A pharmacist told Medicaid officials that opioid addiction was a myth at an opioid-funded conference

Opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma helped fund a 2003 conference for Medicaid officials where a pharmacist said that opioid addiction was "rare among patients" and "seriously overestimated". effects may occur, "says the opioid addiction slide show, but" they are seriously overestimated in American society and around the world. "

The slide show said that the addiction was often" pseudo-diction "or" Observers are concerned about obtaining opioids, but the concern is to find relief from pain rather than pain. " Use opioids.

The presentation also recommends physicians "increase the dose by 50%" for patients requiring increasing doses of opioids. "Addiction is extremely rare," says the presentation, and "end organ damage to organs [is] very rare with chronic use."

Lecturer, pharmacist Kenneth Jackson, made this presentation at the 2003 conference of the American Drug Utilization Review Society, according to an article published Thursday by the Center for Public Integrity. At the conference, Medicaid officials were able to hear from doctors, pharmaceutical companies and other state Medicaid officials.

Some of the medical professionals who speak at these conferences have links with pharmaceutical companies, a point that often is not. It is not clear if Purdue Pharma has already paid Jackson directly.

Purdue Pharma declined to comment in the original article of the Center for Public Integrity. (RELATED: Pharmaceutical Companies Influence Medicaid's Favorite Medicines with Big Dollars)

Several States Are Prosecuting Purdue Pharma for Denaturing the Risk of Opioid Abuse Reuters reported in May. In June, 26 states sued Purdue, according to the Twin City Pioneer Press.

"We are disappointed that after months of good-faith negotiations aimed at a meaningful resolution to help these states resolve the opioid crisis, this group of Advocates General has unilaterally decided to continue a process of costly and lengthy litigation, "a Purdue spokesman told Reuters on May 15.

In 2016, 42,249 people died from an opioid overdose in the United States and 2.1 million, "according to the Department of Health and Human Services. According to a Medscape study, 4.5 out of 100,000 deaths came from an overdose of opioids.

Opioid overdoses occur because opioids cause respiratory depression, says an article by Scientific American. People who have an opioid overdose do not breathe and eventually die from a lack of oxygen.

The Daily Caller News Foundation contacted Kenneth Jackson and Purdue Pharma for comments, but none were received in time to be published

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