Pubdate: Mon, 10 Jul 2017
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2017 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Stanley Milesky, Severna Park

MAKE DRUG MAKERS PAY FOR THEIR ROLE IN OPIOID CRISIS

Opioid addiction is a growing crisis in our country. The effects are
devastatingly personal but also challenge us as a people. Lives are
being ruined and entire communities destroyed. Congress continues to
grapple with how to fund the treatment of this disease. Recent news
reports cite the role of the pharmaceutical industry in promoting the
drugs at the heart of this crisis and the misleading information they
provided to doctors regarding the addictive nature of these drugs
("How Maryland measured up in opioid prescribing," July 8).

While the drugs have an enormous medicinal benefit, we now know they
must be prescribed and used far more responsibly to avoid the
addiction we now see deeply embedded and spreading and across our
country. My question is pretty straight-forward: Why are we not
holding the pharmaceutical industry responsible for a fairly assessed
contribution for the treatment of opioid addiction they fostered? As
Congress cobbles together a national health care plan to fix or
replace the Affordable Care Act, a tax on the pharmaceutical industry,
not a tax break, would appear to be not only a more sensible but also
a more just solution.

Stanley Milesky, Severna Park
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MAP posted-by: Matt