Maybe it’s time to make our own drugs.

Not the kind of drugs you might be thinking about.

We’re talking about a proposal by state Sen. Curt VanderWall — a plan that’s gaining bipartisan attention and support — to get the state of Michigan into the insulin production business. It’s an idea mirrored by a number of other efforts nationwide to reign in absurd inflation in insulin prices during the past few decades that have some people with diabetes putting their health at risk by skipping doses or rationing the life-sustaining drug.

Lawmakers far and wide, including VanderWall, have keyed in on the irrational rise in insulin prices – the drug has been around for about 100 years, but drug companies tripled prices between 2002 and 2013 alone. Now, after years of drug makers’ reluctance to reign in profit taking, both law and policy setters seem poised to bring out big levers like the one VanderWall suggests.

Maybe a big stick isn’t a bad idea in this case.

Sure, the state launching an insulin manufacturing program won’t make the pure capitalists among us comfortable, but when do the ethics of keeping people alive weigh into our equation? Should we allow drug makers with a captive customer base buy a product that has changed little in decades to arbitrarily put our neighbors in a vise and squeeze?

We can imagine plenty of reasons to allow a drug maker to charge sky-high prices if they spent decades developing a cure for diabetes, but charging wild prices for insulin seems out of line to say the least.

Think about it this way, a month’s supply of one type of insulin pen could cost someone with diabetes $600 in Michigan, but that same person can drive across the bridge into Canada and buy the same supply for about $70. And insulin costs are about three times higher in the U.S. than in other developed nations.

VanderWall’s proposal to bring universities and researchers to the table to launch a state-run manufacturing program to lower insulin prices is as extreme as they get. But we’re probably at a juncture where extreme measures are necessary.

At least one other state, California, is considering a similar proposal, while state and national lawmakers have proposed a wide variety of regulations to cap out of pocket insulin costs for people with diabetes.

The fact is, it seems we’re at a juncture where drug manufacturers know they’ve got their hands around a captive population, and they’re squeezing relentlessly.

Maybe what drug makers really need is a knock on the knuckles from a big policy stick to loosen their grip just a little.

Because they simply can’t keep squeezing our neighbors who live with diabetes.