My thoughts on this issue, as expressed on LinkedIn in March, excerpt as follows: "The main strategy used by our Federal Gov’t, specifically the Therapeutic Goods Administration or TGA, to supposedly reduce National "opioid" overdose deaths, has been to restrict the issue of legally prescribed pharmaceutical opioids to chronic pain patients, through the introduction of new & "improved" Opioid Prescribing Guidelines on 1-6-20. This misdirected policy change is NOT logical, as it is targeting the wrong demographic."
I have a more detailed systematic review manuscript coming out possibly today on this issue - that looks at many of the deceptions and outright falsehoods in the academic work used to set government pharmaceutical opioid policy in Australia. Stay tuned!
Excellent, & we need more credible voices [& mainstream journalists] highlighting the harms many responsible chronic pain patients are experiencing in this current "opiophobic" climate in Australia [i.e. non-concensual forced prescription opioid tapering, depression, despair & suicidal ideation].
I will confess something at the outset, at 77 years of age I find it tiresome reading lengthy pieces and tend to excessively skip sections. I do however try to get the drift. I became interested in the US opioid crisis some years back and that led me to reading Gerald Posner's book "Pharma". Posner essentially stated that Purdue Pharma manufactured the untreated pain crisis by funding academics and doctors to promote the (non-existent) crisis. Purdue then produced the solution, their slow release OxyContin claiming it to be non-addictive. And the US opioid crisis was born. There was a moral vacuum and corruption everywhere, within the medical profession and also within the FDA, the regulator. But, of course, ardent capitalists would say No, it is merely laissez faire capitalism.
The Australian issue you are exposing appears to be different?
I think the genus is similar... but in this case the original impetus was researcher ideology...
then at some point later pharma realised they needed to be involved in driving the ship and started funding these researchers.
In the main review I found examples where the drug company funding one group of research was then presenting requests to a regulatory committee that one of the researchers in the research group was a member of that looked on the surface like the drug company was supporting the ideology - when in actual fact they were creating a situation together that means australian patients recieve half as much product (tablets) for twice the price. In that way it looks good to the opioid researcher (we just halved packet sizes) while also being favourable to the pharma company (we just managed to double our per-tablet price overnight!).
Everybody scratched each others' back and the taxpayer got given the 'bum rush'
Me and my dog are the only two creatures I am aware of that are not corrupt. And I am not absolutely sure about myself. Nothing but nothing surprises me but your revelation requires those in authority to take note and then act. Unfortunately authority is made up of venal human beings who, no doubt, want a piece of the cake - if indeed they haven't already got a piece of the cake.
Don't be discouraged, Lucy Letby would spend the rest of her life in prison if it weren't for the likes of you.
In "older days" the number of lines available in newspapers and magazines was limited. Nowadays, on Substack etc., there is limitless space. People writing are reporter and editor. No one says "this is too long", "these are unnecessary details", "why are you telling the same thing three times over?". A then-leading magazine in the Netherlands had copy paper with a line at the top of each sheet: "great article, but are your readers still interested?" One of the journalists was famous for always answering YES before proceeding. The shorter a piece the better, as it forces the writer to think and re-think. Writing articles used to be a profession. There was a reason for that.
I read this with great interest and guessed how it would end. It fits a pattern I now see repeatedly of an issue (hopefully a crisis in time) being highlighted, with restrictions following, and a more expensive but less useful solution being found. As part of the process many academic papers are produced so the academics are happy and funded. An industry generates a new and potentially captive market so addition profits are generated. Politicians and NGO's find a purpose in life and a band wagon and pulpit to climb onto in promoting the new solution. Ordinary people however pay more for a lesser product. Other really important issues get side lined and ignored by all because they are more difficult to solve and would actually require some effort.
Cunningly done, Scott, cunningly done! That's a great little piece of subversive espionage that is. Or counter-subversion, even. Fantastic barium meal, that's to say.
I also wanted to note - now you mention it, it comes back to mind - that Australia isn't the only place where OTC codeine-containing (off patent) medications are no longer available. It's true here in France as well. On one trip to the pharmacy sometime last year I asked about a codeine-containing painkiller and they informed me you need a prescription. And yet I'm fairly certain it had only been a matter of a few years' earlier that I'd been able to stock up on a pack of codeine-based standard painkillers. At that time you were restricted in how many packs you could get, but you could at least still get it.
So clearly this isn't an Aussie-only policy, and I would imagine it's happening all over the place.
