November 11th is a day spent honoring brave Americans that made the ultimate sacrifice—serving our country in the United States Armed Forces. The bravery of these men and women is truly unparalleled, and it is for this very reason that a long history of Big Pharma taking advantage of the quite literal pain of war is nothing short of shameful.
Before 9/11, drug corporations led by Purdue Pharma had developed new pain medications — the opioids that have filled our headlines with news of rampant addiction and death. These drug companies spent big bucks targeting the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), convincing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that restricting the use of opioids was nonsense. By 2008, the Veterans’ Mental Health and Other Care Improvement Act, which instated pain evaluations for all vets, was drafted. To push the bill, drug company lobbyists launched a “Freedom from Pain” media blitz, enlisting veterans’ organizations to campaign for the bill and get it passed.
That’s not all.
Opioids were also dispatched to war zones. In 2009, doctors wrote our soldiers 3.8 million prescriptions for narcotic pain pills — four times as many as they did in 2001. Here at home, vets were and are dying at shocking rates from accidental or deliberate overdose of prescription opioids. Tragedy turned horrific, as both veterans and your average American have discovered that heroin, with its higher dose of fentanyl, is a cheaper alternative.
We are now facing a national epidemic of opioid addiction that not only affects our vets, but our next-door neighbors. And why? Because the greed of Pharma knows no bounds.
Supporting our vets means fighting for their health.
Supporting our vets means saying “enough is enough” to Big Pharma.
