The opioid crisis has me fixated

Is anyone else fascinated with books and movies about the opioid crisis? I say “fascinated” but my husband would say obsessed! I have binge watched Dopesick and Painkiller, watched The Pharmacist, and read Empire of Pain. My husband finds it painful to watch these with me and I’m pretty sure he found some kind of outdoor chore to do every time he saw me pick up the book. I was constantly pausing the TV to comment on something. It took us forever to get through episodes. It also took me months to get through the book because I kept stopping to comment. Read: New program could subject Quebec docs to inspections for opioid prescriptions deemed unusual by their collegeI’m sure all of us are aware of the opioid crisis—how can you not be! But depending on how long you’ve worked in pharmacy, you may or may not be aware of the history of OxyContin or the Sackler family. When reading Empire of Pain, it felt like the Sackler brothers (Mortimer, Arthur and Raymond) genuinely wanted to help patients, pushing the field of psychiatry away from procedures such as lobotomies to studying brain chemistry and using medications as treatment. But somewhere along the way, things took a turn. There’s no denying the brilliance of these doctors. In addition to medicine and science, they were smart in the business world as well. Their medical developments and business acumen are what built their family’s enormous wealth. It’s also what led to addictions to and overdoses to OxyContin.I was a teen when OxyContin was introduced in Canada. I wasn’t paying any attention to anything happening with it. I was an adult, working in pharmacy when the lawsuits were happening, and I read bits and pieces in the news, but didn’t pay it a whole lot of attention. I didn’t dig into the details. Read: Older Canadians take more prescription opioids than any other age group: reportBut now, having gone into the details, I am shocked by what happened. I am shocked by what was allowed to happen. And I shouldn’t be. I know there is corruption everywhere, but I naively like to think that healthcare professionals adhere to the highest of standards. It’s disappointing when they don’t. It’s disappointing that medicine that is meant to heal people is used for profit.Yes, every business needs to generate profit. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be any. But for agencies to bury data about the dangers of a drug or to manipulate advertising just to allow a drug to be sold is unthinkable. I’m still wrapping my head around it all. There were people who tried to fight to stop the sale of OxyContin, but money is power. There were healthcare professionals who questioned all the advertising and data they were shown. There were doctors who prescribed the drug genuinely trying to help their patients. There were patients who trusted their healthcare professionals and took the drug as prescribed. But, as we all know, this is a drug that is addictive by nature.If you haven’t read the book or watched any of the shows, I highly recommend them. I have more on my list still to get through. (Won’t my husband be thrilled!) The shows I have watched are fictionalized, but they really bring to light what the patients and their families went through. Many were not drug seekers before taking OxyContin. They weren’t addicts. They were regular people looking for pain relief so they could get through the day. So they could live their lives. I find the history of these stories—the business and politics—endlessly fascinating, however, I also think these stories help foster compassion for patients, including current patients, who may be struggling with addiction to opioids.

The opioid crisis has me fixated

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SARAH-LYNN DUNLOP

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