The predatory thieves and jackals who run Purdue should be indicted, tried, convicted and sent to prison!
Everything of value should be clawed back and given to cites and states who are dealing with the affects of this pernicious drug that was so recklessly marketed and distributed!
There is a reason why US corporations keep acting in this highly irresponsible manner: When they are caught, no one spends even a week inside a jail cell!
41
The New Yorker published a lengthy article a few months ago, that largely covered the same ground as this article.
I’m surprised the Times did not even make references to The New Yorker article, making it appear this is based in new, primary research.
The significant difference is the Times now has new info elated to the FBI while The New Yorker had much more focus on the Sacklers.
16
Many problems in American society today are blamed on the loosening of moral responsibility between people and the disconnect in many in recognizing grey area, shady overtones and the complete dark side in our chase for financial success in a free enterprise system.
The individual that makes weapons and ammunition knows exactly what the consequence of their product will be. It is designed and built to kill.
The individuals that make product that is marketed as making life better for many while clearly knowing their product is causing immense misery and hardship while making enormous profit for themselves and their marketers is part of an insidious and hellish twist on what should be an inspiring and honorable profession.
They are beyond being wolves in sheeps clothing and snake oil salesman hawking cures that do nothing.
They are the filth and disease and blackness of a system that allows the truth to never enter the equation and trust no longer matters and the destruction of lives is considered the civilian casualties in a all out battle for share and profit.
Some of these drugs signed the final death warrant but the path there was made easier by slick and educated persons that can overlook lies and misery for a quarterly and yearly bonus.
30
A drug maker marketing known falsehoods is deviance. To lay the blame for abuse at their feet is to remove responsibility from the abuser and simply dishonest.
I have to question why skepticism/cynicism has become such a dangerous method of approach and why many desire protection to be the sole domain of the state.
3
That is American business for you in a nutshell. Anything for a buck. Recommended reading: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones.
9
Put the Sackler crime family in jail with the Trump crime family. Let them slime each other until the last survivor is dead. Seems only fair. The rest of us will live far better lives after they've vanished.
24
More hysteria. The number of people killed in this "epidemic" is statistically insignificant, and much less than other common forms of death - particularly in certain age groups. "Crisis" it most certainly is not, as none of societies functions are impaired in any way. This stands in direct contrast to the damage done by militarized cops, and a for-profit prison system (including the inmate/slave labor) destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and more families EACH YEAR.
8
Don't forget to visit the Sackler wing at MMA.
7
I'm confused. How does Purdue Pharma differ from the guy on the street corner dealing crack?
26
And we think our greatest enemy is Russia.
21
It's telling that a washed up TV star's racist tweet elicits over 10x as many comments as this investigative expose. Executives should go to jail for knowingly marketing a dangerously addictive drug - to the point that everyone is calling its widespread abuse a national epidemic.
Are we now immune to outrage if Trump or his ideas, such as overt racism, are not involved?
18
If corporations tuely have the rights and responsibilities of people, then this corporation should be punished for manslaughter, at a minimum.
15
UTT!!!
They'll be paying out billions in less than ten years. Juts like the tobacco corporations.
7
How do these executives sleep at night!?!
11
Long jail sentence for frudulant bankers. DEATH to these Pharma merchants. They both call the struggling class needing to be accountable - well famit we want accountability NOW!
10
Shame on the Sackler family. All the money in the world can't wash away their guilt and their complicity in the ravages that their greed has wrought. Money may keep them out of jail, but anyone who accepts their charitable donations of this blood money should be ashamed.
19
So they followed the tobacco companies play book.
7
I also worked at Insys, looked at how this company promoted fentanyl abuse.
13
I sat in on a drug-company sponsored lunch in my group medical practice in the late 90's. The buxom blond drug rep from Perdue Pharma sat there and eagerly told a bunch of internists that Oxycontin was a great drug for chronic daily headache. She had no medical training and this is the kind of off-label use of a highly addictive drug that has set thousands up to die of overdoses. The active ingredient - oxycodone - is the same one in the highly addictive Percodan from the late 60's and early 70's. I got in trouble with the group for calling the DEA - Purdue Pharma wouldn't bring expensive lunches anymore. I was lucky - I went to a medical school which actually taught the history of narcotic abuse in the US during the 18-1900's. I got yelled at more than once for being stingy with narcotics... Turns out I was right.
We have seen waves of addiction since the 1840's and other than clamping down on over-prescribing, the results have seldom been salutary. There are probably millions out there with chronic pain from previous abuse and rape - PTSD types of syndromes. For these people, narcotics are a frequently-lethal dead end. For people with severe post-injury or post-surgical pain narcotics have some brief utility. For hospice patients, narcotics and other euphoric drugs can be a godsend.
This is a humanitarian crisis. It is an epic tragedy that we have not put the research dollars into this so we understand chronic pain and come up with rational, non-addictive therapies.
