Please go to centralmaine.com to read the full editorial. 

There are still physicians willing to push the old narrative on drugs like OxyContin, and we all pay the price.

By The Editorial Board

~~Excerpt

Today’s nationwide epidemic of opiate addiction was given birth in part by doctors who with the best of intentions wanted to help patients in pain, and by drug companies who said they had just the remedy — long-lasting, effective painkillers with none of the addictive qualities of their predecessors.

Hundreds of millions of prescriptions later, we know all three of those claims to be false. Medications such as OxyContin have proved ineffective for the kind of chronic pain for which they are most often prescribed, and they have been widely successful at fostering addiction, setting the stage for the cheap and potent heroin that has devastated communities in every corner of the country.

Still, the drug companies who own these pain medications continue to push the old narrative, and still they are finding friendly doctors to help them push it.

And while it’s not surprising that companies are repeating what has worked when it comes to selling their products, it’s troubling that some doctors are so willing to go along.