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Leading doctor says Tennessee's opioid epidemic just getting started

cdc.gov

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (OSBORNE)  --  The head of the state Medical Association says Tennessee’s pain killer addiction problem is even worse than anyone thought.

 

Dr. Nita Shoemaker is the current president of the Tennessee Medical Association. She says that back in the 1990s drug makers convinced doctors their new pain medications were safe and were not addictive.

Shoemaker says the companies even implied that doctors who failed to prescribe the new drugs were abusing patients.

 

“We, as a body, were actually not adequately treating pain in patients and that we could actually be held liable for not controlling pain.”

 

As a result, Shoemaker says an entire generation of patients received long-term prescriptions for treatment of chronic pain.

 

Fast-forward to today, she says when doctors start trying to wean those patients off pain meds, many are going to suddenly realize they’re addicted.

 

Dr.  Shoemaker also believes prescription overdose deaths are being vastly underreported. She notes that autopsies are not performed on everyone, especially in Tennessee’s rural community.

 

“People who are out in rural areas and they’re 55 and they die in their sleep they don’t necessarily get an autopsy to say did they have an opioid cause this. We may just surmise that they actually had a heart attack.”

 

Dr. Shoemaker says the State of Tennessee will eventually have to figure out how to cover the cost of treating all those addicted residents.

 

She believes drug makers will eventually be forced to pay for some of that care, much as tobacco companies were forced two decades ago to compensate the states for the damage done by cigarettes.