Just when you thought the news about the opioid epidemic couldn’t get any worse….

It appears that groups like the Pain Care Forum may have had a role in the opioid epidemic. Opioids, if you remember, are drugs that are related to opium. They’re also known as opiates. Opioids include heroin, but for this blog post, we’ll primarily be talking about the opioids that are powerful prescription painkillers.

Groups like the Pain Care Forum include the manufacturers of opioids and other drugs. They have produced literature claiming that millions of Americans suffer from chronic pain. Their solution to all this chronic pain? Opioids, of course.

You might be wondering why legislators did not stop this promotion of opioids. It turns out that influence might have had something to do with that. Forum groups, drug manufacturers, and even drug store organizations all donated thousands of dollars to the campaigns of several U.S. Congressional members.

While we’re still learning all of the facts, it appears that these Congressional representatives neglected their duties to protect the public. Instead, they may have hurt the public to pursue their own political and professional interests.

These deals aren’t like other dirty political deals, like ones where well-placed bribes might pave a road or bring a factory to a district. Those deals at least accomplish something positive for a politician’s constituents.

But using campaign money to encourage the use of opioids is different. Opioids can be useful, that’s true. But they’re not the only solution. They are other painkillers that can be effective, other painkillers that don’t create dependency.

We’re also not 100% of the short- and long-term effects of opioids. To heavily promote something so powerful yet not exactly known seems slightly irresponsible at best, highly dangerous, even reckless at worst.

I guess this post is a plea for a little research. Research of campaign contributors, research of candidates and legislators, and research of the drugs themselves. While we might not discover all of the answers, at least we’ll uncover some.