After reading Kevin Miller’s front-page article in the Oct. 28 Portland Press Herald, detailing the online retail giant’s submission of applications to the Maine Board of Pharmacy for wholesale licenses to sell “professional only” medical products, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Why Maine? Why 12 other states (Nevada, Arizona, North Dakota, Louisiana, Alabama, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, Idaho, New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee) that have already given licenses to Amazon?

Is it just a coincidence that Amazon has targeted these states in particular? All 13 of them, except Connecticut, which is home to a number of pharmaceutical and insurance companies, have Republican governors. These 13 states, targeted by Amazon, were repeatedly listed in varied sources on the internet as having huge opioid abuse problems.

According to opensecrets.org, the pharmaceutical industry (aka Big Pharma), which includes drug manufacturers and dealers of medical products, consistently ranks at or near the top of the list of donors when it comes to federal campaign contributions, and further, Republican candidates tend to receive substantially more funding than Democrats from Big Pharma. Coincidence or correlation?

Amazon says they need the licenses to sell wholesale medical devices, but I can’t help but wonder if is this a way for them to insert their big foot into the door of our state, and others, plagued with opioid addiction to help increase the distribution of drugs such as OxyContin, thus sending more business to Big Pharma and more money to political (especially Republican) campaigns.

Linda Posson

Rockport


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