The specific allegations against Dr. Nichols are shocking. They include that she prescribed:
- 3 million doses of controlled dangerous drugs from 2010 to 2014
- In one year, to a 47-year-old patient who subsequently died, a total of 450 painkillers, muscle relaxants, and anti-anxiety drugs
- In one month, to a 46-year-old patient–for whom, she had not done a full medical evaluation in 4 years-some 240 painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs.
The deaths of Dr. Nichols’ patients are not isolated. Painkiller overdoses killed 33,000 Americans in 2015, a huge jump from just a few years ago. This is an epidemic.
These are the important questions:
- Why is this happening in America? Why the huge spike in these deaths in just the last 5 years?
- Is Dr. Nichols (assuming the allegations against her are true) a renegade doctor, or is she a symptom of a society addicted to quick-fix pain killers, and the professionals who make money by supplying them?
- Who else is responsible for this epidemic? Do the companies making and promoting these painkillers-in aggressive campaigns directed to doctors and patients-bear responsibility for the American carnage?
We need to start taking this problem seriously. It’s killing us.