SURVIVING HEALTHCARE MERCOLA: The AMA’s Contribution to the Opioid Epidemic
As detailed in a Mother Jones exposé, the AMA has a long, cozy relationship
with Big Pharma, including Purdue Pharma
The AMA’s pain management training program for physicians implied that
doctors were too tentative to give patients these pills and “the effectiveness of
opioid therapy may be undermined by misconceptions about their risks”
The AMA’s pain management training program was developed by a team with
close ties to the industry
Purdue Pharma gave more than $3 million in donations to the AMA and the AMA
Foundation from 2002 to 2018
Richard Sackler, who served as the president of Purdue Pharma, was a member
of the AMA Foundation’s board of directors from 1998 to 2004
While being dependent on prots from commercial endeavors and receiving
heavy funding from Big Pharma, the AMA functions as a trade group while
portraying itself as independent
In October 2020, opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty
to three felony counts of criminal wrongdoing and agreed to an $8.3
billion settlement with the Department of Justice over their
production and marketing of Oxycontin and other opioid drugs.1
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"The abuse and diversion of prescription opioids has contributed to a
national tragedy of addiction and deaths, in addition to those caused by
illicit street opioids," said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen in a
news release.2 In 2019, opioid overdoses were responsible for nearly 50,000
deaths in the U.S., with the misuse of and addiction to opioids described as
a national crisis.3
The pandemic has only worsened the crisis. From December 2019 to
December 2020, there were 93,331 estimated overdose deaths in the U.S.,
which represents a 29.4% increase in 12 months.4Opioids, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine, accounted for the majority of
deaths — 69,031 — followed by synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl and
tramadol.5
The most recent data on opioid overdose deaths can be viewed via the
CDC’s 12-month provisional number of drug overdose deaths by drug or
drug class dashboard — due to a small percentage still pending
investigation, numbers may change slightly upon final analysis.6
On their website, the American Medical Association (AMA), whose mission
is to "promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public
health, "7 states that its Opioid Task Force is "committed to providing
evidence-based recommendations and leadership to help end the opioid
epidemic."8
However, as detailed in a Mother Jones exposé, AMA has a long, cozy
relationship with Big Pharma, including Purdue Pharma. "The prestigious
doctor's group has made it virtually impossible to discern where public
health guidance ends and industry interests begin," writer Julia Lurie writes
in Mother Jones.9
'How to Create an Addict Education'
In 2007, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to felony charges of misbranding
with intent to defraud and mislead the public and physicians about
Oxycontin's dangers.
Several months later, the AMA released their new pain management
training program, which included 12 modules about prescribing narcotics,
including that doctors were too tentative to give patients these pills and "the effectiveness of opioid therapy may be undermined by misconceptions about their risks, particularly risks
associated with abuse and addiction."10
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