44
I think it should be Purdue's fidutiary responsibility to 'donate' money to detox clinics. They have morally failed us.
13
Paul Simon asked the question best: "What are you gonna do about it? That's what I wanna know."
5
What’s new. James son if Larry Tisch testified before congress - said tobacco was not addictive.
2
The government officials who negotiated the settlement in 2007 should be indicted for negligence and investigated to find out if Purdue Pharma paid them off before, during, or after the settlement.
So many destroyed lives and avoidable addictions. Criminal!
11
The senior leadership of the company who knowingly went ahead with the sales of these drugs ought to be tried for crimes against humanity.
11
Psst! Keep up the political contributions and philanthropic gifts. It's working so well to shield you from your criminality.
16
"Misbranding." Quite a remarkable feat in the world of nomenclature. And, in criminal law.
When our president finally goes out in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoots someone, perhaps Rudy Giuliani will claim the president "misaimed."
16
Sackler family is one of Harvard University's biggest contributors. Ironic that their Oxy drug money finances a prominent law school.
18
Anyone want to take a bet that, if it is determined something illegal was done, the company will get just a cost-of-doing-business fine and no actual human being (i.e. those who engaged in illegal acts) will do time.
I would love to see a class action suit done by Oxycontin addicts and another by the families of those who OD'd.
As Yogi Berra would have sadly put it with the endless banking and tobacco illegalities in mind, "It's just déja vu all over again."
11
There is now a push to limit the amount of Imodium a person can purchase.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2018/01/31/fda-cracks-down-on...
We already have to provide ID for other OTC medicine. So obviously banning everything will never work. The problem is the addicts not the medicine but that would require acknowledging they lack personal responsibility for their actions. In the meantime hold all legitimate patients hostage to the behavior of addicts.
4
ABC is her employer. Most people - at least those who don’t work in the White House- would be subject to termination if they spoke or behaved so egregiously on social media. Roseann may be entitled to her opinion, but is not entitled to personally attack individuals for no other reason than her own amusement. It’s not a joke and most certainly not free speech. It could be considered slander and is gratuitously cruel and aggressive at a minimum. I think ABC did the right thing. With any luck their decision to fire Roseanne will send a message that may lead to reduction in the epidemic of ugly rhetoric and behavior we are subjected to on a daily basis.
4
I have Jimmy Kimmel on TV right now - he just had a little segment of his "drunk Donald Trump" where he plays clips of the president speaking in extreme slow motion so the words are slurred and the context is broken. This is a regular thing on Kimmel's show.
It isn't really funny, it's amateurish and juvenile, and, of course, mean spirited.
When does the lesson sink in? Or is it only to be a lesson when the target isn't the president?
5
Please forgive my previous comment as it was not related to this article. Relative to this excellent article, I think the government should go after Purdue Pharma, just as they did with Big Tobacco. Realistically, that will not happen under Trump and the current Attorney General who is more likely to ingratiate himself with POTUS as opposed to enforcing the law. But it's important that Americans realize how this happened and see these pharmaceutical companies for the morally repugnant entities they are.
6
I would like to point out a completely different aspect of the story, that even the reporter missed in terms of meaningful analysis, in my opinion.
The article and the comments are stressing the fact that the Purdue molecule is addictive as much as other congeners, usually abused by oral or intravenous administration AND allegedly Purdue did not inform physicians and regulatory bodies.
However, knowing the info on Main Street would actually discourage the "snorting" abuse in the general public? I am asking this question because I noticed some innuendo in the narrative going in that direction, and this is misleading to say the least, because the two aspects are not necessarily linked if you analyze the behavior in drug abusers.
Drug-seeking behavior transcends any damage knowledge (i.e. if one wants to abuse certain molecule, he/she will anyway abuse of it, no matter the cautionary info around). Otherwise, you should explain the wide diffusion of street krokodil, way more distructive than oral codeine, snorted oxycontin, or injected heroin.
Obviously, this argument does not discount any responsibility from the involved parts.
1
"But top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration did not support the move, said four lawyers who took part in those discussions or were briefed about them. Instead, the government settled the case in 2007."
The part of this country most destroyed by opioid addiction is the part that keeps putting people in power who will never, ever fight for them. I guess self-destructive behaviors come in clusters.
12
An alternative point of view is that destructive behavior and support of those helping with your destruction is part of what helps define scared, desperate, ignorant, and or stupid people.
1
Let's not kid ourselves if we think this Administration and Republican-saturated Congress is going to exert anything but high-5s on this deadly business. As we have all painfully observed, the only work of otherwise-catatonic, Congressional Republican friends of guns, pharmaceuticals, carbon-based fuels, and all industries despoiling air, fresh and sea water, land, soil, brains, lungs, children's intellectual development, has been to 1. deregulate, 2. increase wealth to the wealthiest, and
3. slash the rights of everyday folks to make anyone answerable for harm, illness, irreversible damage, acute and chronic toxicity, deformity, and/or accidental death. All the president and The Party of I-Want-Mine can be expected to do is anticipate hefty campaign contributions commensurate with the benefice of their catatonic inactivity, silence, and stunning indifference.
