Purdue Pharma recently reached a $7.4 billion settlement with all 50 states and the District of Columbia over its alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis through aggressive marketing of OxyContin. Regardless of the case’s merits, this landmark deal highlights what can happen when an expedient narrative replaces data-driven public policy. Nowhere is the gap […]
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged doctors to cut back on opioid prescriptions in 2016, Charles LeBaron thought the advice made sense. LeBaron, a physician who was a CDC medical epidemiologist for nearly three decades, believed doctors had been too loose with pain medication, contributing to a dramatic increase in opioid-related […]