34. "Fucking Purdue." In response to In response to 33 Sat May-07-16 06:21 AM by denny
They are the great enemy here. I watched a great doc on their introduction of oxycontin to the market. They actually paid to give seminars in med schools and claimed oxycontin wasn't addictive. All expenses paid conference weekends for thousands of practitioners. Free samples for doctors to try on patients. Sales grew from $48 million in 1996 to almost $1.1 billion in 2000. An unprecedented, aggressive marketing campaign. Specifically, the original promotional material claimed the risk of addiction was 'less than 1%'....or only 1 out of 100 people who use it will get addicted. What a fucking joke. The argument, at the time, was that oxycontin was not as addictive as percocet because they were designed with time-release. So take away the sudden rush and spread the high over a number of hours....not addictive anymore. Or so they said.
They had doctors prescribing 80mg oxycontin tablets to people complaining about a sore back. For some perspective....one of those tablets contain the same amount of oxycodone of 16 percocet. Those are the tablets that sell on the street for 50 or 60 bucks a pop. Of course...people got around the time-release thing (which was a bullshit argument in the first place) by crushing them and either snorting or shooting them. But eating them like they're designed for is just as bad in terms of addiction.
What they've done is criminal imo. There should be class-action lawsuits up their ass.