The Opioid Epidemic Today: At the Crossroads of Business and Ethics

Recover Yourself: Out from Under the Influence

How important is the bottom line and how many people have been pushed aside for that bottom line? Our culture has put business in front of all else and this has caused a fracturing in everything worth a damn. The bottom line has broken up families and has directly challenged some of our most dearly held ethics. As our friends, neighbors, and our entire social media streams all become increasingly transactional relationships, I think it is time to look at Dope. Tracking how opioids spread can help us identify the whole of the dopamine epidemic we are ushering in.

I cannot express how excited I am to talk with Dr. Anna Lembke, author of Drug Dealer MD and the highly anticipated Dopamine Nation. We are exploring the landscape of healthcare, especially as it relates to the opioid epidemic. In this episode, we learn about how a system of people, who are not doctors, have transformed the entire world of healthcare and very possibly the highly respected role of doctors in our society.

You will also learn about “Relative Value Units” which is essentially a quota many Doctors have to meet to earn their salaries. We also talk quite a bit about opioids specifically and how medication management is valued within the healthcare system. These are important bits of information we all should know about as they may dictate the goals of our own doctors. It is also important to see the layers involved which are designed to hide motives. When these layers are implemented well, even doctors can be unaware of the wide-reaching effects of their cooperation.

I encourage everyone to read Drug Dealer MD and preorder your copy of Dopamine Nation. Dr. Lemke and I will hopefully chat again for the release of Dopamine Nation so keep an eye out for that.

Drug Dealer MD: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KRJUH5G/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

Dopamine Nation: https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X

Questions for Groups:

• Because, or if, we are in an environment of recovery, many people around us are tasked with, and are generally interested in, helping us. Where do we purposefully manipulate, or attempt to manipulate, those people/relationships to gain something?


• Finish these sentences:


• o I am not advocating for myself when I…


• o I can better advocate for myself by…


• o I have not often chosen this because…


• The consumer world around us is always asking us to consume more, what are five things that you consume, have consumed, that there never seemed to be enough of? This can relate back to your using, or to things like social media, sugar, or an emotion, like anger.

More research: If you are interested in learning more about the Stanford Prison Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_LKzEqlPto

I mentioned this experiment because it is clear to me that when we are knowledgeable about what will happen to people in a situation, like the students of this experiment found themselves, the lack of ethics/morality/humane nature lay, not on the shoulders of those experiencing the trauma of the situation but to those that created the situation The most immoral individuals are those that create systems where people are not given a way out, and separate people into two factions one with power and one that is forced to submit to that power. Zimbardo is, I believe, the unethical root of the entire experiment, and his role should have, IMHO, been a bigger part of that conversation.

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