15.2 Overdosed: The 1st Wave: An Increase in Opioid Prescribing

Renegade Psych

Thanks for listening. I recommend watching this one on my YouTube channel due to being paired with several charts and graphics; just search 'Renegade Psych' on YouTube to find our page. Future episodes will be live video recordings, but we'll still produce our audio-only version as well, so view on YouTube, listen on other platforms, or don't do either, Life is full of choices!

I recorded this series solo on a topic I consider myself very well-versed in, the drug/opioid epidemic, which has taken the lives of millions of Americans and caused heartbreak for hundreds of millions more in the last 25 years. While the official overdose fatality figures hover above 100,000 annually as of 2022, there are significant numbers of fatal overdoses that get logged as other deaths. The first episode focused on the scope of the problem and this episode tracks the evolution of the 1st wave of the epidemic, an increase in opiate marketing and prescribing, primarily Oxycontin, and the role Purdue Pharmaceutical and the Sackler family played in instigating our current drug epidemic, paving the way for the 2nd wave, a massive increase in availability and use of Mexican black-tar heroin and a huge increase in American IntraVenous Drug Use.

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