Hilary Sutcliffe on LinkedIn: McKinsey reportedly under US criminal investigation over opioid industry… (2024)

Addiction Economy Thought for Today - the chicken and egg of 'booze culture' - do commercial drivers shape culture or vice versa. Good article on his experience of drinking in different countries by Gary Nunn & the recent WHO report from last week on the drinking culture in the UK which leads us to have the highest percentage of child drinkers in the world. "In Australia, the beers would mostly come with barbecued burgers and a relaxed afternoon. In Argentina, that famous red wine comes with steak over a long evening. In Britain, the shots come with chasers of more alcohol, while food is an afterthought – a kebab, once we’re already smashed. I must have done it a thousand times in my 20s. But it’s this alcohol culture that is killing us – and it appears to be getting worse. The UK’s alcohol-specific death rate was14.8 per 100,000 populationin 2021, a notable increase from 12.0 in 2011."In our new White Paper we explore the 4 models of Addiction - the Social/cultural, the Psychological, the Biological and the Economic. We explore the contribution of companies to addiction, and particularly how they shape our approach to whatever it is we do too much of until it harms us - in this case, alcohol. Could our extreme booze culture be the result of consistent misinformation over time about booze and British culture by companies - which results in lax laws that allow them to encourage binge drinking through promotions and super-cheap booze and promote a certain type of vibe in their marketing campaigns and product placement? It's certainly the case in gambling, cigs and vapes that the UK's approach to restriction is a direct cause of many of our problems. Not done a deep dive on the history of alcohol yet, it will be interesting to apply our model. Thanks Phil Cain for the heads up on this.If you are interested in our White Paper - it's here:https://bit.ly/3x5yTgoI am currently adding a new Moral Model and will ponder how a lack of stigma might also contribute - there is stigma about being totally addicted, but kudos for being wildly drunk and hungover. Curious. Hey Peter Krijgsman he mentions your point on greeting cards!https://lnkd.in/ec679PwN

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Nice again from Edith Pritchett in The Guardian magazine and the Blind Daters got on. Always cheering

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Addiction Economy Thought for Today - the economic and social models of addiction really prominent here in this new research from WHO on drinking and vaping. The Social Model focuses on context: I read elsewhere that it turns out that French kids don't get alcohol normalised by moderate use at home, they drink less than UK kids. But as shown here, UK kids get alcohol normalised by their parents excessive use and drink more than any other country in the world. “Evidence shows that parental drinking practices and how parents talk about alcohol are reflected in children’s attitudes towards alcohol and drinking. A pro-alcohol environment leads to the normalisation of drinking and ‘cultural blindness’ to alcohol harm among children. That’s true even with moderate parental drinking.“And as more affluent people tend to drink more, this normalisation will be especially true, which is likely why we see higher rates of drinking in children from affluent families. We know that children mirror the behaviour of the adults around them, so it’s important that parents who drink any amount are aware of how it could affect their child in later life.”Similarly with Vapes we vape more than anywhere else in the world.The Economic Model focuses on product design, availability, promotion and corporate influence on policy.Cultural context is a function of the Economic Model. We allow more positive advertising and promotion of both these products than anyone else and alcohol and vapes are widely promoted in society as a good thing and because of the influence of a range of companies, we are less quick to crack down. Embarrassingly, I am only just beginning to see the real problem of alcohol in the UK, and have been that middle class person who didn't think anything of it that their child drank in their teens, it was just normal. This doesn't happen in anything like as much the US where the drinking age is 21 and in Europe. European friends have been really shocked at the sheer volume that the Brits drink as a cultural norm.

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Addiction Economy Thought for The Day - this is an intriguing take on the addiction economy concept here from Michael Woudenberg. It wouldn't be an 'addiction' if the plastic really was recycled in an effective and sustainable way and so the harm is the critical aspect not the feel good/addictive nature of the act itself? Is it perhaps an example of predatory marketing which is just greenwashing, and misinformation which leads us to think we are doing the right thing when all we are doing is falling for another load of BS from companies with an unethical business model? Thanks Michael, will ponder!

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So upsetting and depressing for job seekers and so utterly predictable. AI might avoid the need to hire additional HR recruiters, but it results in whole new biases in recruitment, regularly picks the wrong people, and is depressing and soul destroying for candidates and favours narcissistic types who can act animated to a computer. Who knew. Ditch the recruitment bot — it’s not workinghttps://lnkd.in/g3cZzCZB

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Really fun evening yesterday at the launch of Dr. Susie A. new book Human Rights, Robot Wrongs - being human in the age of AI. Can’t wait to read it. Congrats Susie.

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Addiction Economy Thought for Today - the full set of the 4 components of the Economic Model of Addiction here behind the rising stats. FT reports also that deaths of women rose more than deaths of men due to predatory marketing and gendered promotions that portrayed alcohol as a tool for female empowerment Men and women not likely to seek help because of stigma and lack of services, alcohol so embedded in society people forget it is a highly addictive substance. England lags behind Scotland, Wales and NI in minimum pricing changes - regulatory capture by industry behind lack of government action on pricing and restrictions on advertising and misinformation.

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Addiction Economy Thought for Today - business, like water, will find a way. Here more evidence about the invention and marketing of Nitazenes which are a synthetic opioid more addictive and deadly than Heroin and if it's possible to imagine, significantly more so even than Fentanyl. Now for sale on thousands of sites on X and SoundCloud, and smuggled in as dog food and catering supplies. As soon as the seller's sites are taken down they pop up again says some new investigative journalism from the BBC.The substance is so cheap and easy to make and required in such small quantities sales are exploding. What is particularly scary, is that they are also being mis-sold as being something quite benign, such as anti-anxiety drugs, Xanax and Valium. Such small quantities are needed that overdosing is very easy to do. One pill can kill. Naloxone reverses the effects of Nitazenes as it does other opioids. How social media companies and border controls are going to stop this, I have no idea. https://lnkd.in/evw9-tEc

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I’m sharing this very moving letter in the Guardian as an antidote to the disgusting attitude of Tories to immigrants, and for this quote: “I went to a lecture recently in Mexico given by the psychotherapist Guy Pierre Tur and, referring to Donna Hicks’s work on dignity, he said: “When I hear a foreign accent, I hear effort; where I see difference, there is courage; where I see discrimination there is resilience; where I see denied dignity, I see strength and survival.”

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