The Big Pharma Family that Brought Us the Opioid Crisis

We’re not talking El Chapo or any of his drug-running buddies. We’re talking about the mega-billionaire family behind one of America’s most profitable drug-industry empires, the privately held Purdue Pharma.

Sam Pizzigati
By Sam Pizzigati
Pills persciption pharma OpioidPills prescription pharma Opioid

If the devil wears Prada, what do America’s most destructive drug pushers wear? They wear smiles. The drug pushers we have in mind here have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, enough fatalities to decrease overall U.S. life expectancy at birth for the last two years running. Yet no police SWAT teams have pounded down any doors hunting these

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Watch | Death & Biostitutes – Mike Papantonio on the US Opioid Crisis

Behind America’s opioid epidemic is a multi-billion dollar industry that feeds drug manufacturing giants, distributors and more.

Abby Martin
By Abby Martin
Opioid epidemic

 A new phenomenon has emerged in the United States: 64,000 people died in 2016 of a drug overdose—with 80% from opioids—with levels of addiction nearly 500% higher over the last six years. Behind this epidemic is a multi-billion dollar industry, that feeds drug manufacturing giants, distributors and more. With the U.S. government failing

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‘Don’t Do Drugs:’ Inmate Dies From Opioid Withdrawal Under Controversial ACH Program

After suffering from severe opioid withdrawals, Shannon Bowles requested medical attention. He was given an antibiotic, Tylenol, and a warm compress. He died not long after.

Brian Sonenstein
By Brian Sonenstein
Screenshot from Advanced Correctional Healthcare advertisement on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqYhTAll0qI)

The family of a deceased man who was incarcerated at Kentucky’s Bourbon County Jail has filed a federal lawsuit against the county, jail officials, and the private medical contractor Advanced Correctional Healthcare. They allege “deliberate indifference” was shown to the man’s “obviously serious medical needs,” as he suffered from opioid

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WATCH: Brave Congressman Explains How US Keeps Afghan Heroin Trade Alive at Your Expense

Congressman Thomas Massie blows the lid off the US subsidized opium trade and taxpayer funds flowing into the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Matt Agorist
By Matt Agorist

This week, President Donald Trump, just like his predecessor Obama, promised to continue the utterly corrupt failure of a brutal occupation that is Afghanistan—despite running on a campaign to end it. For decades, the United States has been subsidizing—to the tune of billions of US tax dollars—failed projects, infrastructure, military, police, and

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Amid Opioid Crisis, Trump Sends Troops To Guard Poppies in Afghanstan

There is no way to uncouple the massive surge in Afghan’s opium production from the burgeoning crisis of opioid use in the United States. In banishing all thought of an Afghan “endgame,” has Trump just made our “national emergency” of opioid abuse a permanent one?

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
MARJAH, Helmand province, Afghanistan - Corporal Mark Hickok, a 23-year-old combat engineer from North Olmstead, Ohio, patrols through a poppy field during a clearing mission April 9. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. John M. McCall)

With last Friday’s departure of his chief strategist Steve Bannon – one of the few members of President Donald Trump’s inner circle opposed to American “empire building” -- many speculated it was only a matter of time before the Trump administration took an even more hawkish turn. Less than two days later, Secretary of Defense James Mattis

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New Data Reveals Opioid Deaths Are Being Underreported

As awareness of the epidemic continues to grow, further hazards of the pharmaceutical class of drugs are being revealed — including potentially higher numbers of deaths caused by their use.

Carey Wedler
By Carey Wedler
Medication pills prescription opiates painkiller

America’s ongoing opioid crisis is no secret. With thousands dying from prescription painkiller overdoses each year — nearly as many as traffic deaths — even the U.S. government has been forced to take action. As awareness of the epidemic continues to grow, further hazards of the pharmaceutical class of drugs are being revealed — including

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