restricting post-surgical opioid prescriptions, there are fewer post-surgical opioid prescriptions being written. This and other brilliance. Ripe for the picking.
It's not often that a politician is openly pro-GMO, particularly in Europe. But the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom just praised genetic modification in his first speech to Parliament.