The Daily Blog Open Mic – Saturday 20th May 2017

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1. “Genocide by Prescription”: Drug Induced Death in America

   http://www.globalresearch.ca/genocide-by-prescription-drug-induced-death-in-america/5535449

   …”In the last few years, scores of thousands of Americas have died prematurely because of drug overdoses or toxic drug interactions, mostly related to narcotic pain medications prescribed by doctors and other providers. Among those who have increasingly died of illegal opioid, mostly heroin, fentanyl and methadone, overdose, the vast majority first became addicted to the powerful synthetic opioids prescribed by the medical community, supplied by big chain pharmacies and manufactured at incredible profit margins by the leading pharmaceutical companies. In essence, this epidemic has been promoted, subsidized and protected by the government at all levels and reflects the protection of a profit-maximizing private medical-pharmaceutical market gone wild…

   ‘Doctor faces action over morphine deaths of elderly patients
   Dr Jane Barton, who is at the centre of a police investigation into the deaths of nearly 100 elderly patients, faces being struck off the medical register for prescribing excessive doses of painkillers.’

   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/7005394/Doctor-faces-action-over-morphine-deaths-of-elderly-patients.html

   ‘Deaths from opioid overdoses have jumped — and one age group is being affected at stark rates’

   http://www.businessinsider.com/opioid-overdose-death-statistics-2017-2016/?r=AU&IR=T

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2. ‘Big Pharma’s anti-marijuana stance aims to squash the competition, activists say’

   –“Pharmaceutical company Insys spent $500,000 to block legalization in Arizona. Five months later it won approval for a cannabis-derived medical drug”

   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/03/big-pharma-marijuana-competition-insys-arizona

   …”What’s more, Insys also manufacturers fentanyl, a painkiller that is 50 times stronger than heroin and has a deadly track record. In December, six former Insys executives were arrested for allegedly bribing doctors to prescribe fentanyl to patients who didn’t need it.

   Insys’s association with the opiate crisis makes its efforts to thwart regulated marijuana use all the more alarming, critics said…

   https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/oct/22/recreational-marijuana-legalization-big-business

   http://bettergeorgia.org/2017/02/18/blame-big-pharma-for-regressive-medical-marijuana-policies/

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3. So who says doctors are always ethical?…and does this happen in New Zealand?

   “California Senate votes to limit gifts to doctors from pharma companies’

   https://www.rt.com/usa/389012-california-doctors-gifts-pharmaceutical/

   …”McGuire said while the “vast majority” of medical professionals put their patients first, there are bad actors in the field.

   “[G]rowing evidence reveals that financial relationships between some physicians and pharmaceutical companies confirm what has been suspected – financial incentives change minds,” he said, according to KRCR.

   A recent study by the University of California-San Francisco found that doctors who receive pharma gifts are two to three times likely to prescribe name-brand drugs at higher costs than generic drugs.

   McGuire said that, in 2014, physicians in California were the recipients of more gifts and payments from pharma companies than in any other state.

   “Current voluntary efforts are not enough. California physicians and medical professionals lead the nation in the number of gifts taken, over $1.4 billion in 2014,” he said, according to KRCR…

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