Latest Sign of Opioid Carnage in America: Oklahoma Doctor Charged with Murder in 5 Patient Opioid Deaths

The Oklahoma Attorney General just charged Dr. Regan Nichols with second-degree murder in the deaths of 5 of her patients, for allegedly prescribing them too many painkillers and related drugs.

The specific allegations against Dr. Nichols are shocking. They include that she prescribed:

• 3 million doses of controlled dangerous drugs from 2010 to 2014
• In one year, to a 47-year-old patient who subsequently died, a total of 450 painkillers, muscle relaxants, and anti-anxiety drugs
• In one month, to a 46-year-old patient–for whom, she had not done a full medical evaluation in 4 years-some 240 painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs.

The deaths of Dr. Nichols’ patients are not isolated. Painkiller overdoses killed 33,000 Americans in 2015, a huge jump from just a few years ago. This is an epidemic.

These are the important questions:

• Why is this happening in America? Why the huge spike in these deaths in just the last 5 years?
• Is Dr. Nichols (assuming the allegations against her are true) a renegade doctor, or is she a symptom of a society addicted to quick-fix pain killers, and the professionals who make money by supplying them?
• Who else is responsible for this epidemic? Do the companies making and promoting these painkillers-in aggressive campaigns directed to doctors and patients-bear responsibility for the American carnage?

We need to start taking this problem seriously. It’s killing us.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/oklahoma-doctor-charged-in-opioid-deaths-of-5-patients/2017/06/23/70107456-5841-11e7-840b-512026319da7_story.html?utm_term=.b97ecf2230f8