By LEV FACHER @levfacher APRIL 17, 2018

Excerpt:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will introduce a bill Tuesday that would impose jail time for pharmaceutical executives whose companies engage in manipulative practices when marketing opioids.

The legislation would impose a 10-year minimum prison sentence and fines equal to an executive’s compensation package if the individual’s company is found to have illegally contributed to the opioid crisis.

The bill outlined a number of mechanisms by which the Department of Health and Human Services could demonstrate such liability, including by mandating written justifications for pill orders that seem medically unreasonable.

Sanders’ new effort is the latest in a spate of opioids-related bills, but takes aim at pharmaceutical companies more explicitly than others. Some version of an opioids-related bill is seen as the last major legislation likely to be pursued on Capitol Hill prior to midterm elections in November.

https://www.statnews.com/2018/04/17/bernie-sanders-bill-jail-opioid-crisis/

He has only been an elected official for 38 years. Love these fresh faces getting into the mix.

It's a devastating problem here in Vermont.Our politicians, clergy, teachers, doctors and nurses, police, veterans groups and others are trying hard to come up with some answers.

A few months ago I read about how many people in one small West Virginia town were struggling with this problem. Hope the whole country can come together and do something about this life and death issue.

It seems that it is corporate distributors of opioids that are the real problem. The makers don't distribute.

I've been a bit confused about Vermont's new marijuana law. As I understand it, as of July 1st, people 21 and over can legally have (not more than) 1 oz. of pot, 2 mature pot plants and 4 immature pot plants.

Vermont last year.

Does every politician you support agree with you on every issue?

BTW I hope you know he has evolved on the issue much like Hillary and Barack evolved on marriage equality:

We are in the middle of a opioid shortage in hospitals right now. Nation wide. Our pain teams are having to manage post-surgical pain in ways not always optimum. While this will probably not go anywhere, I wish he would have done it at a different time.

One thing we are doing is keeping patients on the “pain button” longer (PCA, patient controlled analgesia) because when we switch them to orals, we dont have enough syringes for breakthrough pain. It’s a mess.

If we can get people to use other treatments than opioids when applicable then there would be more available for those who truly need it.

You should realize that McKesson willfully did this:

McKesson, a drug distributor, is said to have shipped 5 million opioid pills to a West Virginia town with 400 residents over a two-year span.
https://www.statnews.com/2018/04/17/bernie-sanders-bill-jail-opioid-crisis/ . McKesson executives should go to prison for this. People are dying.

I really do think this sort of thing is why Bernie is doing it. He is trying to save lives.

But, I don't want anyone taking away the opioids for my patient with very severe Epidermolysis Bullosa or my patients with end stage cancer.

We are using a lot of seizure meds and clonidine for our patients who storm. It works much better than opioids for that kind of severe discomfort.

After you get a liver or a kidney or a kidney pancreas or a small bowel transplant generally you need really, really good pain control. Then again, I’ve seen people after kidney transplants take almost nothing narcotic though. It is worth noting, anecdotally that patients on opioid pain management prior to surgery seem to have a much harder time, and there is also that syndrome where your pain receptors get so sensitized after long term narcotic use that narcotics no longer work and can indeed make pain worse.

In health care, we have people using narcotics for the euphoria and relief from depression and anxiety they can provide. I’m also a in-hospital dialysis nurse, and many a patient will want pain meds with ill-defined pain, just to get them through the run. They will also want Ativan and Benadryl for the same reason. Dialysis is tough on the body.

So yeah, it’s a problem. Right now however, it’s worth recognizing that it’s a problem with many factors besides the shitty behavior of drug companies. I don’t mind the bill. I mind the timing and the singlular focus of the bill

Edit to add, I couldn’t do what you do, you have my deepest respect