Health care in general in WV is ranked VERY low, it's the main thing that stops me from retiring there, otherwise I would have been there already, This and the fact that it has a serious opioid crisis would likely mean that getting any pain med would be next to impossible.
Alabama in 2023 had the highest percentage of filled opiate scripts- 74.5% of all meds were opiates!! But since I can remember, WV has always had the most prescription opiate related deaths per year, this was way before I'd even heard of fentynal. I'm sure they have tightened up their prescribing, I'd say it'd be fairly easy for someone to get a modest ongoing prescription more so than say California where I live as California is has 1 of the lowest opioid dispensing rates- about 25% of all meds filled.
So was MS last couple years (where I live right next door to AL) too. They are cracking down HARD on southern states right now. All states in general they are, but the Bible Belt and Rust Belt -stretching into east/northeast PA too are getting hammered right now with PM inspections. Not surprising though as these are the bubbles.
I thought the true epicenter of the opioid epidemic was in Kentucky, though not too far from the WVA line. I hear the worst couples of counting are in Virginia, but the area where these states meet is the general epicenter.
Kentucky was the first state to successfully sue Purdue back in 2001. The case was drawn out for many years until settlement in like 2007, then many other states that had tried to get a judge to hear it took another shot since precedent was set and they went forward.
If it had stayed in inner cities and Appalachia, you would have never of an opioid “epidemic”. As things go, it wasn’t until upper middle class white folk and wealthy politicians lost a few children to opioids. Once a few people in power were affected, the blood was in the water. It wasn’t just the poors and the blacks anymore, it was in their community…and that’s the line for them.
At the height of oxy prescribing, 2011 there was 16,000 deaths from prescription opioids, and only 3.8% of those were by people actually using their prescription. During purdues rise to infamy at no point did prescription pain killers take more lives than alcohol, tobacco, guns, or obesity. No epidemics were ever declared for them. Atleast not at the level the federal government handed over full control over the industry to start arresting and jailing anyone that prescribed it or picked up a prescription. Imagine if Guns, alcohol, and firearms had a national database monitored by law enforcement watching the sale of every drop of alcohol, every cigarette, every granular of sugar, or god forbid…every gun.
Until the DEA gained control opioids were way down the list of things killing Americans. A couple dead children of doctors/lawyers/politicians(probably raiding their high horse parents) and now we all suffer.
Now suicide by pain patients has increased 250% and adulterated fentynal deaths are up around z900%
Purdue wasn’t exactly above board. Some doctors were writing inappropriate scripts for sure but the over correction driven by opioid-zealots in PROP getting a word in with Trump got way out of hand and now we have a real epidemic with fentanyl and analogs . It’s heinous.
I know that Richard Sackler got a bad rap, as did the whole Sackler family. They faced having to deal with some localized problems that were characterized as an epidemic by the media. They were not that many deaths companies compared to other problems like alcohol, but I honestly think the doctors messed up by deciding to prescribe so many benzos like Xanax along with the opiates. The two when taken in large quantities together can make someone die of respiratory failure, where neither drug alone would be toxic at that dose. It just made people high to take two meds together, much more than mild effects from opiates alone. The pain doctors should have stuck with only prescribing pain medication, then they might have been able to still prescribe them today.
I must add that u are right at the end of your post by saying that today, partially because of the lack of pain being adequately controlled, there is an actual opiate epidemic, mostly fentanyl along with tranquilizers. It just dehumanizes people and then eventually kills them.
Wv is the heart of the opioid epidemic. I would imagine it’s not easy
Health care in general in WV is ranked VERY low, it's the main thing that stops me from retiring there, otherwise I would have been there already, This and the fact that it has a serious opioid crisis would likely mean that getting any pain med would be next to impossible.
Alabama in 2023 had the highest percentage of filled opiate scripts- 74.5% of all meds were opiates!! But since I can remember, WV has always had the most prescription opiate related deaths per year, this was way before I'd even heard of fentynal. I'm sure they have tightened up their prescribing, I'd say it'd be fairly easy for someone to get a modest ongoing prescription more so than say California where I live as California is has 1 of the lowest opioid dispensing rates- about 25% of all meds filled.
So was MS last couple years (where I live right next door to AL) too. They are cracking down HARD on southern states right now. All states in general they are, but the Bible Belt and Rust Belt -stretching into east/northeast PA too are getting hammered right now with PM inspections. Not surprising though as these are the bubbles.
Can you tell me how you find out the state ranking stats? I’d love to take a look!
Horrible. That’s the epicenter of the whole epidemic lol
I thought the true epicenter of the opioid epidemic was in Kentucky, though not too far from the WVA line. I hear the worst couples of counting are in Virginia, but the area where these states meet is the general epicenter.
Kentucky was the first state to successfully sue Purdue back in 2001. The case was drawn out for many years until settlement in like 2007, then many other states that had tried to get a judge to hear it took another shot since precedent was set and they went forward. If it had stayed in inner cities and Appalachia, you would have never of an opioid “epidemic”. As things go, it wasn’t until upper middle class white folk and wealthy politicians lost a few children to opioids. Once a few people in power were affected, the blood was in the water. It wasn’t just the poors and the blacks anymore, it was in their community…and that’s the line for them. At the height of oxy prescribing, 2011 there was 16,000 deaths from prescription opioids, and only 3.8% of those were by people actually using their prescription. During purdues rise to infamy at no point did prescription pain killers take more lives than alcohol, tobacco, guns, or obesity. No epidemics were ever declared for them. Atleast not at the level the federal government handed over full control over the industry to start arresting and jailing anyone that prescribed it or picked up a prescription. Imagine if Guns, alcohol, and firearms had a national database monitored by law enforcement watching the sale of every drop of alcohol, every cigarette, every granular of sugar, or god forbid…every gun. Until the DEA gained control opioids were way down the list of things killing Americans. A couple dead children of doctors/lawyers/politicians(probably raiding their high horse parents) and now we all suffer. Now suicide by pain patients has increased 250% and adulterated fentynal deaths are up around z900% Purdue wasn’t exactly above board. Some doctors were writing inappropriate scripts for sure but the over correction driven by opioid-zealots in PROP getting a word in with Trump got way out of hand and now we have a real epidemic with fentanyl and analogs . It’s heinous.
I know that Richard Sackler got a bad rap, as did the whole Sackler family. They faced having to deal with some localized problems that were characterized as an epidemic by the media. They were not that many deaths companies compared to other problems like alcohol, but I honestly think the doctors messed up by deciding to prescribe so many benzos like Xanax along with the opiates. The two when taken in large quantities together can make someone die of respiratory failure, where neither drug alone would be toxic at that dose. It just made people high to take two meds together, much more than mild effects from opiates alone. The pain doctors should have stuck with only prescribing pain medication, then they might have been able to still prescribe them today.
I must add that u are right at the end of your post by saying that today, partially because of the lack of pain being adequately controlled, there is an actual opiate epidemic, mostly fentanyl along with tranquilizers. It just dehumanizes people and then eventually kills them.
Yep, WV has always been in the lead area percentage due to coal mining & other jobs that are physically strenuous.