The following story was written by Luke Ramseth for The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune.
It starts out easily enough: An opioid sales representative tells a doctor about a product over lunch, then picks up the tab.
For some doctors, this arrangement spirals into a habit. As reps promote various drugs, a physician might be treated to dozens, or hundreds, of free meals.
And for some doctors, the meals can turn into lucrative speaking deals. A physician can make $1,000 or more to present slides about an opioid or other pharmaceutical product to a roomful of doctors.