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TexasTowelie

(111,287 posts)
Tue Jan 30, 2018, 03:02 AM Jan 2018

Drug firms shipped 20.8M pain pills to West Virginia town with 2,900 people

Over the past decade, out-of-state drug companies shipped 20.8 million prescription painkillers to two pharmacies four blocks apart in a Southern West Virginia town with 2,900 people, according to a congressional committee investigating the opioid crisis.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee cited the massive shipments of hydrocodone and oxycodone — two powerful painkillers — to the town of Williamson, in Mingo County, amid the panel’s inquiry into the role of drug distributors in the opioid epidemic.

“These numbers are outrageous, and we will get to the bottom of how this destruction was able to be unleashed across West Virginia,” said committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and ranking member Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., in a joint statement.

The panel recently sent letters to regional drug wholesalers Miami-Luken and H.D. Smith, asking why the companies increased painkiller shipments and didn’t flag suspicious drug orders from pharmacies while overdose deaths were surging across West Virginia.

Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/health/drug-firms-shipped-m-pain-pills-to-wv-town-with/article_ef04190c-1763-5a0c-a77a-7da0ff06455b.html

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Drug firms shipped 20.8M pain pills to West Virginia town with 2,900 people (Original Post) TexasTowelie Jan 2018 OP
Doing a rough calculation... KY_EnviroGuy Jan 2018 #1
Two men were just arrested for buying enough to kill 18 million BigmanPigman Jan 2018 #2
Meanwhile.. Kittycow Jan 2018 #3
Uhhh....guys... jmowreader Jan 2018 #4

KY_EnviroGuy

(14,483 posts)
1. Doing a rough calculation...
Tue Jan 30, 2018, 05:07 AM
Jan 2018

that comes to approximately 20 pills per day per person over 365 days a year for every man, woman and child in that town. We all know that's impossible, so this stuff is being scripted out over a large area and into multiple states.

Similar number were shown for some other towns and counties in the state.

(snip - from article)
"The state has the highest drug overdose death rate in the nation. More than 880 people fatally overdosed in West Virginia in 2016.

------------------------

One part of the article that almost makes me ill is the fact that the distributors involved have been fined a couple of times, but the fines are just peanuts compared to the revenue they've made with these sales.

This probably is also a sign of the economic destitution these ex-coal mining areas are suffering.

.....................

Kittycow

(2,396 posts)
3. Meanwhile..
Tue Jan 30, 2018, 05:30 AM
Jan 2018

legit chronic intractable pain patients are paying the price across the nation with Dr Government micro-managing our cases. The government didn't waste any time bringing the hammer down on us, resulting in increased suffering and in the worst cases, documented suicides due to not being able to stand the untreated pain.

What really galls me is that the companies that flooded this little town will just get a big fine when persons responsible should go to prison. But the government probably hasn't gotten around to making any laws about that yet.

(Just my opinion on the legalities; I'm in too much pain to look it up at the moment :/

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