29
If the Supreme Court hadn't gotten it so wrong in the late 1800s, this company would face a trial for its life.
6
Purdue knew every way a corporation could know.
Purdue knew when millions of pills were shipped to towns with only hundreds of residents and they did nothing. Purdue is a corporation of big time drug traffickers and their board and executive team should be prosecuted - for drug dealing
32
Once again, everyone is a “victim.”
Now it’s the drug companies fault dopers abuses the drugs they manufactured. Next it’ll be the car company’s fault they made a car that exceeds the speed limit, or Ben and Jerry’s fault you have diabetes.
Is there anyone in New York responsible for his or her own life, and their own choices ?
7
They LIED about their product and doctors prescribed it to unsuspecting people
Clearly you do not understand addiction. It is NOT A. CHOICE.
25
I agree ewith you on the implied point that government is really trying to legislate behaviorand commonsense. History demonstrates that governments can do neither effectively. If a society wishes to address opioid abuse and drug abuse more generally it must first understand why abuse occurs. I understand this is a typical liberal conceit; to raise a seemingly impossible question. Yet, the question posited isn't nearly as impossible as it might at first seem. Anyone who crushes Oxycontin has serious issues and needs medical help not legal threats.
3
I worked in a lab that did the clinical studies for Purdue in the mid-nineties. I have followed this story for years. There was not an epidemic until Oxycodone came out. Opiates addiction was for hardcore IV drug abusers. Oxycodone brought it into the mainstream. Purdue knew about the addictiveness of Oxycodone and did nothing to stop it. How often do executives of companies get criminally procescuted? It only happens when they plea because they are worried about more serious charges. How many times do we see companies pay fines into the billions, but do not admit to any of the allegations. Purdue started the opioid epidemic and the know it.
38
Anyone want to take a bet that, if it is determined something illegal was done, the company will get just a cost-of-doing-business fine and no actual human being (i.e. those who engaged in illegal acts) will do time.
I would love to see a class action suit done by junkies and another by the families of those who OD'd.
As Yogi Berra would have put it with the endless banking illegalities in mind, "It's just déja vu all over again."
16
big Pharma does not make heroin or fentanyl which is produced by criminal Enterprises. pill Mill doctors and stolen Pharmaceuticals are responsible for the proliferation of legal opioids. this push to reduce legal prescriptions will only hurt patients who need them.
5
Fentanyl is a legal opioid which is used in medicine as a pain killer. In combination with other medications, it is used for anesthesia. My very elderly mother was prescribed the fentanyl patch as a treatment for chronic pain from degenerative disc disease.
3
Big Pharma does make fentanyl, where do you think fentanyl patches come from.
3
Well if those making excuses for addicts had their way , your mother would just have to suffer.
1
It reminds me of the mortgage debacle, "Everyone should own a home". Starting in the mid 90's I began to hear "No one should be in pain."
6
Irony: The US has spent nearly $1T on the drug war, locking up people for lifetimes, most of them minorities, under the pretense that "drugs are bad," while at the same time HELPING white male drug company executives and doctors get richer by pushing and prescribing actually addictive, actually dangerous drugs.
18
Wait for the class action law suit that will bankrupt the company. I suggest Michael Avenatti as a potential litigant for the millions of victims of Purdue Pharma's greed.
8
Purdue gets rich. Shareholders "do well."
Thousands die. Thousands in jail. Millions of lives ruined.
Congress cozy with and supports Purdue. Next, the fake Republican outrage.
US 2018.
The average Purdue Pharma salary ranges from approximately $81,705 per year for Sales Representative to $188,018 per year for Director of Analytics. Salary information comes from 140 data points collected directly from employees, users, and past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months.
5
Pharma sales has always paid well. It is not a crime.
Someday you all will need drugs to prolong your life and will appreciate big Pharma.
Oh please, everybody in the medical community knew opioids were addicting long before OxyContin came out. The opioid crisis started with two physicians who claimed to have valid research showing opioids to be non-addictive.
The “valid research” turned out to be not so valid but Purdue used the bad research and ran with it. Ask all the nurses that have administered opioids if they are addictive.
Ignorant and greedy doctors as well as bigpharma are to blame for this crisis, period.
17
Thousands have/are dying of opioids and yet this company and its three execs walked away with felony and misdemeanor misbranding charges. The owner isn’t charged with anything. No one is in jail. “Felony” and “misdemeanor”. Really. This article provides an excellent look at moral bankruptcy. That’s just for starters, imho.
5
Bucks before Bodies. As long as no individual is held criminally responsible for the actions of the "company", nothing will change. Wells Fargo is the perfect example.
