How bitter were
the Prozac pills
of the last
few hundred mornings. Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing
I should have known better than to rely on pills. You can’t buy unconsciousness quite so cheaply. Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
I went to the doctor last week. I said, ‘Can I have some sleeping pills for the wife?’ He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘She’s woke up.’ Les Dawson
Pills and sex can be a lucrative combination. But sometimes drug companies are not the first people to see that. In the UK one third of all women of reproductive age take the contraceptive pill. Worldwide, a hundred million rely on it. But it almost never reached the market. In the 1950s research into contraception was illegal in many parts of the world. And where it was legal, pharmaceutical firms feared a moral backlash. Despite this, independent researchers did discover how to synthetically create female hormones ... The result was a social revolution. Professor Tim Dyson
Cobwebs touched my face with the softness of moths. Wrapping my black coat round me like my own sweet shadow, I unscrewed the bottle of pills and started taking them swiftly, between gulps of water, one by one.
At first nothing happened, but as I approached the bottom of the bottle, red and blue lights began to flash before my eyes. The bottle slid from my fingers and I lay down.
The silence drew off, baring the pebbles and shells and all the tatty wreckage of my life. Then, at the rim of vision, it gathered itself, and in one sweeping tide, rushed me to sleep. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
There’s a radio commercial that says a certain diet pill works three times faster than starvation. George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?
Sleeping pills – but are they a good solution? Over fifteen million prescriptions are issued every year. Michael Mosley, The Truth About Sleep, BBC 2017
The United States is in the midst of the worst drug epidemic in its history. More people die from overdoses of opioid drugs than from car accidents or gun homicides. The epidemic was fuelled by an aggressive 1990s marketing campaign led by Purdue Pharma that promoted the widespread use of opioids to treat pain and minimized the risk of addiction. Warning: This Drug May Kill, Sky Atlantic 2017
‘Less than 1% of patients taking opioids actually become addicted.’ ibid. Purdue promotional video
Prescription opioids include OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, Opana, Demerol, Dilaudid, Norco, Fentanyl, Codeine. Heroin is also an opioid. Deaths from prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999. ibid.
In 2007 Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to lying about a risk of addiction to Oxycontin, paying one of the largest pharmaceutical settlements in US history. Yet Oxycontin and other opioids remain a multi-billion dollar industry. More than 250 million prescriptions are written every year. ibid.
80% of heroin users started with prescription opioids. ibid.
With daily opioid use, physical dependence can develop within as little as one week. ibid.
91 people die every day from an opioid overdose. ibid.
Chicago, October 2 2015: 74 overdoses in 72 hours; Cincinnati, Ohio, August 2 2016: 20 overdoses in 12 hours; Louisville, Kentucky, August 31 2016: 8 Overdoses in 5 hours; Huntington, West Virginia, August 18 2016: 27 overdoses in 4 hours. Heroin Explosion, captions, National Geographic 2017
This is the story of today’s opiate epidemic which has been called the worst drug crisis in American history. There is a new generation of heroin addicts, young people that cross all social, racial and economic groups. ibid.
Every day 91 people in the United States die of an opiate overdose. 35 of those are from heroin. ibid.
‘This generation seems to have found prescription opiates as their drug of choice.’ ibid. Dr Deebi Bassam
Most first-time abusers of painkillers obtain them from a friend or relative. ibid.
Florida became ground zero for the growing epidemic … Dealers abandoned traditional street drugs to get a slice of the Florida pill business. ibid.
One clinic wrote prescriptions for more than a million Oxycodone pills in a five-month period. ibid.
It was the pill that revolutionised the way we live with pain. It was a revolution driven by a marketing campaign that targeted our doctors. We now spend more than ten billion dollars a year on treatment with narcotic pain pills. And we’re spending hundreds of millions more on the addictions the pain pills cause. The Fifth Estate: Time Bomb: Oxycontin, CBC 2013
A multi-billion-dollar business … introduced in 1996. ibid.
By 2011 Canada would rank second in the world for opioid prescriptions and second in the world for deaths from overdoses. ibid.
By as early as 1995 they had known that many of their claims about Oxycontin including its addictive nature were fraudulent. ibid.
Valium has been a silent partner … with many users craving a tranquillised existence. Drugs Map of Britain III: Scotland’s Valium Crisis
‘You’re wrapped in bubble-wrap and things don’t matter as much.’ ibid. addict
Not all the blue pills on the street contain genuine Valium. ibid.
Kenneth has just picked up an emergency dose of Pregabalin from the chemist, a drug he’s prescribed to treat anxiety … In Northern Ireland prescriptions have increased by 27% in the last 6 years, and the drug is more widely prescribed here than any other region in the UK. Drugs Map of Britain: Belfast Buds, BBC 2017
Doctors have a history of prescribing drugs to people affected by the mental and physical trauma. ibid.
Speed music. Music to pop pills by. Sell sell sell. Pills pills pills. All kinds: purple hearts, French blues, nigger minstrels, black bombers, uppers, leapers, anything to keep ’em leaping up and down on the dance floor. The Long Firm III: Jimmy, BBC 2004
Martin Shkreli rashly raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 dollars a pill to $750. Dirty Money III ***** Drug Short: Valeant Pharmaceuticals, news, Netflix 2018
The poster boy for hiking drug prices arrested today for securities fraud. ibid.
A house of cards with people cheating other people right left and centre.’ ibid. Australian short seller
They bought over a hundred companies. ibid.
You have to pay for your medicine because you’re going to die if you don’t. ibid. victim
Between 2010 and 2015 Valeant increased the monthly price of Syprine from $650 to $21,000. During the same period Valeant’s value grew from £2.3 billion to $78 billion. ibid. caption
Valeant was very good at creating an illusion that they were growing.’ ibid. short seller
Daraprim: Outrage After Pill Increases 5,000%. ibid. CNN banner
The pharmaceutical Enron. ibid. short seller
In one month Valeant stock fell 59%. The company lost $26 billion in value. ibid. caption
US insurance premiums have gone up 43% since 2008. ibid.
This wave of happiness that hit me. It was kind of like a warm glow. Take Your Pills, 2018
It works. It works like a bang. ibid.
A lot of people are here on Adderall. ibid. college junior
Now people do drugs to check in. ibid. dude
Benzedrine took off after the war as a general-practice anti-depressant, so too did Dexedrine. ibid.
Adderall is a performance enhancer, yes. ibid.
The number of children on stimulants has risen dramatically over the last few decades. ibid. caption
When reassurance is not enough Ritalin brightens your day. ibid. advert
Today, prescription stimulants are a $13 billion industry. ibid. caption
In 2015 the majority of Therapeutic Use Exemptions for athletes were for stimulants. ibid.
‘Cognitive enhancement is not going away.’ ibid. entrepreneur
Everyone takes them … It just makes it easier for you to be who you are. Side Effects 2013 starring Jude Law & Rooney Mara & Catherine Zeta-Jones & Channing Tatum & Vinessa Shaw & Ann Dowd & Polly Draper & David Costible & Mamie Gummer & Scott Shepherd et al, director Steven Soderbergh, Banks