Life Expectancy Falls Again, First Consecutive Drop Since 1962-1963

[Tugg Speedman]

Article says US life expectancy fell for the second consecutive year, something that has not happened since 1962-1963.  The primary reason is opioid overdoses that are killing people early.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/health/us-life-expectancy-study/index.html

And this from today's Barron's, it's devastating....

http://www.barrons.com/article_email/a-lesson-from-the-opioid-crisis-1514001531-lMyQjA1MTI3NDI1MzgyMzM2Wj

On Sun­day, Dec. 17, I sat at home and watched 60 Min­utes. My heart sank. The show fea­tured an in­ves­tiga­tive re­port put to­gether by CBS and the Wash­ing­ton Post about McKesson. (The news­pa­per pub­lished a story the same day.) The show al­leged that U.S. Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra-tion agents be­lieved that in 2014 McKesson failed to re­port, as the Post story wrote, "sus­pi­cious or­ders in­volv­ing mil­lions of highly ad­dic­tive painkillers sent to drugstores" in var­i­ous parts of the U.S., some to cor­rupt phar­ma­cies that sup­plied crim­i­nal drug rings.

At the heart of this re­port is the in­creas­ingly risky busi­ness of dis­trib­ut­ing opi­oids, highly ad­dic­tive painkillers that have per­fectly le­git­i­mate uses when pre­scribed, dis­tributed, and used prop­erly. Opi­oids, how-ever, are also fu­el­ing one of the worst pub­lic health crises the U.S. has ever seen. Opi­oids, in­clud­ing pre­scrip­tion opi­oids, killed more than 33,000 peo­ple in 2015 alone, ac­cord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion.

McKesson pushed back ag­gres­sively, say­ing it "ve­hemently de­nies any crim­i­nal in­tent or the vi­o­la­tion of any crim­i­nal law in our han­dling of opi­oids, and in our dis­cus­sions with the gov­ern­ment, they never sug­gested they be­lieved oth­er­wise." Opi­oids ac­count for only a frac­tion of its sales, and it's hardly alone. Dis­trib­u­tors are one link in a chain of ac­count­abil­ity that in­cludes doc­tors, phar­ma­cies, and law en­force­ment. More­over, it's a gi­ant com­pany with a mul­ti­tude of prod­ucts sold to myr­iad cus­tomers, large and small, well-known and ob­scure. How much re­spon­si­bil­ity does a com­pany have to en­sure that its cus­tomers, or the cus­tomers of its cus­tomers, be­have in an ap­pro­pri­ate way?

——————-

In the other thread we grave people worried that drug dealers will use bitcoin/cryptos.

Here will have a legal drug company that acted irresponsibly and it lowered the freaking like expectancy of the entire country!

[tower912]

Mentioned in the daily dose of doom thread.   The opioid stuff is real.   I ran a call on one guy died after getting saved by narcan earlier in the day and overdosing a second time.    My medium size department has already administered narcan over 200 times this year.   Two years ago, we would run through a checklist and then get to narcan.   Now, to a man, when we hear certain details of the call we default to the notion of an overdose and then work away from that if the symptoms are wrong. 

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

This is kinda why I think all drugs should be legalized or at least decriminalized.

If it is controlled, opioids and whatever else you wanna throw in there won't be cut with such potent/dangerous stuff.

Plus you can tax it at a really high rate and put that money into rehabilitation facilities.

[Herman Cain]

Article says US life expectancy fell for the second consecutive year, something that has not happened since 1962-1963.  The primary reason is opioid overdoses that are killing people early.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/health/us-life-expectancy-study/index.html

And this from today's Barron's, it's devastating....

http://www.barrons.com/article_email/a-lesson-from-the-opioid-crisis-1514001531-lMyQjA1MTI3NDI1MzgyMzM2Wj

On Sun­day, Dec. 17, I sat at home and watched 60 Min­utes. My heart sank. The show fea­tured an in­ves­tiga­tive re­port put to­gether by CBS and the Wash­ing­ton Post about McKesson. (The news­pa­per pub­lished a story the same day.) The show al­leged that U.S. Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra-tion agents be­lieved that in 2014 McKesson failed to re­port, as the Post story wrote, "sus­pi­cious or­ders in­volv­ing mil­lions of highly ad­dic­tive painkillers sent to drugstores" in var­i­ous parts of the U.S., some to cor­rupt phar­ma­cies that sup­plied crim­i­nal drug rings.

