While everyone’s reposting Brian David Gilbert’s line about opiate addiction in the U.S., now’s a perfect time to take a moment to learn more about the realities of it! In April of last year, 2018, the Navajo Nation joined a growing list of tribes, cities, and states suing opioid manufacturers and pharmacies.
“Distribution of opioids across the country has been grossly excessive and especially in Indian Country. The CDC death rates show a strong correlation over time with the increase in opioid volumes being distributed and dispensed across the country, and this is particularly true for Native American tribes,” Fields said.
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CDC data states that 1 in 10 Native children aged 12 and older have used opioids for non-medical purposes, double the rate of white children. Pregnant Native women are also up to 8.7 times more likely than pregnant white women to be diagnosed with opioid dependency or abuse. The lawsuit also states that that prescription and illicit opioids led to 7,309 overdose deaths from 2014 through 2016. (x)
Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians also testified that, “More than 28 percent of the babies born addicted to opiates are Native American even though we are only about 2 percent of the population.”
“The only difference between these companies and drug cartels is the fact that legal purveyors of prescription opioids have protection from law enforcement and seemingly unlimited funds to market and distribute to the masses their highly addictive drugs,” Cordalis, who is a Yurok citizen, said after the tribe went to court last month.
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Again, Navajo Nation is just one tribe among a parade of places suing big pharma. I encourage you to research and see if your state or a city or tribe near you has joined the lawsuit train against manufacturers and pharmacies and read their stories! Stay aware of the truths of big pharma’s crimes in our country and our communities, and the government’s complicity with them. Thank you for reading!
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