As a patient advocate in the chronic pain space, advocating for access to opioids for severe, chronic pain, I have long thought that the 'opioid crisis' in Australia, at least, is all about money. All about researchers, lining their pockets and getting grant money. Then I chided myself for beliving in conspiracy theories...but now i see its all true.
The US has an opioid crisis, but it was never about pain medication, it was always about ilicit opioids. The CDC who started it all, have admitted as much. And Australia has never had an opioid crisis. This manufactured crisis benefits researchers and pharma and has created an industry. And not ONE of these people care that the end result is that peopel who live with painful, progesive, incurable diseases are being left to suffer. ARe being denied the safe and effective pain medications they need. All in the name of an opioid crisis that never existed here.
Doctors are force tapering people off their pain medications, and people are suffering and dying. thankyou for exposing this coruption and explaining how we got here. And WHO is to blame. I have worked on projects alongside some of these people. They make me sick. Putthign their career goals ahead of people who are seriously ill and living tortured lives because of them.
This is certainly a mysterious rabbit hole. Here in Scotland we have had a PR blitz for some time now, not so much about the dangers of opioids, but the scale of their misuse and the need for (heroin) "consumption rooms" (i.e. injection facilities.) An obvious quango astroturf campaign was intended, apparently, to guilt trip ordinary members of the public into carrying naloxone around in case of encountering an overdosing addict. Posters appeared saying "CARRY NALOXONE." The message was clear, this was the current thing and if you didn't get with the programme you were a nasty reactionary. I believe this is the case elsewhere, e.g. Canada.
In my opinion there was and is a real "opioid crisis" caused in the US, in part, by Purdue and the Sackler dynasty's irresponsible marketing of Oxycontin. From your research however, it sounds like the response to that crisis has been construed into a cynical corporate sales pitch merely for more profitable opioids. There is in general a troubling push to legitimitize drugs of abuse while arbitrarily problematizing other drugs. With the relentless promotion of cannabis in the US - usually strong strains - I'm reminded of Huxley's soma.
After breaking an arm a couple of years ago I was given a packet of hydrocodeine. I discovered, after cautiously trying one, that it seemed to have the abuse potential of milky tea. Whatever is going on with the drug and opioid agenda in general, there are "globalist" fingerprints over it IMHO.
My thoughts on this issue, as expressed on LinkedIn in March, excerpt as follows: "The main strategy used by our Federal Gov’t, specifically the Therapeutic Goods Administration or TGA, to supposedly reduce National "opioid" overdose deaths, has been to restrict the issue of legally prescribed pharmaceutical opioids to chronic pain patients, through the introduction of new & "improved" Opioid Prescribing Guidelines on 1-6-20. This misdirected policy change is NOT logical, as it is targeting the wrong demographic."
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kevin-r-james-971278190_america-cdc-australia-activity-7306280826789339136-dWLD/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACzjymUBIWm-lV2zwS0EblPMpdjJfPPHvLY
Too right
I have a more detailed systematic review manuscript coming out possibly today on this issue - that looks at many of the deceptions and outright falsehoods in the academic work used to set government pharmaceutical opioid policy in Australia. Stay tuned!
Excellent, & we need more credible voices [& mainstream journalists] highlighting the harms many responsible chronic pain patients are experiencing in this current "opiophobic" climate in Australia [i.e. non-concensual forced prescription opioid tapering, depression, despair & suicidal ideation].
I will confess something at the outset, at 77 years of age I find it tiresome reading lengthy pieces and tend to excessively skip sections. I do however try to get the drift. I became interested in the US opioid crisis some years back and that led me to reading Gerald Posner's book "Pharma". Posner essentially stated that Purdue Pharma manufactured the untreated pain crisis by funding academics and doctors to promote the (non-existent) crisis. Purdue then produced the solution, their slow release OxyContin claiming it to be non-addictive. And the US opioid crisis was born. There was a moral vacuum and corruption everywhere, within the medical profession and also within the FDA, the regulator. But, of course, ardent capitalists would say No, it is merely laissez faire capitalism.
The Australian issue you are exposing appears to be different?
I think the genus is similar... but in this case the original impetus was researcher ideology...
then at some point later pharma realised they needed to be involved in driving the ship and started funding these researchers.
In the main review I found examples where the drug company funding one group of research was then presenting requests to a regulatory committee that one of the researchers in the research group was a member of that looked on the surface like the drug company was supporting the ideology - when in actual fact they were creating a situation together that means australian patients recieve half as much product (tablets) for twice the price. In that way it looks good to the opioid researcher (we just halved packet sizes) while also being favourable to the pharma company (we just managed to double our per-tablet price overnight!).
