Sackler Family Members Face Mass Litigation And Criminal Investigations Over Opioids Crisis

[appalachiablue]

The Guardian, Exclusive: Suffolk county in Long Island has sued several family members, and Connecticut and New York are considering criminal fraud and racketeering charges against leading family members. Nov. 19, 2018.

Members of the multi-billionaire philanthropic Sackler family that owns the maker of prescription painkiller OxyContin are facing mass litigation and likely criminal investigation over the opioids crisis still ravaging America. Some of the Sacklers wholly own Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, the company that created and sells the legal narcotic OxyContin, a drug at the center of the opioid epidemic that now kills almost 200 people a day across the US.

Suffolk county in Long Island, New York, recently sued several family members personally over the overdose deaths and painkiller addiction blighting local communities. Now lawyers warn that action will be a catalyst for hundreds of other US cities, counties and states to follow suit.

At the same time, prosecutors in Connecticut and New York are understood to be considering criminal fraud and racketeering charges against leading family members over the way OxyContin has allegedly been dangerously over-prescribed and deceptively marketed to doctors and the public over the years, legal sources told the Guardian last week.

“This is essentially a crime family … drug dealers in nice suits and dresses,” said Paul Hanly, a New York city lawyer who represents Suffolk county and is also a lead attorney in a huge civil action playing out in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio, involving opioid manufacturers and distributors. The Sacklers are a wealthy but feuding clan.
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..Lawyers working on opioid litigation expect family members to be sued by name as part of the multi-district litigation in Ohio. Lawsuits have been filed by more than 1,200 cities, counties and municipalities in federal courts across the US, against Purdue and other corporate defendants.

The first trials are set next year in three significant cases from two Ohio counties and the city of Cleveland. Purdue is also being sued by at least 30 states in state court. It is widely expected that the parties will negotiate a very large global settlement like the approximate $250bn deal agreed in a 1997 landmark Big Tobacco case. - More.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/19/sackler-family-members-face-mass-litigation-criminal-investigations-over-opioids-crisis

US Drug Overdose Deaths Rose To Record 72,000 Last Year, Data Reveals
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/16/us-drug-overdose-deaths-opioids-fentanyl-cdc

The Family That Built an Empire of Pain. The Sackler dynasty’s ruthless marketing of painkillers has generated billions of dollars—and millions of addicts. The New Yorker, Oct. 30, 2017.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain

Purdue launched OxyContin with a marketing campaign that attempted to counter this attitude and change the prescribing habits of doctors. The company funded research and paid doctors to make the case that concerns about opioid addiction were overblown, and that OxyContin could safely treat an ever-wider range of maladies. Sales representatives marketed OxyContin as a product “to start with and to stay with.” Millions of patients found the drug to be a vital salve for excruciating pain. But many others grew so hooked on it that, between doses, they experienced debilitating withdrawal.
Since 1999, two hundred thousand Americans have died from overdoses related to OxyContin and other prescription opioids. Many addicts, finding prescription painkillers too expensive or too difficult to obtain, have turned to heroin. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, four out of five people who try heroin today started with prescription painkillers.
>The most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that a hundred and forty-five Americans now die every day from opioid overdoses.

[ck4829]

1. They're drug lords... they put Pablo Escobar to shame

[appalachiablue]

2. Well said

[Bradshaw3]

3. Good. Don't know if it will work but at least a message is being sent

Not that it will matter until Dems take control of government and these coporate elites are held accountable. The should go to prison in a just world but that won't happen.

[ProfessorPlum]

4. Michael Moore wrote about regulation

in his book "dude, where's my democracy?" and said that it is obvious that we need it and we can all agree on it. For example, he said, we don't allow corporations to sell crack or heroine. That's a regulation we can all agree with.

And then, time passed, regulation evaporated away, and lo and behold we are allowing corporations to sell deadly, addictive drugs. Huzzah for the free market.

[mr_lebowski]

5. I fundamentally disagree with going after Purdue anymore ...

1) They've already paid out BILLIONS in lawsuits due to their deceptive marketing practices, minimizing the risk of addition in the early 2000's and paying kickbacks to doctors for Rx'ing their medications

2) They've stopped that marketing strategy a long time ago

3) The VAST majority of 'opioid overdoses' are, in reality, drug and alcohol overdoses wherein opioids are one of MANY CNS depressant drugs in the dead person's system. Benzos like valium and xanax, and ESPECIALLY alcohol are almost inevitably also found.

4) And when it's a pure opioid OD, that is almost always caused by either extremely strong heroin, or fake heroin actually made with Fentanyl. Almost NOBODY overdoses and dies taking Rx'd opioids AS PRESCRIBED. Which is what a Pharma company should be 'responsible for', legally, IMHO.

5) And you know who else is responsible? The Government is also partly responsible, and not just because of lax early 2000's regulations, but also because of how LITTLE is paid to Social Security recipients, and people on Disability. I promise you that MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of Opioids on the street originate from Elderly and Disabled legitimate pain patients foregoing their medication in order to sell it off because they desperately need the money to put food on the table or pay OTHER medical bills. A decent-sized monthly Oxy or Dilaudid Rx is worth MORE if 'sold' ... than most people's entire monthly SS check. While I sympathize with the Old people, they are partly responsible as well.

6) And then there's the addicts, breaking the law in the vast majority of cases. They also bear some responsibility, don't you think? I say this ... as one of them, who was hooked on Oxy's in the Early 2000's, badly ... now in recovery. But I had to go out and FIND and PAY FOR the pills I consumed. Nobody 'gave them to me'. And they were HARD to get, most of the time. Purdue ... did NOT get me 'hooked'. I DID. My stupidity. And NOT from a lack of knowledge, I'd already seen my best friend get completely strung out on opioids years before. I was not 'naive'.

And the fact remains, there are many people who legit NEED these drugs, and driving the makers of them out of business with massive fines/damage awards simply for doing ... what they are meant to do ... make these drugs for the people who need them ... is not a winning strategy in this 'opioid war'. All that's going to happen is MORE fentanyl and heroin will flood the streets, because where there's addicts, there will be opioids (at least, in a reasonably free country, that has some bucks laying around to spend on drugs).

You know what we need THE MOST? Is a drug or combination of drugs that can be used to get people off of opioids WITHOUT the process being so UNBELIEVABLY painful and horrific. The vast majority of addicts really would LOVE to get off the roller-coaster, and are really only 'using' anymore ... to avert getting horrifically dopesick. If we had drugs available that it could make NOT so freaking HORRIFIC ... a LOT of people would avail themselves of them.

We sure as SHIT ... need more public money for treatment in general.

And we need cheaper and easier to access Buprenorphine for people who aren't able to get and stay clean entirely. Long-term opioid abuse re-wires the brain, and for MANY patients makes the optimal solution of 'life-long sobriety' ... no longer a practical option. It literally becomes 'a medical condition', similar to Diabetes or MS or whatnot. We should accept the fact, as a society, that there's millions of people now who are going to need replacement therapy like buprenorphine and methadone ... the rest of their lives ... and make it easier and cheaper for addicts to get into programs that provide them.

[Cal Tek]

6. It's About Freakin' Time!

Oooh, these greedy bastards now want to "help" the victims of a plague they created? Fuck these pigs!

[benld74]

7. Florida recently filed against CVS & Walgreens

Citing excess prescriptions filled per capita of location.
Small town of less than Tallahassee had 859k+ prescriptions written
While one around 12000 had around 200k+ prescriptions written

Sorry read over weekend
Can’t find article now

I wonder if any of them denied morning after pills based upon their religious beliefs

[ck4829]

8. That's a good question