9
Laissez Faire Capitalism:
"Laissez Faire" is French for "leave alone". Laissez Faire Capitalism is the separation of economy and state, the holy grail of conservatism.
Purdue Pharma was "this close"...
2
How can anyone work here anymore? Are there really no other jobs that they could do?
1
It will take the equivalent of a war crimes tribunal to render justice in this scandal. Yes, the Purdue Pharma executive drug pushers should face long sentences, but so should those who failed to stop them from the Bush administration and "lawyers" like Rudy Giuliani who kept them in the deadly addiction business.
5
So it makes all the more diabolical sense that in 2002, Purdue was pushing the whole "Fifth Vital Sign" message, insisting that virtuous folks who were in "genuine pain" would never become addicts, based on a study of, what...36 people?
4
The story of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family makes any Film Noir seem like child's play.
"Forget it Jake. It's Chinatown." Indeed!
7
Unfortunate scapegoating Big Pharma for individual choice to abuse oxy..people need to accept responsibility for their choices. Opioids are a safe and effective painkiller. No more addictive than caffeine or chocolate...no credible proof demonstrating otherwise...
4
That's funny, because I could've sworn the origins were Afghanistan. 90% of the worlds opium comes from the fields we hijacked.
And Big Pharma CEO's have been making $90,000 to $400,000 a day. Not bad for ruthless drug dealers. That's why we still guard the fields. Low level drug dealers go to jail for 20 years, white the white rich drug dealers who sell drugs 5x worse and kills 3x as many people get bonuses and golden parachutes.
I'm amazed there's not more shootings in a society that practices such fairness and equality.
8
I read that there is a whole Sackler named wing at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Maybe it should be renamed the "Opioid Victims Memorial Wing", at least by the public in referring to it.
"On the backs of these hundreds of thousands of Opioid Victims came the capital that enabled the funding of the endowment, and to make possible, this museum wing we enjoy today" (that and many other, mainly non-US , European institutions from what I read).
9
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Really, we need to get real here - narcotics are tightly controlled by the DEA because they are addictive, that has been known for over 100 years. So this is not some new phenomena and to put all the blame on Pharma is a case of a lot of people turning a blind eye to history. Doctors and patients share some of the blame here. Perhaps first and foremost we need to look within ourselves and ask why so many Americans are prone to addictions? And why are doctors using marketing material rather than the PDR to decide how dangerous (or addictive) a drug is? The PDR carries warnings about the potential for abuse for OxyContin, so why would a prescriber think it is not prone to abuse? Pharma is not blameless, for sure, but are we scape-goating them to some extent here?
2
Certainly there are some crooked doctors who played a role in this disaster, and they should be in prison along with the Purdue executives.
But is this scapegoating? No. Purdue may not have created the soil, but they planted the seed.
The company should be shut down tomorrow and its entire assets spent on treatment programs. It won't be nearly enough, but it will be a start.
3
So once more the rich and the powerful skate, while hundreds of thousands of their victims die on the street. Last time I checked, homicide wasn't a misdemeanor. The so-called president trump isn't even the tip of the iceberg of billionaire bums who can't see the blood on their hands. Perhaps if their own children or people they love (but less than money) were to become victims they would get a glimmer of a sliver of a shadow of a sigh of a whisper of the damage they have wrought. The worst part, as always, is the lies they told and continue to tell. I used to think of the Sacklers as very enlightened philanthropists, and I loved visiting the Temple of Dendur that they gave to the Met. But I shan't go there again, and to my way of thinking the whole ilk has become part of the swamp that is overrunning what used to be everyone's world.
6
The Egyptian Government gave the Temple of Dendur which would have been flooded by the building of the Aswan Dam to the Met (and not the DC museums -- in part because of Mrs.Kennedy's efforts). That was in the 60s. Sackler and Koch money came in much much later.
1
Two Hundred Thousand people...and climbing...
And the spokesman dismisses the problem because it first started over 16 years ago...
Thus, irrelevant? There's a statute of limitations on responsibility?
Oh, my mistake: the revenue generated absolves Purdue of responsibility. It's the government's problem to solve now. Don't bother trying to prosecute those who reaped the rewards of that revenue, because they have the resources to out-gun the prosecutors.
5
What are the odds that DOJ, under Sessions, will prosecute Purdue, given that they've already received a slap on the wrist from Bush 2's DOJ? ZERO. What are the odds that an illegal alien who has been productively employed in this country for decades will be hunted down and deported? PRETTY HIGH. Willfully enabling the addiction of hundreds of thousands of Americans, 115 of whom die every day, doesn't matter to the Trump administration. They have a wall to build.
10
Every one of these miserable people who is convicted should be punished by having their personal fortunes forfeited and put into a fund that builds, staffs and maintains treatment centers in places like the city that I live in, where we are becoming overrun by drug addicted homeless people....
6
White collar crime pays big time—makes you rich, prosecutions are rare and fines punishments are minor 200,000 dead, community service and watered down misdemeanor. You get the best legal defense money can buy. Street dealer selling one billionth of same stuff - little or no legal representation and the death penalty.
