In a previous posting we discussed the history of opioids in the US and how it grew into an epidemic. This epidemic had a lot of caregivers in various forms. Some of it was in the form of the governing bodies not doing their job. Others were in the form of marketing and advertising to doctors and consumers alike. Yet others were in the form of companies looking out for their bottom line.
In the clip below you can see the extent to which some companies went in the pursuit of inspiring their sales people to sale the dangerous opioid, Fentanyl.
One may be quick to dismiss an internal “inspirational” video for employees as saying “that’s private company inner-workings”. That same person, however, would expect Federal Agencies (DEA) to protect the public and keep a lid on the very product they are supposed to regulate.
As the clip shows, said Federal Agency was too busy with its “War on Drugs” (imported drugs, to be exact) to enforce the laws within its borders.
And with zero oversight in place, the epidemic was left to run wild. So wild in fact, that when the first deaths of the epidemic were reported, company officials thought of them as better than expected. Which begs the question: how many were they expecting? And had they already calculated said expectations into their financial forecasts?
Which leaves us where we are today. In America, there are two consequences to breaking the law; jail-time and fines. If you have enough money, those fines are simply added to the “expenses” side of the balance sheet. Jail-time is for suckers and poor-people.
