NY Nurse: July/August 2019

Nurses brought their dedication and healthcare expertise to the Dominican Republic, and Mexico this summer, bringing NYSNA’s 2019 total of medical missions to seven.

In the Dominican Republic, eight nurses and a doctor travelled to the San Bartolo community in Santo Domingo and the village of San Gregorio de Nigua, located in the San Cristóbal province, to provide healthcare to underserved communities. Working side by side with host organization Asociación Nacional de Enfermería (ASONAEN), the National Association of Nurses, NYSNA members treated nearly 500 patients.

By 1994, mega-corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) capitalized on an opportunity that was to reap its shareholders billions in profits: raw ingredients for opioid painkillers. J&J had bought a business that grew and processed opium poppies in Tasmania, off Australia’s coast. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved OxyContin made by Purdue Pharma that year and J&J became the leading supplier of the drug’s ingredients.

One of the biggest drug busts in history may finally be done. Two dozen pushers up against local, state and federal authorities are giving up. It took almost a quarter century of investigation, witness preparation, trial (in some cases) and settlement.

The pushers: a handful of giant pharmaceutical corporations; their product: opioids.

We see it happen throughout history. When people have had enough, it takes only a spark to ignite the flame of mass resistance. The Revolutionary War of our United States was brewing over time—fueled by rebel organizing activities—but it was the tea tax and the Boston revolt that set a lot of things in motion, followed by several other events in rapid succession. Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s only occurred after years and years of struggle, sparked by some publicized brutal events in the South and massive demonstrations in Washington, DC.