Macon Telegraph
Viewpoints for July 9, 2019

DRUG KINGPIN, PIMPS & PUSHERS

The lawsuit filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter against Johnson & Johnson described the flood of opioids as the “worst manmade public health crisis in the history of our state and country.” Hunter likened J&J to a “drug kingpin.”[1]

“There were a lot of bad actors in this long chain of causality,” he said. Indeed, if J&J is the “drug kingpin,” its sales reps were “pimps” posing as “pain experts with no training” while bribing doctors, the “pushers,” who wrote prescriptions to patients who then were sold narcotic painkillers by pharmacists, the “dealers.”

These “pushers” also ignore research by the VA that found pain intensity did not decrease with opioid use for low back cases and were not effective for long-term pain control.[2]

Indeed, who needs “el Chapo” when the public has “Dr. Chapo” for their drugs?

Another factor is the illegal AMA boycott against chiropractors despite a federal antitrust lawsuit[3] that found “chiropractors were more effective than the medical profession… and better trained to deal with musculoskeletal problems than most medical physicians for certain kinds of back injuries.”[4]

Researchers also found chiropractors at MTFs decreased opioid consumption by as much as 59%.[5] Unfortunately, RAFB still boycotts chiropractors despite the fact all 3 Army posts in Georgia have chiropractors on staff.[6] Instead of a safe nondrug chiropractic solution to back pain, RAFB clings to outdated models of care thereby putting patients at risk.[7]

Regards,

J C Smith, MA, DC

Warner Robins, GA

478-922-4091

[1] _{https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/johnson-and-johnson-opioid-trial/index.html}

_{[2] 2018: Treatment of Low Back Pain with Opioids and Nonpharmacologic Treatment Modalities for Army Veterans}

_{[3] {Wilk v. American Medical Ass’n, 671 F. Supp. 1465, N.D. Ill. 1987}}

_{[4] 671 F. Supp. at 1481-83.}

_{[5] Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Military Health System:  .}

_{[6] https://www.f4cp.com/files/military/military-dod-locations-v2.pdf} 

_{[7] https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/463241eb-ff03-466a-ac75-f16a705ace78}