"People were dying by the thousands while these companies were lobbying members of Congress. "Most people think it's the political parties that run the show or it's the White House that runs the show, but it really is the companies that run the show," Higham says. In the new book, American Cartel, Higham and co-author Sari Horwitz make the case that the pharmaceutical industry operated like a drug cartel, with manufacturers at the top wholesalers in the middle and pharmacies at the level of "street dealers." What's more, Higham says, the companies collaborated with each other - and with lawyers and lobbyists - to create legislation that protected their industry, even as they competed for market share. Washington Post journalist Scott Higham notes it's "the equivalent of a 737 Boeing crashing and burning and killing everybody on board every single day." It's estimated that more than 107,000 people in the United States died due to opioid overdoses in 2021. Listen A bag of assorted pills and prescription drugs is dropped off for disposal during the Drug Enforcement Administration's National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Apin Los Angeles.
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