There is plenty of blame to go around regarding the opiod crisis/epidemic including Congress andthe pharmaceutical companies — but most of all, the most corrupt agency in the federal government, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) whose primary mission is to protect the health of all Americans and ensure the drugs that are put on the market are safe. In a recent edition of “60 Minutes,” Ed Thompson (owner of pharmaceutical company PMRS) who spent years producing opioids for Big Pharma, now has broken ranks and not only denounced his industry but the federal regulator FDA as well.

In 1995, the FDA approved Oxycontin as effective in the short-term; however, in 2001 in Welch, West Virginia there were secret meetings between Purdue Pharma and the FDA, which bowed to Purdue’s demands to ignore the lack of scientific data and to change the label to “around-the-clock … for an extended period of time.” Because there is no science to back-up the decision, Thompson is suing the FDA to change the label back to what it was, which is what Brandeis Professor Dr. Andrew Kolodny has been trying to do since 2011. He stated that it is essentially the same drug as heroin addiction. With this new labeling change, Thompson said: “It opened the floodgates and it was the decision of no return for the FDA.” This unfortunate decision allowed Big Pharma to change their marketing strategy and flood the market with opioids making it a multi-billion dollar industry, but the addiction effect also cost thousands of Americans their lives. Thompson admitted he was guilty as well but, unlike others, he finally saw the light. He called Big Pharma “corrupt, immoral and depraved.”

According to Sen. Maria Cantwell, since 1999 more than 10,000 Washingtonians have lost their lives from opioid and heroin addiction and 650 in 2017 alone. Finally, in response to the “60 Minutes” article, the FDA commissioner is ordering a study on the opioid addiction problem. Right idea, wrong solution. A study is the last thing we need as we already know the effect of opioid addiction; what we really need is a labeling change by the FDA so the carnage can be halted. It has now been 17 years and no label change. Is it that hard? It is a “crisis that didn’t have to happen.”

Gary Robertson

Federal Way