Maker Of Dangerous Opioid Is Spending Big To Stop Legal Pot In Arizona

A controversial pharmaceutical company that makes a highly addictive opioid donated $500,000 to a campaign fighting a ballot measure in Arizona that would legalize recreational marijuana. Proponents of the measure, Proposition 205, see Insys Therapeutics, the company behind the major contribution, as emblematic of the way the makers of dangerous painkillers block legalization efforts to pad their own profit margins. Marijuana is a cheaper and safer alternative to drugs that the likes of Insys sell, the advocates argue. “We are truly shocked by our opponents’ decision to keep a donation from what appears to be one of the more unscrupulous members of Big Pharma,” said J.P. Holyoak, chair of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, in a statement. “You have a company using profits from the sale of what has been called ‘the most potent and dangerous opioid on the market’ to prevent adults from using a far less harmful substance.” Insys currently only markets Subsys, an oral spray form of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller linked to the opioid epidemic, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Arizona-based firm is also developing a synthetic cannabis product, which it said would improve on a product it sold in the past, but has discontinued. The company has endured multiple investigations in recent years for allegedly illegal marketing of Subsys. The state of Illinois sued the com...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news