At the heart of this re­port is the in­creas­ingly risky busi­ness of dis­trib­ut­ing opi­oids, highly ad­dic­tive painkillers that have per­fectly le­git­i­mate uses when pre­scribed, dis­tributed, and used prop­erly. Opi­oids, how-ever, are also fu­el­ing one of the worst pub­lic health crises the U.S. has ever seen. Opi­oids, in­clud­ing pre­scrip­tion opi­oids, killed more than 33,000 peo­ple in 2015 alone, ac­cord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion.

McKesson pushed back ag­gres­sively, say­ing it "ve­hemently de­nies any crim­i­nal in­tent or the vi­o­la­tion of any crim­i­nal law in our han­dling of opi­oids, and in our dis­cus­sions with the gov­ern­ment, they never sug­gested they be­lieved oth­er­wise." Opi­oids ac­count for only a frac­tion of its sales, and it's hardly alone. Dis­trib­u­tors are one link in a chain of ac­count­abil­ity that in­cludes doc­tors, phar­ma­cies, and law en­force­ment. More­over, it's a gi­ant com­pany with a mul­ti­tude of prod­ucts sold to myr­iad cus­tomers, large and small, well-known and ob­scure. How much re­spon­si­bil­ity does a com­pany have to en­sure that its cus­tomers, or the cus­tomers of its cus­tomers, be­have in an ap­pro­pri­ate way?

——————-

In the other thread we grave people worried that drug dealers will use bitcoin/cryptos.

Here will have a legal drug company that acted irresponsibly and it lowered the freaking like expectancy of the entire country!

This is a telling sign as to how bad the drug crisis is . We have a huge country and to impact life expectancy there has to be a lot of deaths.  No easy answers on this. Prevention has to be at the top of any plan.

[MU82]

All we have to do is build a wall around all the white, male, drug-company CEOs ... and make McKesson pay for it.

Life expectancy problem solved. You're welcome!

[4everwarriors]

Nah, make all opiods in da shape of a brown donkey. Dat wey, dey all no deyer eatin' chit, hey?

[Tugg Speedman]

All we have to do is build a wall around all the white, male, drug-company CEOs ... and make McKesson pay for it.

Life expectancy problem solved. You're welcome!

MU82 ... don't read this about the McKesson CEO, it will ruin your evening

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/06/08/mckesson-ceo-slashes-price-on-orinda-home.html

He graduated from Xavier

[Marquette Gyros]

Must read article about Purdue Pharma and the origins of the opioid crisis.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain

Plenty of blame to pass around but McKesson's culpability pales in comparison to Purdue's.

[GGGG]

The thing with McKesson is that there are rules put in place to prevent from occurring what actually occurred.  Yet money and political connections basically made the punishment a slap on the wrist.  I could make a political statement regarding the role of government in the marketplace, but I won't.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Connecticut Magazine had this article back in April. 


OxyContin Was Born in Connecticut, Did it Fuel the Heroin Epidemic?
http://www.connecticutmag.com/health-and-science/oxycontin-was-born-in-connecticut-did-it-fuel-the-heroin/article_61409213-b2ca-508d-bdeb-9d7a8353a66c.html

[Tugg Speedman]

The thing with McKesson is that there are rules put in place to prevent from occurring what actually occurred.  Yet money and political connections basically made the punishment a slap on the wrist.  I could make a political statement regarding the role of government in the marketplace, but I won't.

Didn't the role of Government fail here?

We don't need more rules, we need to the current rules followed, and when they are not, they should be punished appropriately.

I hope they have to defend themselves against a tobacco company level class action lawsuit.

[MU82]

I only wish that Rush "All Druggies Should Go To Jail" Limbaugh had been sentenced to 3-to-5 years.

Mike

[Jay Bee]

I only wish that Rush "All Druggies Should Go To Jail" Limbaugh had been sentenced to 3-to-5 years.

Mike

Merry Christmas, bud! I believe Rush did drugs that were prescribed to him; fraud charges were dropped, a1na? Glad he got help.

[GGGG]

Didn't the role of Government fail here?

We don't need more rules, we need to the current rules followed, and when they are not, they should be punished appropriately.

I hope they have to defend themselves against a tobacco company level class action lawsuit.

I agree with you.

[MU82]

Merry Christmas, bud! I believe Rush did drugs that were prescribed to him; fraud charges were dropped, a1na? Glad he got help.

Rich dirtball. Was able to buy his way out of it. Don't be naive.

[Tugg Speedman]

Rich dirtball. Was able to buy his way out of it. Don't be naive.

By his way out of what?

[MU82]

By his way out of what?

A non-wealthy person who couldn't have afforded zillion-dollar lawyers would have done time.

Rush is a druggie who illegally acquired drugs from others. And he spent years saying those who do exactly what he ended up doing should serve hard time, so in addition to being a druggie, he's one of the world's biggest hypocrites.

