- The Nation obtained a confidential financial disclosure from the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids showing that the group’s largest donors include Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, and Abbott Laboratories, maker of the opioid Vicodin. CADCA also counts Purdue Pharma as a major supporter, as well as Alkermes, the maker of a powerful and extremely controversial new painkiller called Zohydrol. The drug, which was released to the public in March, has sparked a nationwide protest, since Zohydrol is reportedly ten times stronger than OxyContin. Janssen Pharmaceutical, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that produces the painkiller Nucynta, and Pfizer, which manufactures several opioid products, are also CADCA sponsors. For corporate donors, CADCA offers a raft of partnership opportunities, including authorized use of the “CADCA logo for your company’s marketing, website, and advertising materials, etc.”
Third tag: corruption. Is their a wikipedia page yet, List of Corporations Who Purposefully Harm the Populace to Protect and Further their Own Interests?
Fourth tag: ihopetheyburninhell
Fifth tag: iguesshellhastoexistfirst
Sixth tag: goodlongread
Holy shit. I knew we liked our painkillers, but that's NUTS.
Also, there is so much 'Think of the children' going on with this group. #whetstonePeople in the United States, a country in which painkillers are routinely overprescribed, now consume more than 84 percent of the entire worldwide supply of oxycodone and almost 100 percent of hydrocodone opioids
Anybody gonna call bullshit? Okay, I'll call bullshit. FACT 1 (from the article): 'k. $90m a year for anti-drug campaigns. How much of that does CADCA get? FACT 2 (from the article): "Recent years" is a nebulous term. Do they mean $2.6m in 2013? Do they mean a combined $2.501m from 2005-2013? We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say $2.6m in 2012 since they would have said "last year" otherwise. So they're taking lots of swings at Pfizer for donating to CADCA. How much money did CADCA get from Pfizer? Well, they're not gonna say. But how much money did Pfizer spend on lobbying in 2013? FACT 3 (not from the article): Over 10 million dollars. And that's where it all turns into a tempest in a teapot for me. I mean, the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable business segment in history. Their profits are legendary. And let's say all of CADCA's funding came from Pfizer in 2013 (which it didn't, or why mention the government). It would still, theoretically, only be 1/4 of Pfizer's lobbying budget. The article is basically a bunch of lobbyists and PACs slinging mud at each other. Somewhere in there, nobody thought to ask "do you think a drug company could make money on marijuana?" I mean, Pfizer made synthetic pot in 1979. Isn't it a bit more likely that they gave money to CADCA in a "Yes, drugs are bad but certainly not our products" spirit, rather than a "Yes, drugs are bad particularly those that are being legalized across the country therefore oh shit we better jump on this 'weed' shit or we'll run out of people TO SELL OXYCONTIN TO?" I mean, really? Here's an industry that spent $226m on lobbying last year. Maybe, somewhere in there, according to The Nation, they spent some money on lobbying against drug abuse. I mean, fuck. Wouldn't you? _______________________ Slight, but appropriate change of subject: marijuana has been de-facto legal in California for about eight years now. And lemme tell ya - weed ain't no thang. But you can't bust somebody for driving stoned because you can't test somebody for driving stoned... and when I ride the motorcycle down the 405 during rush hour, lane-splitting my way from the Valley to LAX, I am in a perpetual cloud of ganga smoke for eighteen.straight.miles. Not sayin' every driver is stoned, but enough of them are stoned that you might as well consider "traffic" to be stoned. And that's a little scary when they weigh 5000 lbs and you're 700 soaking wet. So while I fully support legalization, I fully support it within a framework of caution and consideration. DARE was bullshit but just flipping off the safeties and saying "joints for everybody!" is not without consequences.Founded in 1992, CADCA has lobbied aggressively for a range of federal grants for groups dedicated to the “war on drugs.” The Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997, a program directed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, was created through CADCA’s advocacy. That law now allocates over $90 million a year to community organizations dedicated to reducing drug abuse.
Records show that CADCA has received more than $2.5 million in annual federal funding in recent years.
GW Pharma is a good buy right now (I think). Even though it's up 30% just in the last few weeks, they have lots of room to grow. They're doing great things with childhood epilepsy, if I'm not mistaken. There's lots of room to make money off pot when studied properly. Medical marijuana shouldn't be a thing that people get to vote on. Recreational weed should. We all know that the medical thing is just a stepping stone to full legalization (or decrim, more likely), and that every stoner who will talk your ear off about the medicinal benefits of weed could give a fuck less, because he just wants to get high. I agree with you that Pharma is just one more boogie man that stoners are paranoid about. No matter how much kein bud is on the streets, there will never be a shortage of opiate abusers. Since when are opiates and marijuana in the same category? Weed ins't a pain killer primarily. The high is totally different, and it's effects on most type of pain probably aren't sufficient to displace the market for non-abusers who are in need of pain management, so either way, opiates win. The British didn't fight "The Marijuana Wars," FFS.
A list of corporations doing public harm? Oh, hold on a second, I saw that the other day... Ah-ha! Here it is!
This is a bit misleading. There may not be direct overdose deaths, but there have been a few deaths recently in Colorado that were directly a result of people being high beyond reason. It's probably significantly lower than Drunk Drivers, etc. - but saying there are no known deaths "related" to marijuana is lazy writing. (lazy like mine)Notably, there are no known deaths related to marijuana, although there have been instances of impaired driving.
Mind linking to articles that discuss these? I'm very interested in this.There may not be direct overdose deaths, but there have been a few deaths recently in Colorado that were directly a result of people being high beyond reason.
This is the recent one that comes to mind: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25585976/man-who-plunged-from-denver-balcony-ate-6 I'll see if I can find the others.