'Dopesick' lets Congress off the hook

Hulu’s Dopesick does a good job pointing out pharmaceutical company blame for opioid addiction, as well as pointing to doctors who prescribed the drugs and pharmacists who willingly filled prescriptions.

But the series fails to include the U.S. Congress in its list of villains. In 2000 the Senate and the House held hearings on pain and pain management, and wound up deciding the poor and the uninsured deserved opioids as much as did wealthy and insured citizens.

The bill encouraged “practitioners to prescribe and administer controlled substances to relieve pain and discomfort.” The bill also says “practitioners should be encouraged to treat pain aggressively even when the treatment may increase the risk of death.”

Taking off from the encouragement of prescriptions and possible death, Congress instructed Health and Human Services to "undertake activities that will promote and advance scientific understanding of pain management and palliative care."

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-106shrg72844/pdf/CHRG-106shrg72844.pdf

A reader the bill will determine that part of the intent of Congress was to bring equity to pain management; that is, poor, uninsured people deserve opioid-based drugs just as much as do wealthy and insured citizens. The mention of making illegal federal funds or programs for “assisted suicide” is but a smoke screen. The purpose was not to make illegal something that already was illegal, but to give Congressional approval and force increased use of opioid-based pain pills and to force more federal dollars into prescription drugs.

Pharmaceutical companies and willing doctors share blame in the “opioid crisis” that led to addiction and increased crime rates. But Congress cannot be let off the hook for its culpability in causing addiction to “poor people” it so often uses as a banner for assistance.