Fentanyl washed upon our shores several decades ago, as China White. Today, the fentanyl market has more of a Breaking Bad vibe. A thorough study by the Rand Corporation suggests that fentanyl is a whole quantum different from the opioid crisis narrative.
opioid crisis
Proposed guidelines for physicians from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommend screening everyone over the age of 18 for drug use. Mind you, that's without having evidence of benefit or harm. Can the reasoning "it can't hurt" be an acceptable justification for the move?
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.
Opioid hysteria is not confined to the U.S. or Canada. A British group writing for the BBC manages to get all the usual stuff -- and then some -- wrong. So here's a deal: We keep baseball, they keep cricket, and we both stop writing idiotic, misleading papers on the phony "opioid crisis." Jolly good idea if you ask us!
The CDC just released "Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts," which seems to imply that opioid overdose deaths are falling for the first time. Some will doubtlessly take credit for ending the opioid crisis. But they shouldn't.
The state of Oklahoma is smelling blood in the water -- and it's going after blood money. State Attorney General Mike Hunter has a very big "blood donor" in his sights: Johnson & Johnson. The expert witness for the state is (of course) Andrew Kolodny. Is Kolodny qualified? These 8 questions should be posed to him.
This is what the CDC is proposing because binge drinkers tend to abuse opioids. But that makes no sense. It would be like adding a special tax to automobiles because some people drive them at 100 mph.
A Pew Research Center article, "Rapid Opioid Cutoff Is Risky Too, Feds Warn" takes an honest look at the suffering created by the radical, misguided anti-opioid jihad. It's a shame that its author, Christine Vestal, also included quotes from Andrew Kolodny, who denies the mess that he and his friends made while claiming that very few patients were "inappropriately tapered." Like herpes infection, Kolodny never goes away.
Dr. Kolodny (1) has a long history of spreading misinformation about the opioid crisis; (2) insults chronic pain patients; (3) profits handsomely from doing so; and (4) calls everyone who disagrees with him an industry shill. The good doctor's version of compassion actually comes with poor bedside manner and a hefty price tag.
The self-proclaimed expert on opioids and addiction "agreed" to sit down with me and answer some tough questions about his background, medical insight and plans for the future. (Keep in mind that this "interview" took place on April 1.)
As winter rolls into spring, we here at ACSH are springing ahead with our pro-science agenda. (Did you see what we did there?) From Fox Business to the Financial Times, here are the places we appeared in recent days.
Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, have some 'splaining to do. It would seem as if the company is using some unsavory marketing tactics to boost sales of its product. How so? For starters, the company has informed us that Tylenol is not an opioid. Who knew? What's the reason behind this odd claim? Better keep reading.