Deregulate!

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When Oxycontin was first approved for sale in the U.S. in 1995, regulators designated it as a safe and effective treatment only for managing short-term pain. Six years later, under pressure from drug makers like Purdue Pharma, the FDA sanctioned its long-term use, despite an absence of new research showing that more extended usage of the drug would be safe. Under these looser FDA regulations, Purdue Pharma stepped up its campaign “to conceal or minimize the risks of—and to circumvent or ignore safeguards against—opioid abuse,” according to a lawsuit filed last year by SEARHC. “Instead of acting with reasonable care and in compliance with their legal duties,” the lawsuit alleged, Purdue Pharma and other drug makers had “intentionally flooded the market with opioids and pocketed billions of dollars in the process.” Sales of Oxycontin, which had been a robust $44 million in 1996, jumped to more than $1 billion annually after the FDA’s 2001 decision. By 2004 it was one of America’s most abused drugs.

We Didn’t Stand a Chance Against Opioids | The New Republic

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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Friday officially repealed an Obama-era regulation that sought to crack down on for-profit colleges and universities that produced graduates with no meaningful job prospects and mountains of student debt they could not hope to repay. The so-called gainful employment rule was issued by the Obama administration in 2014, right before huge for-profit chains collapsed, leaving students stranded with debt and worthless degrees.

Under the new standards, career and certificate programs, many of which operate in the for-profit sector, would have to prove their graduates could find gainful employment to maintain access to federal financial aid. It also would have required schools to disclose in advertisements a comparison of the student debt load of their graduates and their career earnings. In her first two years in office, Ms. DeVos has delayed critical parts of the rule, and last year, she sought to repeal it entirely, siding with for-profit industry leaders and congressional conservatives who have contended that the Obama administration unfairly targeted for-profit schools.

DeVos Repeals Obama-Era Rule Cracking Down on For-Profit Colleges - The New York Times

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Boeing is being sued by more than 400 pilots who flew its 737 Max plane, in a class-action lawsuit that accuses the manufacturer of an “unprecedented cover-up” of issues with the aircraft. The pilots claim in the lawsuit that the 737 Max’s design gave it “inherently dangerous” defects when pilots tried to fly it, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. They also say they have suffered financial damage as the plane remains grounded around the world, and have experienced career uncertainty as a result. The pilots join a slew of other groups affected by 737 Max crisis, including airline pilots, airlines, and victims’ families in looking for damages from Boeing after the two deadly crashes involving the Max.

More than 400 737 Max pilots are suing Boeing over an 'unprecedented cover-up' of flaws in the plane's design

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Products like Red Bull have sent thousands of adolescents to the emergency room. The people who market them insist they don’t need to be regulated.

Are Energy Drinks Safe for Teens? - The Atlantic

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We have The Jungle to thank for certain food-safety regulations today. Protections for meat-industry workers, though, would come later—and President Trump has been trying to undo even that modest progress. His administration last year authorized faster “line speeds” (the number of animals killed per minute) for poultry plants, and began looking into doing the same for beef. New U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations that take effect in December will allow the same at pork plants, while also cutting 40 percent of government inspectors and delegating inspections to employees, who may not have undergone any kind of training in food safety.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and an advocacy group, Public Citizen, last week sued the administration over the new rules, saying that faster line speeds will increase worker injuries. That’s a certainty. As The Guardian noted in 2018, “US meatpacking workers are already three times more likely to suffer serious injury than the average American worker,” with pork and beef workers almost seven times more likely to sustain repetitive strain injuries from slicing and hauling. Bureau of Labor Statistics show the injury rate for meatpacking workers is 2.4 times higher than the national average for all industries. Trump is taking an already dangerous, dehumanizing job, and making it even more so..

Trump Turns Back the Clock in America’s Meat Plants | The New Republic

• The Jungle is Upton Sinclair's epic novel about the meatpacking industry at the turn of the 20th century
  

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In a closed Facebook group, British woman Amanda Mary Jewell has for years been selling the chemical GcMAF, claiming it is a cure for cancer and autism. She has provided no medical support for this claim. Jewell also sells expensive, unregulated treatments at her clinic in the tropical nation of Belize. She is not a UK-registered doctor. Both services are advertised on Facebook, in closed groups inaccessible without invitation. Other unproven so-called “cures” – like the bleach known as Miracle Mineral Solution – also flourish in closed Facebook groups. Experts say these groups are a breeding ground for disinformation. In the realm of life-altering diseases, a switch from a proven medical treatment to an unproven one could have serious consequences.

Unlicensed medical 'cures' are flourishing in closed Facebook groups, where cancer treatments — and even surgery — are sold beyond the reach of the law

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Terry Ann McIntosh’s financial nightmare began four years ago, soon after she hired a caregiver through a family services website. McIntosh, then 75 and in a wheelchair, had assumed that the young woman who eventually showed up at her San Mateo, Calif., home wouldn’t steal from her. She was wrong.In October 2015, Meletofetofe Uhila began logging into McIntosh’s Bank of America account, using the older woman’s credentials. The first time, Uhila attempted to transfer $10,000 into her own account. The bank blocked it, requesting that McIntosh call in to verify her identity. Uhila called instead, pretending to be her. Though Uhila failed the bank’s security questions, and McIntosh had never made a similar transfer in all the years she held the account, the bank allowed it to go through. Unaware, McIntosh continued to visit her branch every week, as she had done for the past 15 years. No bank employee ever mentioned the transaction. 

Insurers, Lawyers and Financial Advisers Are Scamming Seniors - Bloomberg

• Lawyers and advisers are scamming seniors, but the Trump government is more or less dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau..
  

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After ProPublica sued the IRS, the agency released emails that show it has allowed the tax preparation industry to write the rules.

The IRS Tried to Hide Emails That Show Tax Industry Influence Over Free File Program — ProPublica

• Increasingly, those that are regulated can write their own rules..
  

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The opioid epidemic cost the US $696 billion in 2018 and more than $2.5 trillion from 2015 to 2018, according to a new estimate by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The CEA last calculated the cost of the opioid epidemic in 2015, putting the price at more than $500 billion. Using similar methodology, the agency calculated new numbers for the ensuing years..

More than 70,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2017 — a record number, with around two-thirds of those deaths linked to opioids. Preliminary data suggests the death toll fell or remained relatively flat in 2018, but experts caution the preliminary data could be off. It could also be a temporary reprieve, as occurred in 2011 and 2012.

The opioid epidemic cost $2.5 trillion over 4 years - Vox

• And more deaths in a year than the entire Vietnam war US soldiers deaths.
  

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A confidential government document containing evidence so critical it had the potential to change the course of an American tragedy was kept in the dark for more than a decade. The document, known as a “prosecution memo,” details how government lawyers believed that Purdue Pharma, the maker of the powerful opioid, OxyContin, knew early on that the drug was fueling a rise in abuse and addiction. They also gathered evidence indicating that the company’s executives had misled the public and Congress. “The Weekly” shines a light on that 2006 Justice Department memo and its consequences for today’s wave of lawsuits against opioid makers and members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma.

The Weekly | A Secret Opioid Memo That Could Have Slowed an Epidemic - The New York Times