You have to like China or Korea. Poison children trial conviction death penalty. Cheat and a ferry and carry too much cargo and children die the CEO, CFO and COO go to prison for like. Justice
4
Why, exactly, are the senior managers of Purdue Pharma not under arrest or in jail?
They are the biggest and most destructive drug pushers of the past decade. They KNEW what was happening.
I'm sure being rich enough to buy off politicians has nothing to do with their immunity.
3
The particular truth here notwithstanding, this remains a smokescreen. Most fatalities result from Chinese Fentanyl being smuggled in thru Mexico, yet the handwringers are happy to make grandma's arthritis relief impossible to get instead of tightening the border like they should.
3
There is plenty of blame to go around, as this and other recent articles in the Times makes clear. But at the end of the day, the blame primarily falls on the owners of Purdue Pharma, the SACKLER family. No matter how many museums they build and fund, their money will always be stained with blood.
4
You couldn't get this stuff without a doctor but somehow we absolve them of responsibility for handing this stuff out like candy
11
The people who are dying are not getting their drugs from a dr.
Don't take it.
A much needed documentation to the literature about the complexities of the oversimplified mantra: "Opioid Overdose Epidemic;" its visible-hidden, known-currently not known(but knowable over time),and unknowable, interacting people, places and parameters.Names. Numbers.Facts. Fictions.Much blame.No mention of OUR culture enabling tradition-based personal-unaccountability. By law-protected, individuals and systems.Enabled by each of US. You and me. In small and mega ways.Chronic complacency, for which there are no meds. OTC or by scrip-docs! Daily,toxic, infectious, wilfull blindness about harmful words and deeds that should not BE! Wilfull deafness of voices of addicted. Dependent. Habituated.Fellow beings. With names. Dreams. Persona. And their "significant others." Family. Friends. Neighbors. colleagues at work. School. Places of prayer.Before, during and since the AIDS/HIV "epidemic" mutedness. Since the "lock them up"- Rockefeller Laws; legalizing Post-Reconstruction Racism.Wilfull Ignorance during a "web-mongering era."In which people of endless diversities are "ODing." In data; reliable-unreliable, relevant-not relevant to human needs and wants. Analyzed into goulashed information of facts. Fictions and fantasies.Transmuted into useable, unusable and even misleading understanding.From which insights are created. Which can stimulate-underpin necessary as well as unneeded interventions!we enable a WE-THEY culture. And Big Pharm.Which violates selected people. Values.
Until this country restores justice, and sends these corporate criminals to jail, none of this is going to change.
Of course they knew 20 years ago. Of course they lied and said they didn't know. Of course they knowingly sold millions of Americans highly addicting opiate pain killers. Of course they knew these drugs would be abused. Of course they knew they would hook an entire generation on opiates and that many would turn to heroin and there would be mass death in this country as a result. They did it all anyway to make more profit.
These are smart people. Soulless, greedy, immoral people, but smart. They have lots of money and can afford to pay for the best scientists and researchers and experts to tell them anything they need to know, and they do. So when they claim ignorance, they are lying. They always know.
3
What creates addicts? Not the drugs themselves but rather the emotional pain/dysregulation that drug use medicates and soothes. Emotional self regulation is a skill learned-- or not-- in the first years of life.
Addicts were children who did not get enough nurture or who suffered trauma or mal-attachment and did not learn how to self regulate.
Purdue is horrible for lying... but they are not responsible for creating addicts, who will take whatever drug or substance they can get their hands on. It's not the drug itself. Our country does not understand the early-life origin of most addiction and until we do we can ban drugs right and left and never touch addiction.
7
I will respectfully disagree with your uninformed opinion. Trying to lay off addiction at the feet of un nurturing mothers is, frankly, preposterous. A significant number of addicts are ‘created’ by physicians who over prescribe addictive narcotic pain relievers without adequate follow up to ensure that the patient has been able to effectively stop taking the drug while still managing their pain.
That a company with patent protection on a drug would downplay the addictive properties of a drug and push that medication into the prescription pipeline by misleading physicians about the real risks of prescribing the drug seems, on its face, criminal.
If the CEO of the company is found criminally responsible for their actions that will be cold solace for the tens of thousands of families who have been touched by the ensuing epidemic of opioid deaths. Regardless of the sentence in the criminal trial he should rot in purgatory for his soulless actions.
10
Check out Dr Gabor Mate, a Canadian, and his info on addiction. I am well informed on this topic.
You are shifting blame away from the Purdue execs who intentionally flooded the marketplace with extremely addictive drugs that they LIED to doctors about. Purdue execs KNEW their drugs were more powerful than they admitted. So yes, they ARE partially responsible for creating addicts. Childhood traumas have little to do with creating adult addicts who originally might just have had a slipped disc and went to the doctor for a painkiller!!
