Text 32422, 84 rader
Skriven 2016-04-12 00:59:22 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
Ärende: Suicide Is Painless
===========================
Hello Everybody,

Have you ever watched M*A*S*H - the movie
or the television series?  Remember the theme
song, "Suicide Is Painless?"

Well, it may be true that suicide is painless.
But it sure has become painfully expensive.

For decades, the lethal medication of choice for
most suiciders has been sleeping pills.  Used in
combination with getting drunk, sleeping pills
are highly effective, as they do their work quickly
and very gently, allowing the suicider to go into
terminal sleep mode without complications.

Sleeping pills (secobarbital) have been around
since the 1930s in the USA.  They have been sold
under various brand names throughout the years.
But today, there is only one brand of sleeping
pills, with no generics.  That brand is Seconal.

Keep in mind these are the exact same sleeping
pills that were around in the 1930s.

In 2009, one bottle of 100 pills sold for $200.
I do not know what the cost was for the same
amount in the 1930s, but it most certainly was
a lot less.

A lethal dose of sleeping pills (taken in combination
with one's favorite bottle of booze) is 100 pills.  No
need to check into any hospital afterwards.

I would imagine the total cost of doing so in the 1930s
was probably under $20.  The total cost of doing so in 2009
was slightly more than $200.

By 2015, the cost of 100 sleeping pills had risen to $1,500.
Probably due to Obamacare, as insurance companies have become
more and more subsidized.

Still not a bad deal, given what happened next.

The state of California passed an aid-in-dying law, which
takes effect this coming June.  Not only does this state
law make suicide legal, but it also makes assisted suicide
legal.  Thank you, Governor Jerry Brown.

That should not have been a big deal, given the fact that
Oregon has had a similar law for the past 20 years.

What makes things different this time is the cost of the
drugs has skyrocketed to astronomical levels.

Can anybody blame the company that owns the product
from raising the price when the state of California made
it legal to assist suiciders to suicide?

In the USA, pharmaceutical companies get to set their own
prices for drugs, and can raise or lower those costs at will.

Raising the price from $200 to $1500 over a six-year
period is fair, given the costs of research and development
a company has to spend in order to bring its product to
market.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals owns the product, and within
30 days of California passing its law, doubled the price
of its brand of sleeping pills to $3,000.

What went for $200 in 2009 cost $3000 in 2015.

I wonder if Valeant Pharmaceuticals will double the cost
again, making it $6000 for a bottle of sleeping pills in 2016?

Far cheaper to buy a bullet, load a gun, and pull the trigger.
Also just as painless.  The only downside is it leaves a mess.
But hey.  Somebody else has to clean it up.

--Lee

--- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb
 * Origin: news://eljaco.se (2:203/2)