Again, don't be naive. And even though we disagree on some stuff, I never thought you would have stooped to justifying the d-bag actions of one of the world's ugliest people (and I'm not talking about his looks).

[HouWarrior]

A non-wealthy person who couldn't have afforded zillion-dollar lawyers would have done time.

Rush is a druggie who illegally acquired drugs from others. And he spent years saying those who do exactly what he ended up doing should serve hard time, so in addition to being a druggie, he's one of the world's biggest hypocrites.

Again, don't be naive. And even though we disagree on some stuff, I never thought you would have stooped to justifying the d-bag actions of one of the world's ugliest people (and I'm not talking about his looks).

I agree Rush had a problem..."took 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, ".....

Because his attys protracted the case....Rush got into rehab, cleaned up during the case delay....so ....by the time it came to close the case.... he merely pled to one count of prescription fraud, with 18 month deferred adjudication (stay clean the whole time and record clears), and a $30k fine.

His atty Roy Black is not cheap.....here atty charges would have been between mid 6 and 7 figures. But to walk so relatively unscathed was worth the cost to Rush, I assume.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12536446/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/limbaugh-reaches-settlement-drugs-case/#.WkKisTdG21s

[real chili 83]

In before the lock.

[rocket surgeon]

A non-wealthy person who couldn't have afforded zillion-dollar lawyers would have done time.

Rush is a druggie who illegally acquired drugs from others. And he spent years saying those who do exactly what he ended up doing should serve hard time, so in addition to being a druggie, he's one of the world's biggest hypocrites.

Again, don't be naive. And even though we disagree on some stuff, I never thought you would have stooped to justifying the d-bag actions of one of the world's ugliest people (and I'm not talking about his looks).

That's just wrong-don't make me google people who were broke and couldn't afford high powered attorneys skate on fill-in-the-blank charges.  You need to see someone about your rush hate man.  For every rush, there's a person from the opposite spectrum.  The dude has paid his dues.  He's helped more people than you'd care to admit and he's clean.  I'll bet there are more drug dealers who've avoided doing time and they've contributed to the  killing of many many people

[GGGG]

That's just wrong-don't make me google people who were broke and couldn't afford high powered attorneys skate on fill-in-the-blank charges.  You need to see someone about your rush hate man.  For every rush, there's a person from the opposite spectrum.  The dude has paid his dues.  He's helped more people than you'd care to admit and he's clean.  I'll bet there are more drug dealers who've avoided doing time and they've contributed to the  killing of many many people

For a guy who hates the idea of legalizing drugs, you certainly bend over backwards to excuse the actions of a guy with your political bent.

[MU82]

That's just wrong-don't make me google people who were broke and couldn't afford high powered attorneys skate on fill-in-the-blank charges.  You need to see someone about your rush hate man.  For every rush, there's a person from the opposite spectrum.  The dude has paid his dues.  He's helped more people than you'd care to admit and he's clean.  I'll bet there are more drug dealers who've avoided doing time and they've contributed to the  killing of many many people

Rush advocated locking up drug criminals ... until he got caught being one.

"Under Florida law, doctor shopping is punishable by up to five years in prison."

Too bad he didn't get 10.

Hypocrite hatemongers like him are so easy to hate, and I do so unapologetically. Sad to see you defend such a horrible, hate-filled human being - not to mention a criminal.

[Jay Bee]

Rush advocated locking up drug criminals ... until he got caught being one.

"Under Florida law, doctor shopping is punishable by up to five years in prison."

Too bad he didn't get 10.

Hypocrite hatemongers like him are so easy to hate, and I do so unapologetically. Sad to see you defend such a horrible, hate-filled human being - not to mention a criminal.

What crime was he convicted of? Or are you using an alternative system of crime and justice? What illegal drugs did he use?

[MU82]

What crime was he convicted of? Or are you using an alternative system of crime and justice? What illegal drugs did he use?

He committed fraud - multiple charges of doctor shopping to get pain-killers; getting the help of others to acquire pain-killers for him; etc. - but he agreed to a plea deal with the help of his zillion-dollar legal team.

All of which came after he railed for years that drug addicts should serve hard time.

But yeah, you're right ... I guess Rush was no more guilty than O.J. was of killing Nicole. Just 2 wonderful, innocent gentlemen.

Actually, I take that back ... O.J. didn't even have to cut a deal. He really WAS innocent, unlike the criminal Rush.

[Jockey]

What crime was he convicted of? Or are you using an alternative system of crime and justice? What illegal drugs did he use?

So it is your contention that O.J. was NOT guilty of murder. He wasn't convicted, so by your own reasoning.......