Everybody scratched each others' back and the taxpayer got given the 'bum rush'
Me and my dog are the only two creatures I am aware of that are not corrupt. And I am not absolutely sure about myself. Nothing but nothing surprises me but your revelation requires those in authority to take note and then act. Unfortunately authority is made up of venal human beings who, no doubt, want a piece of the cake - if indeed they haven't already got a piece of the cake.
Don't be discouraged, Lucy Letby would spend the rest of her life in prison if it weren't for the likes of you.
Thanks. Give your dog a pat because it sounds like he is rapidly becoming a member of a very small group - the uncorrupted
In "older days" the number of lines available in newspapers and magazines was limited. Nowadays, on Substack etc., there is limitless space. People writing are reporter and editor. No one says "this is too long", "these are unnecessary details", "why are you telling the same thing three times over?". A then-leading magazine in the Netherlands had copy paper with a line at the top of each sheet: "great article, but are your readers still interested?" One of the journalists was famous for always answering YES before proceeding. The shorter a piece the better, as it forces the writer to think and re-think. Writing articles used to be a profession. There was a reason for that.
I read this with great interest and guessed how it would end. It fits a pattern I now see repeatedly of an issue (hopefully a crisis in time) being highlighted, with restrictions following, and a more expensive but less useful solution being found. As part of the process many academic papers are produced so the academics are happy and funded. An industry generates a new and potentially captive market so addition profits are generated. Politicians and NGO's find a purpose in life and a band wagon and pulpit to climb onto in promoting the new solution. Ordinary people however pay more for a lesser product. Other really important issues get side lined and ignored by all because they are more difficult to solve and would actually require some effort.
Cunningly done, Scott, cunningly done! That's a great little piece of subversive espionage that is. Or counter-subversion, even. Fantastic barium meal, that's to say.
I also wanted to note - now you mention it, it comes back to mind - that Australia isn't the only place where OTC codeine-containing (off patent) medications are no longer available. It's true here in France as well. On one trip to the pharmacy sometime last year I asked about a codeine-containing painkiller and they informed me you need a prescription. And yet I'm fairly certain it had only been a matter of a few years' earlier that I'd been able to stock up on a pack of codeine-based standard painkillers. At that time you were restricted in how many packs you could get, but you could at least still get it.
So clearly this isn't an Aussie-only policy, and I would imagine it's happening all over the place.
As a patient advocate in the chronic pain space, advocating for access to opioids for severe, chronic pain, I have long thought that the 'opioid crisis' in Australia, at least, is all about money. All about researchers, lining their pockets and getting grant money. Then I chided myself for beliving in conspiracy theories...but now i see its all true.
The US has an opioid crisis, but it was never about pain medication, it was always about ilicit opioids. The CDC who started it all, have admitted as much. And Australia has never had an opioid crisis. This manufactured crisis benefits researchers and pharma and has created an industry. And not ONE of these people care that the end result is that peopel who live with painful, progesive, incurable diseases are being left to suffer. ARe being denied the safe and effective pain medications they need. All in the name of an opioid crisis that never existed here.
Doctors are force tapering people off their pain medications, and people are suffering and dying. thankyou for exposing this coruption and explaining how we got here. And WHO is to blame. I have worked on projects alongside some of these people. They make me sick. Putthign their career goals ahead of people who are seriously ill and living tortured lives because of them.
This is certainly a mysterious rabbit hole. Here in Scotland we have had a PR blitz for some time now, not so much about the dangers of opioids, but the scale of their misuse and the need for (heroin) "consumption rooms" (i.e. injection facilities.) An obvious quango astroturf campaign was intended, apparently, to guilt trip ordinary members of the public into carrying naloxone around in case of encountering an overdosing addict. Posters appeared saying "CARRY NALOXONE." The message was clear, this was the current thing and if you didn't get with the programme you were a nasty reactionary. I believe this is the case elsewhere, e.g. Canada.
In my opinion there was and is a real "opioid crisis" caused in the US, in part, by Purdue and the Sackler dynasty's irresponsible marketing of Oxycontin. From your research however, it sounds like the response to that crisis has been construed into a cynical corporate sales pitch merely for more profitable opioids. There is in general a troubling push to legitimitize drugs of abuse while arbitrarily problematizing other drugs. With the relentless promotion of cannabis in the US - usually strong strains - I'm reminded of Huxley's soma.
After breaking an arm a couple of years ago I was given a packet of hydrocodeine. I discovered, after cautiously trying one, that it seemed to have the abuse potential of milky tea. Whatever is going on with the drug and opioid agenda in general, there are "globalist" fingerprints over it IMHO.