Thread by @lmstroud89

1/ I read multiple books at a time, and let me tell you, some stark differences between @StatutoryVapeBk & @BarryMeier "Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic"

2/ For example, "On an average day in 2016, 175 people died from an overdose, a rate of seven fatalities pan hour."

Verus:
3/ "At the time this book was published, the CDC reported that there were 64 deaths confirmed in 27 states and the District of Columbia due to vaping-related illnesses."

4/ There's this guy in "Pain Killer" This doctor out in Appalachia who first sounded an alarm on the opioid epidemic in the early 2000s. He was shocked about illicit drug use in 2000 (just a few years after OxyContin came to market)

5/In a 2000 survey of Lee High School students in Virginia- 28% of 11th graders and 20% of 12th graders had tried OxyContin

6/ Dr. Van Zee has fighting against Big Pharma for two decades now. He was a witness in this 2001 Senate Committee hearing:
govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CH…

7/ He authored this 2009 paper - The Promotion and Marketing of OxyContin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

8/ And still, this is just the regular news now, 20 years later.

9/ I love how @StatutoryVapeBk keeps reminding the reader that e-cigarettes are not FDA approved... well, FDA approved OxyContin, based off of two clinical trials and let the company market their product as less addictive

10/Just my thoughts while reading two separate books on #epidemics in America on this lazy Sunday.
One that has been raging on for 20 years & has killed hundreds of thousands & another one that's been around for over a decade & only became a problem once some company made $$$

11/ It's actually rather disgusting - to see mothers and fathers mourning over their child that became addicted to FDA approved drugs and/or sought out illegal fakes of FDA-approved pills and buried their child (along with thousands of others)

12/And the racket involved with opioid addiction - the nature of the addiction and how long term rehab is not only necessary, it's the only thing saving these addicted young persons. It's also not covered by insurance, expensive and not regulated. Then think of the costs of MAT.

13/Opioid addiction=lifelong addiction, made more easily accessible by FDA-approved drugs. Vaping=saved thousands of more lives by replacing cigs, even w/the "vaping deaths." It also doesn't rely on pharma, which seems to make a killing from #epidemics (even ones they create)