The opioid epidemic has dominated the 24-hour news cycle for the past four years. Drug overdose deaths have surpassed car accidents pursuant to accidental deaths. Drug overdose deaths were exacerbated by a spike in opioid-relate drug overdoses. Fentanyl has been so prevalent in overdose deaths that the CDC started tracking fentanyl-related drug overdoses separately. The prevailing theory was (1) the spike in opioid prescriptions coincided with runaway overdose deaths so (2) cutting prescriptions would sharply reduce drug overdose deaths.
That said, Andrew Kolodny has made a big name for himself, fueling the flames against prescription opioids. Mr. Kolodny appeared on HBO’s The Crime of the Century pursuant to Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis. I was initially impressed with Kolodny. He seemed extremely passionate and convincing. However, as more data on drug overdose deaths emerged and after I spoke with people familiar with drug users, Kolodny’s narrative began to crack. Below is a 2020 tweet quoting Kolodny, and implying the opioid epidemic was driven by the masses becoming addicted to prescription opioids.
Recent data suggests something totally different. Drug overdose deaths for the trailing 12 months through April 2021 exceeded 100,000, a Y/Y rise of nearly 29%. About two-thirds (64%) of all drug overdose deaths was related to synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl), up from 49% in the year-earlier period. This implies drug overdoses deaths related to synthetic opioid rose about 68% Y/Y. This is despite the fact that prescription opioid volume is expected to drop for the ninth consecutive year — a decline of 60% from its peak in 2011. If opioid prescriptions are declining then why do drug overdose deaths (and opioid-related drug overdose deaths) continue to rise? The data suggests that (1) illicit fentanyl and (2) drug users who use heroin or heroin laced with fentanyl are driving the spike in drug overdose deaths.
Kolodny recently spoke with Axios about the record drug overdose deaths. Below is an excerpt from part of that video. The interview was so patently absurd that it bordered on make-believe:
Niala Boodhoo: How much of this is about opioid overdoses specifically?
Kolodny: The vast majority of these drug overdose deaths are opioid. In particular, they involve an illicitly synthesized opioid called fentanyl.
Niala Boodhoo: Were you expecting the numbers to be so high at this point?
Kolodny: Opioid overdose deaths have been skyrocketing for the past few years, and actually for more than past 25 years, each year we’ve been setting a record for death from drug overdoses, and then the next year we break that record. But the last few years have been the worst. I expected the numbers to continue to get worse, but not this bad.
Niala Boodhoo: How much did the pandemic exacerbate this?
Kolodny: It’s difficult to say, but there are reasons to believe that COVID did make the problem worse.
The problem is that Kolodny, state attorneys general (who are suing opioid manufacturers), trial lawyers (who are earning billions in legal fees), Dopesick (Hulu), The Pharmacist (Netflix) and the fake news have been driving the narrative. I understand that Kolodny served as a consultant to some of the plaintiffs pursuant to fake opioid lawsuits. Judges in California and Oklahoma recently “called cap,” and ruled that opioid manufacturers were not liable for the opioid crisis. It is time for those in the know to set the record straight about what is really driving drug overdose deaths.
On Thursday December 2nd at 7PM (NYC time), Trump And The GE will parse through Kolodny’s interview with facts and real-world data. We are asking doctors, drug users, pain patients, researchers and concerned citizens to participate. There is a groundswell of activists and patients interested in this issue. Trump And The GE would like to provide a forum for each person’s voice to be heard.
Access The Show
You are more than welcome to participate as an audience member and ask questions during the event. The platform is similar to Zoom. The audience can access the show via Google Chrome by clicking the following link —> https://riverside.fm/studio/trump-and-the-ge-parse-kolodnys-opioid-hoax
“On December 2nd Trump And The GE will parse through Kolodny’s interview with facts and real-world data. We are asking doctors, drug users, pain patients, researchers and concerned citizens to participate. There is a groundswell of activists and patients interested in this issue. Trump And The GE would like to provide a forum for each person’s voice to be heard.”– How are people supposed to be able to participate in sending comments in regard to this topic, please.
Leah,
You can also be make comments and ask questions during the show. The audience can access the show via Google Chrome by clicking the following link —> https://riverside.fm/studio/trump-and-the-ge-parse-kolodnys-opioid-hoax … The show starts Thursday at 7PM (NYC time).
Leah,
Below is the video for Trump And The GE Parses Kolodny’s Opioid Hoax —> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXefa1dG88Q8D00tSszQtcQ
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Can you work with us at the National Pain Council?
Sure. We would love to.
How can one get off of pain medication from a failed total knee replacement (TKA) that the manufacturer lied to the FDA about the creamic coating that attaches to the metal plates that attaches to your knee bones. 5 side effects: pain, swelling, Loosening, inflammation pain. 9 years living in pain not knowing why. Why do manufacters lie along with doctor ignoring your symptoms ? Then you find out about a class action lawsuit. Across the entire USA Aesculap b. Braun Columbia Vega TKA. Then your pain medication gets taken away. You have a revision. The same problem happens. Why do we the patient have to suffer cronic pain at No Fault of ours. Seems that the FDA needs stronger regulation so that patient don’t fall into the hands of greedy manufacturers. This is not right manufacturers, doctors, hospital all make money while the patient continues to suffer cronic pain.
Im just seeing this. How can I go about being heard on this as a chronic pain patient and advocate for pain patients and injured Veterans who have been suffering horribly? Thank you so much❤
Way back in 2018 I submitted a short summary demonstrating that Government scientists had conclusively proven Kolodny’s central assertion, to be false, to a Dept of HHS docket on National Pain Policy.
Essentially this is a fight between lost-cost generic drug makers who lack profit to defend themselves, and high-prices patented drug makers who can afford armies of lobbyists to buy legislation with promises of ad dollars to media and PAC funding to elected officials. Nearly all the poppy-derived opiates are low-profit generics. Patented synthetic opioids like Suboxone are high-profit because competition is eliminated.
The two key contentions by Andrew Kolodny are that exposure to any opioid or opiate for more than 3 days can cause addiction, and that the risk of addiction can be measured using a new scientific measurement called an “MME”.
Government scientists proved both these concepts false in 1985.
To Frankenstein these dead ideas together and reanimate them, Andrew Kolodny colluded with former CDC Director and convicted sex offender Tom Frieden, to violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and empanel a group of outsiders at the CDC, who dragged in and questioned
CDC staff scientists with knowledge of statistical recursion and zero knowledge of neuroscience, biochemistry, nor opioid pharmacology, and bullied the scientists into stating what parts of the known-false theories Andrew Kolodny was trying to revive, could be proven false from CDC statistics. To prevent scientists who actually knew about post-1985 advances in neuroscience from criticizing the work, Frieden and Kolodny conspired to exclude all other federal scientists from participating.
Because the common opioids hydrocodone and morphine are essential in respiratory therapy, to control the gag reflex when a person is placed on a ventilator, CDC’s failure to recant the 2016 false statements in the “Opioid Prescribing Guidelines” that this collusion yielded, added to the COVID-19 death toll, and helps to explain the wildly absurd actions of CDC, various officials, and social media billionaires who began censoring what the public were told about the outbreak.
What a tangled web we weave when we set out to deceive!
For a brief introduction to the science withheld from CDC staffers in 2015, that had been known by other Government scientists for thirty years, please visit http://t.co/pzVCtYWkeu and have a look for yourselves.
Thank you for looking into the matter.