One-in-five working-age American men cannot work because of opioid addiction

Pharmacutical industry is destroying our workforce in the name of profit.

A Princeton study reveals that 20 percent of American men have dropped out of the workforce because of opioid use.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- Opioids have wiped out a fifth of America's workforce with one-out-of-five men addicted to opiates and unable to work. These are not people with actual injuries and disabilities, these are people who have become addicted to drugs, often legal prescriptions, and can no longer work. It will be up to society to provide for them.

The present epidemic would be no different if a war had killed one-in-five working age men.

The study was performed by Princeton University economist, Alan Krueger, who reviewed 15 years of labor statistics and prescription rates. He discovered that a rise in opioid prescriptions has directly contributed to a decline in the labor force.

He was able to demonstrate that this change is not due to medical conditions, such as actual injury or illness, but simply to opioid addiction.

An unknown, but significant number of American workers are employed while also using opioids.

Drug companies have been exposed pushing and rewarding doctors who prescribe opioids to patients. Opium forms the basis of some of the most powerful painkillers, but it is also addictive. Patients report they cannot function without the drugs. Even if cut off from their prescriptions, they work to get the pills or turn to illegal opioids such as heroin or fentanyl.

This is driving record profits for the pharmaceutical industry, which now rivals organized criminal drug gangs in terms of wealth and power. Although they do not use violence to achieve their end, they are protected by armies of lawyers and lobbyists and can manipulate members of congress into doing their bidding.

Although the Trump administration has vowed to crack down on unethical doctors who are pushing opioids, results to date have been minuscule.

The growing legal drug problem in the United States is killing Americans and destroying our workforce. There are no reasons to hope it will improve anytime soon.