6
Well since President Trump is calling for the death penalty for drug dealers, perhaps we should start with the CEO, the Board of Directors, the General Counsel and the sales force of Purdue Pharma; including the owners of this obviously criminal enterprise, the Sackler Family, and the rest of these profiteers of misery and death. As Samuel Johnson once commented, the thought of a hanging concentrates the mind wonderfully. A televised execution would go a long way to restoring moral hazard to our nation and the particularly instructive to the thieves and liars on Wall Street as well as the traitors in the Republican Party.
3
I believe federal law includes a death penalty for drug trafficking that results in death. I wonder if Purdue executives are nervous.
3
The same can be said about sniffing glue, people ingesting tide pods or those buying boxes of Imodium to get high. Then there are people with diabetes who still go to krispy kreme.
Should we sue all the above because some people will find nefarious purposes for everything? We could could take every opioid off the market, let people in legitimate extreme pain suffer, and yet junkies will still find something to get high on. In the meantime innocent people would suffer in great pain.
6
If a doctor prescribes TidePods, glue sniffing, or Krissy Kreme’s as a safe and effective treatment for pain or illness, then I do think they should be held responsible. Not all of the people who got addicted to OxyContin were trying to get a fix; many of them were being treated for medical issues. The company is at fault for lying about the addictive properties of the drug and for telling its sales people to lie well after they knew there was a problem.
13
Millions have taken this medication without becoming addicted. This is just another convenient excuse, one of many convenient excuses, used by drug addicts.
This is no different than people blaming fast food for their obesity and i recall lawsuits targeting them. Blaming a company for not choosing a vegetable is the same as blaming a company for choosing to abuse medicine.
In the meantime people in serious pain will have to suffer for a small percentage of people who choose to abuse opioids. I have lost family to cancer and it angers me that people in such pain should have to jump through hoops because of addicts.
How ridiculous to try to hold companies responsible if their products are used in a criminal way against manufacturers recommendations and approved uses.
If someone drives a car at 150MPH on a city street and crash, it is only the driver's fault. Even if the manufacturer advertised the car as save and with good handling and good brakes.
But liberals always need to find some corporation to blame. It is never the criminal's fault for using a gun. Never the addict's fault for snorting a prescription drug.
No wonder Trump and the GOP won.
2
Who are the REAL drug pushers in the United States? BIG PHARMA.
2
The behavior of Perdue is reprehensible. However, the only way you can get OxyContin is for a physician to write a prescription. To blame the opioid epidemic on a prescription drug is absurd. In spite of what Perdue knew about the addictive properties of OxyContin, no one forced people to crush the drug and deliberately abuse it. Further, the amount of OxyContin on the street is a small fraction of illegal opioids on which the opioid epidemic is based. By all means pursue the improper behavior of Perdue, but don't imagine this represents the lions share of the opioid problem or that it will provide a significant step to a solution.
1
The American versions of Pablo Escobar. But they will never spent a single night in jail despite killing hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Why worry about 'global terrorism', Al Queda and the Taliban with our own corporations conspiring to kill so many Americans (and for profit, not ideology)?
5
Yes, there is evil in this world. 200,000 dead from opiod overdoses. Prisons are full of people charged with selling negligible amounts of cannabis. Instead of fines or jail time, these pharma lawyers and CEOs should have to go to one funeral per day for the rest of their lives—though maybe family members of the deceased wouldn’t want them there. They should have to raise all those overdose orphans themselves. These executives and lawyers are the animals, not the children being torn from their parents at the border.
6
After generating 13 billion dollars selling Oxycontin, the Sackler family bought itself a nice art collection. Sure, 300,000 died from overdoses, but think of the wonderful Sackler gallery at the Smithsonian, and the Sackler wing of the Met.You could tell they were just torn up about the lethality of their repackaged opium. https://youtu.be/msv7tGoqMmQ
6
When will the NYT write an article about oxycodone 30 mg ( street name M30) that can easily be crushed, snorted and injected?
The explosion of prescription for oxycodone 30 mg started in 2010 after the "safe" oxycontin was introduced in the market. In my practice I saw the same trend that had occurred with oxycontin 10 years earlier. Everybody wanted it, nothing else helped. Insurance companies and lawmakers would listen politely when I raised my concerns, but pretty much nothing was done for several more years. To this day it is much easier to prescribe a boatload of oxycodone 30 mg than to get tapentadol approved. I guess a lot of commenters and journalists have no idea what tapentadol is anyway.
2
thank you for mentioning the insurance companies they have a role too, the oxy 10 and 30mg IR tabs only cost pennies and no your plan does not cover physical or occupational therapy....
1
Only their lust for money is more addictive than their infamous OxyContin !
