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Mandated chemical dependency treatment vouchers to treat problems caused by powerful opiates and other similar drugs would be more apropos and effective at responding to medical and criminal justice problems than by hiring cops.  

Industry would set up assigned risk pool for funding it.  

The perverse and fragmented forces of marketplace and health consequences are nowhere more apparent than with oxycontin. This powerful opiate has significant physical dependence producing properties. This has been known for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Somehow this basic pharmacological fact has been forgotten by the company as it sought to increase its sales.  

Time to remember.  

But no. Infinitely made more complex by the enforcement corrections involvement from incidents in diversion and illicit trafficking. Worsened by FDA and other health regulatory agency passivity and pharmaceutical industry power, Purdue Pharma continues maneuvering and perigrinations to cope with the situation. A better and more appropriate solution would be treatment vouchers for chemical dependency treatment programs and a fund for compensation for criminal justice agencies involved in problematic uses of Oxycontin. This appropriate and responsible move would motivate development of effective sales and security policies and initiate a connection between adverse effects of the drug and policy.  

Tod Mikuriya, M.D. 

Berkeley