Since the dawn of time, humankind sought ways to elevate their consciousness or escape reality through the use of mind-altering substances.
Consequently, substance addiction in some form or another has always been a societal backdrop.
The opioid epidemic infecting the United States at present is but only a continuation of a centuries-long trend of substance abuse that actually originated by the federal government.
Sonia Moghe, an author for CNN, wrote an article entitled “Opioid History: From ‘Wonder Drug’ to Abuse Epidemic,” where she points out the opioid addiction in the United States got its start in the 1860s when veterans of the Civil War consumed morphine to deal with their horrific injuries.
As anyone familiar with the Civil War era can attest, you can’t blame veterans of that era for staying doped up. In 1898, the Bayer Company decided morphine wasn’t mind-numbing enough and introduced heroin as a cure-all “wonder drug.”
Many people in that era used this “new” opioid-based substance as a cough suppressant. Once morphine addicts learned intravenous use of heroin produced an exhilarating, potent high that lasted a tad bit longer than morphine, heroin addiction exploded.
Now Introduce the Perfect Storm: Fentanyl Addiction
Today, heroin addicts prefer fentanyl, a synthetic cross between heroin and morphine.
Fentanyl is an opioid-based narcotic that is the eye at the center of a perfect storm: on the one hand, fentanyl is 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
While on the other side, the intense high addicts are blindly chasing lasts only an hour or two, versus the six to eight hours associated with heroin.
This relatively short high results in users seeking to use far more often.
And since it’s exponentially more potent, users frequently underestimate the dosage and die from an overdose. And it’s these attributes that make Fentanyl an epidemic rather than just a problem like crack cocaine was.
Can Someone Addicted to Opioids Really Seek Compensation?
There is no known case of an individual filing a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company for their addiction to opioids, however, a few governments are beginning to band together and place liability on drug manufacturers.
Before fentanyl and the global opioid epidemic brought multiple societies to their knees, governments and big pharma have long shared a business relationship.
Additionally, https://lvaccident.com/ points out that many pharmaceutical companies lobbied Congress, as well as offered hospitals, health clinics, and physicians incentives to market their drugs.
They also gave kickbacks (another term for “profit sharing”) to those working in the medical field for selling their product over another brand.
The thing is, all of those activities are illegal. It took an overwhelming amount of overdose deaths throughout the world before governments and the medical industry decided to put a stop to these crooks.
British Columbia, Canada, is the first government to initiate lawsuits against approximately “40 companies involved in the manufacture, distribution, and wholesale of opioids,” stated the CBC.
Purdue Pharma, one of Canada’s largest drug companies, is among those listed in the legal action.
The Canadian government alleges that companies like Purdue Pharma minimized the health risks of their drugs in advertisement campaigns, particularly their highly addictive traits.
Most recently, President Trump has announced that the United States, too, will file cases against drug companies that contributed to the opioid crisis.
If you are addicted to opioids such as fentanyl or have lost a loved one due to a fentanyl overdose, there may be compensation available in the future for the victims once the governments involved in the initial lawsuits have won their cases.
In order to learn more about any possible compensational benefits in the future, contact an attorney that specializes in such matters in order to learn more.
