Damn - How Stupid Are People?

The opinions of the author do not necessarily represent management.

Every day, more than 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids.1 

The misuse of and addiction to opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.2

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis#one

So, 47,450 people die every year of opioid overdoes. That is .01446% of American society. Is that really a crisis?

The CDC lists 2018 deaths by category:

1. Heart Disease - 635,260
2. Cancer - 598,038
3. Unintentional Accidents - 161,374
4. Lower Respiratory Disease - 154,596
5. Stroke - 141,142
6. Alzheimers - 116,103
7. Diabetes - 80,058
8. Influenza and Pneumonia - 51,537
9. Kidney Disease - 50,046
10. Opioids - 47,450

So, the Opioid Crisis is the 10th largest reason for death in America. Hmmm..... Yet Guns and Opioids are crisis level issues. Really?

Why? Well guns we know, the NRA is a large contributor to Republicans and Democrats hate the idea of an armed populous.

But Opioids, could this have anything to do with it?

(Reuters) Ohio’s Cuyahoga and Summit counties were seeking around $8 billion from the three largest U.S. drug distributors - McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Cardinal Health Inc - and Israel-based drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and pharmacy chain Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc. 

The defendants have denied wrongdoing.
The case is among some 2,600 lawsuits brought by states, towns, cities, counties and tribal governments over the opioid epidemic.

Let's face it folks when Politicians and Lawyers need funds, where best to get it than Crisis and Class Action Lawsuits?

Just read this bullshit and tell me why lawsuits are increasing?

There is no exact precedent for these opioid lawsuits, but that doesn’t make them any less legitimate. A defense attorney recently challenged Wilbert Hatcher’s lawsuit, asking the West Virginia Supreme Court if plaintiffs who admittedly had engaged in criminal behavior to obtain and use drugs had the right to sue. The Court upheld the lawsuit, with Chief Justice Margaret Workman writing in the majority opinion:

This court finds that our system of comparative negligence offers the most legally sound and well-reasoned approach to dealing with a plaintiff who has engaged in immoral or illegal conduct.

Furthermore, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has endorsed the lawsuit, saying prescription painkillers are handed out in his home state “like M&Ms.”

After all isn't that the Liberal mantra? "No one is responsible for this own failures, stupidity or own actions"

Drug companies will settle these suits, and pass that cost on to everyone while Lawyers and Politicians get richer.