1
Mussels have tested positive for trace amounts of oxycodone in Seattle. "What we eat and what we excrete goes into the Puget Sound," Jennifer Lanksbury, a biologist at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO. "It's telling me there's a lot of people taking oxycodone in the Puget Sound area”
3
If we can have a MeToo movement why can't we have a WeToo movement, shunning EVERYTHING associated with these modern day Robber Barons? I am ok with abstaining from anything to do with Big Pharma, the Sackler Family, any institution they touch, fund, have anything to do with? Anyone else?
3
Addiction to profit... one of the worst.
1
This is a ridiculous concept....all doctors have known of the addictive potential of opiods since at least the 1970's. It was drilled into us when I was in medical school in the late 80's long before oxycontin was around.
8
So, put them out of business for criminal practices. This company is no better than a random shooter loose in a schoolyard with an AR-15 and 20 mags.
3
Purdue Pharma appears to have taken Bushie under their Sackler Wing.
1
Times, from a loyal subscriber - please don’t excise words from documents so tightly so as to erase all context. I feel I was just spoonfed snippets of words and sentences from documents simply to further your narrative, not to provide me with the facts. Thanks.
2
You could round up everyone in a business suit in downtown Stamford and end up with 90% of them being amoral greedy hedgefunders, UBS grifters and white collar drug pushers.
1
Legalized drug pushers. Why aren’t Purdue’s CEO, CFO and board of directors in jail? Duh! Just follow the money to “K” street. Dirty money once again.
2
It is time to fully fund an abstinence program.
JUST SAY NO!!!
What ever happened to the war on drugs? oh wait, that's ONLY for Mexicans and blacks.
7
Heavens to Betsey NO! A corporation LIED? They hooked people on drugs? To make more money? Say it ain’t so, Joe!
We’re fast developing a culture of lying without impunity. Lie, lie, lie. It doesn’t matter who you are. A child? Lie! A student? Lie! A corporation? Lie! A president of the United States? Lie, lie, lie, and keep the lying currency flowing because it pays dividends.
4
Robert, what you wrote is so true. Depressing! I'm proud to be a truth-teller. Also, you've just increased my ever-wobbly confidence as a mother.
1
The obnoxious Purdue Pharma sales rep I know delighted in the fact that Oxycontin had been a career maker for him, and laughed about the abuse.
3
merchants of death aided and abetted by the government to addict and kill our citizens.
it's the perfect crime.
1
duh
I work in the pain management healthcare industry. For many years I have regularly maintained that Oxycontin was invented by Satan. Purdue produced tablets that were pure narcotic so that they could easily be crushed (a garlic press was a favorite) into powder for snorting or injecting. Other narcotics were mixed with acetaminophen among other things.
But it didn't stop there. Purdue produced 80-milligram tablets, relative monsters. Hydrocodone these days is typically prescribed in 5, 7.5 and 10-mg tablets.
But it gets worse: Purdue claimed that Oxycontin was preferable to the short-acting drugs like hydrocodone because it was designed to last 12 hours. It's true that drugs that act more quickly (though they don't last as long) are indeed more likely to cause dependence (e.g. if crack didn't make you high for a week, it would never be used).
However, Purdue designed this scourge to release 37 percent of the full dose in the first hour. That means that an 80-mg table would release 29.6 mg of this drug in the first hour. I believe in illicit drug parlance, that's called a "rush."
So Purdue made these monster pills that deliver a huge slug of narcotic up front, which made users eager for the next dose for that big rush up front. Designed for addiction. And when they were well hooked, the users could easily crush them and abuse them.
There are special places in hell ...
34
Good luck proving that any of the prosecutors do not have a conflict of interest in the case...if any of them or their supervisors have EVER take a drug, derivative, or generic of a drug produced by the company then a conflict of interest exists...applies to any potential judges and jurors as well...not to mention appellate jurists.
1
I graduated from nursing school in 2015 from a quite reputable university. As recently as then, one of my professors insisted in a lecture that oxy and other opioids were never addictive if taken exactly as prescribed. Despite hard questions from skeptical students, she stuck to her guns. I can only wonder now if Big Pharma was funding her research, or if she just wrote her lecture based on Perdue handouts.
4
I too am a nurse ... since 2009. I was in an auto accident several years ago that left me with a spinal cord injury. The pain was absolutely incredible. I talked with my doctor numerous times and always strictly adhered to his orders. The opiates he prescribed provided *some* pain relief making it tolerable.
For people who truly have severe pain, in my opinion, these meds are a godsend. The key is not to think you know more than your doctor and then take more than what the doc prescribes. I haven’t needed any narcotics for pain relief for well over a year. These days, when my back pain flares up, I take a few Tylenol which at this point are effective for a moderate level of pain.
Maybe I was lucky in my choice of doctors. I’m sure the majority of those who need these meds use them without becoming addicted. And yes, as a nurse I too have seen patients that seemed to be med-seeking.
I agree that Pharma companies should not be trying to promote these meds simply to increase profits.
