Ohio begins a lawsuit against the largest 5 pharmaceutical companies developing prescription opioids and is setting the tone for accountability and responsibility in the heroin addiction and opioid epidemic in the United States. Ohio is the second state after Mississippi to go after the pharmaceutical companies regarding their current heroin addiction epidemic. Ohio has recently seen an exponential growth in heroin overdoses and have tracked back the increase of consumption to prescription abuse with specific opioid medications. These, the state of Ohio finds, have a conflict of interest with both marketing objectives and history of analyzing the full impact of its dependency risk and awareness of addictive properties.
It will be interesting to see the news unfold as this litigation begins, placing the spotlight on the pharmaceutical companies such as Janssen, Allergan, Purdue, Endo and Cephalon (makers of opiate prescription medications such as OxyContin and Percocet).
The war on drugs is now shifting and it will be interesting to see what participation the pharmaceutical industry takes on the responsibility of having such powerful medications as well as legitimizing their medical use and marketing focus. Here’s to less people playing around with medications and a finding variables that prevent and reduce heroin addiction.
At La Jolla Recovery we share the hope of recovery from addiction including prescription opiates and heroin, both requiring specific attention to a physiological dependence, cognitive impact and social needs to pave a sustained road to life without addiction.
