Guest post by Joe Hoft at JoeHoft.com – republished with permission
Opioid Settlement Fuels The Psychiatric Industry, Right Back to Big Pharma
Republished with permission from AbleChild.
In a shocking deep dive, billions of dollars from opioid settlements appear to be strategically redirected back into the pockets of pharmaceutical giants and the behavioral health – psychiatric industry. The settlements, now totaling a staggering $56.9 billion, were meant to address the devastating opioid crisis, but there’s a disturbing lack of oversight on how this money is spent.
At least 70% of the settlement funds must go towards “opioid remediation efforts,” including expanding access to addiction treatments. Here’s the kicker, many of these treatments are psychiatric medications produced by the very same pharmaceutical companies involved in the opioid crisis and will be used on the prison population and mental health courts, which fuels the psychiatric drug and behavioral health industry. Many psychiatric drugs carry blackbox suicide warnings and other deadly side effects. The psychiatric and behavioral health industry must label you in order to qualify for these dangerous unproven solutions. A win/win for the both mega industries.
Major players like Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, and Allergan are paying billions in settlements. Yet, they continue to manufacture and sell addiction treatment drugs. It’s a vicious cycle where Big Pharma profits from both creating and “solving” the crisis.
What’s most alarming is that no one seems to be looking into this glaring conflict of interest. Despite the enormous sums involved and the life-or-death stakes of the opioid crisis, there’s a deafening silence from watchdog groups, government agencies, and the media. No comprehensive studies have been conducted to track how settlement money flows back to pharmaceutical companies through treatment programs. Instead of focusing the money on the MEDWATCH program and drug safety, the medical industrial complex has big plans for utilizing this money. This amount of money would transform the drug safety system for the entire United States, instead it is redistributed right back into the hands of Big Pharma and their front group psychiatry.
In a disturbing trend, the psychiatric and behavioral health industry appears to becoming the dumping ground for opioid settlement funds. While the settlements were intended to address the devastating opioid crisis, a significant portion of the money is being funneled into mental health and addiction treatment services – without outcome based results that can be measured.
Many states are directing settlement funds towards expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorders, funding residential treatment programs, and supporting mental health services. For example, Virginia allocated $1.25 million to the Department of Corrections for social workers specializing in opioid use disorders and to develop substance use education programs for a captive audience, inmates.
The influx of settlement money into the psychiatric and behavioral health sector also raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest. With billions of dollars at stake, there’s a risk that treatment providers and pharmaceutical companies manufacturing addiction medications could unduly influence how funds are spent, potentially prioritizing their own interests over evidence-based approaches that truly benefit those affected by the opioid crisis.
This concentration of funds in one sector of healthcare not only limits the diversity of approaches to tackling the opioid epidemic but also risks perpetuating a cycle of treatment without addressing the underlying societal issues that contribute to substance abuse. The settlement totally fails to address drug safety issues that led to the epidemic in the first place and ignores the support of the MEDWATCH program that would regulate drug companies and save lives. As settlement funds continue to be distributed, it’s crucial to scrutinize whether this apparent dumping of money into psychiatric and behavioral health services is the most effective use of resources to combat the opioid crisis and save lives.
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