Maker of Deadly Fentanyl Kicks in Half a Million to Defeat Pot Legalization in Arizona

Maker of Deadly Fentanyl Kicks in Half a Million to Defeat Pot Legalization in Arizona

By Phillip Smith / AlterNet September 9, 2016

Marijuana legalization advocates have long argued that pharmaceutical companies, which could lose out if marijuana is legally available, are some of the staunchest supporters of pot prohibition, and now an Arizona company is making their case for them.

According to campaign finance reports posted online by the Arizona secretary of state's office, fentanyl manufacturer Insys Therapuetics has donated $500,000 to foes of the Prop 205 marijuana legalization initiative.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid several dozen times more potent than heroin. It has been linked to numerous opioid overdose deaths across the country, especially when mixed with heroin. Marijuana, on the other hand, has no reported overdose deaths, ever.

Insys isn't just any pharmaceutical company. Its sole product is Subsys, a sublingual fentanyl spray, and the company has shown that it's willing to bend the rules to sell that product. In the past month alone, two former company employees pleaded not guilty to federal charges related to an alleged kickback scheme to get doctors to prescribe Subsys, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit against the company charging that Insys hawked the drug to doctors for off-label prescribing.

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