7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

v Opioids in Medical Offices

§  Opportunity

·      Doctors of the United States have been known to prescribe medications in the sense of opioids that leads to addiction and death.

¨     The who- The patients being prescribed the opioids.

¨     The what- The patients are becoming addicted to these hard drugs rather than taking a different route.

¨     The why- The reason doctors prescribe is because they receive money from the pharmaceutical companies, while these narcotics are the most expensive as well.

v Testing the who- The people that is matter affects is every age group, any nationality, and most importantly the people that have great health insurance. The doctors that started this movement started in the 90’s to try and cure the pain with these pills. However, the rise of the “I’m not feeling good” rose tremendously and so did the addiction levels and death related problems with these prescriptions.

v Testing the what- The addiction like I said earlier started in the 90’s but just in the past two years in 2017 47,000 people died from overdose. This was caused by low heart rate, diseases increased, inflammation, and 1.7 million people carried a disorder after being on an opioid when they tried to stop the medication. (www.drugabuse.gov)

v Testing the why- This happens because even though the doctors took an oath to save and help people, they are more focused on making the money from the insurance and pharmaceutical company. This breaks the line of trust with the doctor and patient. He/ She as the doctor knows that these are not good to consume in your body, but it is overlooked. This started usually from the age group 18-26 with the highest use for pain pills.

v Interview #1- For this person I asked her if she has ever been using any type of opioid. Her mindset on these particular drugs changed the mood. She answered yes but hesitated. She then later opened up that when she was in the hospital the doctor gave her a dose that was too much for her to control and she became very lax and inattentive. She also agreed that the doctors or even hospitals look at this as a business not saving lives anymore. She never considered going back to doing these drugs, but she knows people that have been admitted the hospital and walk out becoming addicted.

v Interview #2- This interview was with a police officer that lives in my neighborhood. I approached him with all the questions that I wanted to try and get answered and he said for almost every answer that he sees this drug on almost every crime scene. It is terrible how one person can be hooked and ruin your life. I asked him if he knew anyone personally on this drug and he admitted that yes, he did and that he was not able to even recognizes the person anymore.

v Interview #3- I interviewed an athletic guy from my gym and asked he used pain killers to enhance his performance. He later said yes. I explained to him how that cannot be goo in the long run with the high for opioids. Even though he is a healthy guy, it is the same cycle. He later opened up about how he is addicted to the regular over the counter pain killers and how it has affected him, and we later discussed how the end return can be and something needs to change. He was later on considering a holistic method from how worried he was by the conversation we had, I didn’t mean to scare him I was just informing him on the drugs in today’s world.

v Interview #4- I interviewed an older lady that takes an extreme amount of medication along with some of the opioids. She expressed that she was not a fan of the pain killers, now she is hooked. She says that she never used drugs, but the doctors kept giving her higher doses thinking that would heal her pain but all it did we hide it. She opened up even more saying how the pills are expensive even with health insurance and that the whole system is not fair. She lives on a tight budget, so she has to substitute some other necessities in her life for these pills. She seemed ashamed but this is all that she knew was to take a pill.

v Interview #5- I interviewed a young business owner in my community and she was telling me about margins in her business and then I flipped the script and asked her in the setting of the opioids and how related they are to other business models. Her eyes lit up. She knew where I was coming from. She told me that this whole business with the opioids it is a scheme, but people are hooked and that they “need it”. This is the addiction part, as she said if you are a business owner you want people there addicted to your product to keep buying it and in this sense it’s the pills.

v Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before? 

Ø  For the first interview I didn’t notice how people were being manipulated in the sense of even a hospital. This opened my eyes in the sense of how the patient all they want is to feel better, but everyone’s else best interest is to make money and not heal. Along with the similar topic from the police officer how frequent that this drug is really out on the streets and that it is really harming people in my community. I was taken back by these responses. He was numb to it because for him it is something that is an everyday lifestyle. The one that I learned the most about was my last interview and expressed business models and how they are similar with the cycle of addiction. This is golden for a business owner to achieve this. I think the example is totally left field with the drugs, but it is the same thing. If people are not coming or buying your products no money is coming in. on the other hand an addict will do anything in their will to obtain that product.