Pharmaceutical Companies 2nd Speker Prop

Pharmaceutical companies are primarily responsible for the opioid crisis
Proposition
Intro: The U.S. opioids epidemic has claimed more than 400,000 lives and left millions of
people addicted, strained health care, law enforcement and social service systems, cost
governments billions, and bankrupted the best-known manufacturer of narcotic painkillers.
Roadmap: My roadmap for today’s debate will be to first refute my opponents points, bolster
our own points, and then if time allows introduce a new contention.
Refutations: Opposition - The doctors are responsible for the opioid epidemic because they
overprescribe the opioids. Us - Actually, Purdue Pharma is primarily responsible for the crisis
because it introduced a new drug – oxycodone, an opioid painkiller, that the company marketed
as being safe, and addiction free. It sparked the opioid epidemic as more and more people started
using it as a safe alternative to other painkillers. It is estimated that nearly two million Americans
are addicted to prescription pain relievers, and drug overdose has become the leading cause of
accidental death in the U.S., exceeding motor vehicle accidents. In the first decade of this
century, the overdose death rate increased nearly four times, with admissions to addiction
treatment programs up six times over the same time period. Prescription opioids now kill more
Americans every year than illegal ones primarily due to purdue. Although, we believe that
Purdue Pharma was primarily responsible for the opioid crisis, we do agree that doctors and
medical staff have taken a relatively big part in the opioid epidemic.
Strengthening contentions: Our first contention was that Purdue pharma is misleading the
society and FDA. When OxyContin was first released, Purdue Pharma marketed it as a safe
prescription drug, with a low risk of addiction, stating that only 1 percent of patients who are
prescribed opioids become addicted. Previously, opioids had been used for patients with
cancer-related pain, or for those who were terminally ill. However, Big Pharma saw a gap in the
market and began targeting general practitioners, who had limited experience in treating extreme
chronic pain, to initiate and increase the use of opioids for chronic pain. Further, the concept of a
‘pseudoaddiction’ was endorsed, positing that individuals who are prescribed opioid medications
may seek greater quantities, and display other typical symptoms of addiction, but that this is in
fact not a real addiction, but a pseudoaddiction and warrants greater drug dosages. This false
information led to a feeling of safety in prescribing opioids in large doses for extended periods of
time.
Our second contention was that Perdue did not care about the health of its patients. Oxycontin
was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December, 1995. Despite a lack of
increased efficacy in treating pain compared to older medications, Purdue mounted an aggressive
marketing campaign that included a warning from the FDA in 2003 over misleading
Pharmaceutical companies are primarily responsible for the opioid crisis
Proposition
advertisements. Physicians believed Purdue and started using Oxycontin, thinking we were
helping patients. At around the same time as Oxycontin’s approval, the American Pain Society,,
introduced the “pain as the 5th vital sign” campaign, followed soon thereafter by the Veterans
Health Administration adopting that campaign as part of their national pain management
strategy. This declaration was not accompanied by the release of any device which could
objectively measure pain, as was done with all previous vital signs, blood pressure, pulse,
respiratory rate and temperature, making it the first and only subjective vital sign says the
National Center for Biotechnology information. The Joint Commission also bought into this,
earning a place on the list. In 2001 they issued standards requiring the use of a pain scale and
stressing the safety of opioids. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, The Joint
Commission went so far as to publish a guide sponsored by Purdue Pharma on pain management.
This guide reportedly stated, “Some clinicians have inaccurate and exaggerated concerns about
addiction, tolerance and risk of death. As you can see here, Purdue Pharma is unintentionally
encouraging physicians to overprescribe these opiods.
New Contention: Opioids are getting more and more common due to pharmaceutical
companies. The shift from using opioids for postoperative patients, terminal patients and cancer
patients, to using them as a blanket solution for a wide-range of pains drastically increased the
number of opioid prescriptions. Not only did the number of prescriptions increase, but the nature
of prescriptions changed in a meaningful and dangerous way. Opioids are no longer being used
for conditions which they have been clinically proven to effectively treat. Nor are they being
used in a time-limited fashion. Currently, opioids are being used for extended periods of time,
putting patients at risk for the development of dependence, abuse, and addiction. Over the
prolonged period of opioid use, the patient’s body develops a tolerance to the opioid, requiring
greater doses for the desired effect. Furthermore, there have been no clinical trials which
illustrate the effectiveness of opioids in treating chronic pain. In fact, in certain cases patients
develop opioid-induced hyperalgesia, in which the body becomes sensitized and some stimuli
become more painful than they were preceding opioid use. Therefore, the use of opioids for
chronic pain, as endorsed by Big Pharma, is reckless and irresponsible, putting patients at serious
risk. Big Pharma companies are claiming that no one predicted, nor could foresee, the damage
which would be caused by opioids. They assert that they want to help in addressing the current
opioid epidemic, but hold no responsibility and deny any wrongdoing.

Pharmaceutical Companies 2nd Speker Prop

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Pharmaceutical companies are primarily responsible for the opioid crisis

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