5
I took hydrocodone regularly (3x day, exactly as prescribed) for 9 years because of neurological pain from shingles, and increasingly severe bi-lateral knee pain. It allowed me to live a relatively normal life, including full-time employment.
My doctor and I slowly discontinued it starting last November, solely because of the insane new regulations -- the ones that will never stop addicts, but will leave those with chronic pain miserable. I, quite simply, can do only a fraction of what I could before. My base level of pain is much higher. I've had exactly one 1/2-day pain free since January. Life is not as good.
I had no symptoms of withdrawal, since we titrated down over 3 months. On the other hand, I have a friend who had withdrawal symptoms after 10 days for a surgically set shoulder break (she toughed it out).
Everyone is different, but we are all treated alike by both the drug companies and the DEA.
Another RN here. But more importantly (for this discussion), I am a person who has chemical dependency on her father's side of the family. Please keep in mind that some people have a genetic propensity to "handle" psychotropic medication differently, and they are more prone to addiction. This fact is 100% irrelevant to the good doctor's prescription or advice. Of course people should be forthcoming about this when speaking with their providers, but if a person is opiate-naive...
I realize that my message is more geared toward Karen's instructor, than either of you two. ;)
1
How does a drug like this get approved in the first place. That is what should be explored.
I have no expectations that big pharma will act in an ethical or legal manner after they receive a drug’s approval.
2
"How does a drug like this get approved in the first place."....Maybe you never heard of morphine. It got approved because in cases of severe pain it works.
2
Yes - and if morphine is administered by a doctor it should be monitored and the doctor should keep records to ensure it is not over prescribed.
1
People and entities make choices. Some will always choose to escape their problems, and then place the blame elsewhere. The question herein: am I referencing the drug company or the users?
2
Thanks to corporate greed at an unconscionable level, in America, ordinary citizens -- not just the poor -- face the death penalty when they can't afford life-saving medicines with mind-boggling prices even insurance companies won't touch.
The reality is they know and care more about money than they do about life. For the past few decades, big pharma has spent more per capita in the US on promotion and marketing than what's spent per capita on direct healthcare itself.
Purdue Pharma (aka Sackler Family Inc.) designed a marketing strategy as meticulous and thorough as their development of drugs. They cynically built in addiction by selling Oxycontin as a 24 hour medication when in fact it's efficacy lasts about 18 hours. Users as prescribed experienced withdrawal for 6 hours, which led to larger and more frequent dosages and ultimately addiction. That's why addiction is greatest among those who were prescribed the pain-killer.
This is big tobacco redux. Another corporation that develops the perfect money-maker: a product that creates its own demand (addiction) and drives the market. And then lies through its corporate teeth denying the obvious but knowing their investment in their favorite charity, the Republicans, will pay off and they'll continue to laugh all the way to the bank and back, while whistling past the graveyard.
Big pharma's slogan is "Your Money or Your Life."
12
Pharma is one important contributor to this drug epidemic. But, there are many others, an additional one being the misjudgment on the part of the medical system and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHCO). From 2000, the latter pushed hard for health care facilities to more aggressively "manage pain", believing (possibly correctly) that pain had been under treated for years. Problematically, no one taught the doctors how to responsibly prescribe these medications. Hence, patients returned home from relatively minor dental and medical procedures with prescriptions for 30+ days of narcotic medications - a gene/environment interaction nightmare. Public health crises are typically multi-determined, the current opioid crisis included.
8
Actually, you are wrong. After medical school at the University of Rochester, NY, I finished my residency and became the first Hospitalist at a Brown University Hospital. When I moved to Upstate NY to be closer to my family, it was ingrained in me to use narcotics and opioids sparingly. This was 1982. In the 1990's I was surprised to see the JCAHO, the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Hospital, pressure the CEOs of our hospital to make "Pain" the 5th Vital Sign. Not only were they wrong, since the O2Sat (oxygen saturation) would have been the 5th Vital Sign, but the JCAHO wielded the power that if each hospital did not acquiesce, Medicare reimbursements would be threatened. Therefore every hospital CEO passed this rule down [to treat pain with more narcotics] to all the nursing supervisors to all the charge nurses to all the shift nurses and the employed physicians had to go along with this. This in-hospital pain-control emphasis continues into 2018, when a patient in the ED has to be treated promptly for any extremity injury, including sprained ankles etc.
There are some doctors in the boonies, yes, who write scripts willie-nilly, but in my experience, 98% of the doctors in upstate NY never wanted this insanity. They did not want to be told how to practice medicine by a hospital corporate leader. Also, the JCAHO is a body constantly in search of new, strong rules to prove they are useful enough to charge each hospital $50,000 or so every 4 years.
7
Truth, Dr. Sheeley!!!!!
Pharma has been guilty of this practice for many decades with numerous medications including cortisone (years ago). The FDA has to establish an oversight objective group that closely follows new medications to determine if they are addictive or not, and how to regulate them as a "pro-actively". Clearly, we can't depend on pharma OR the medical community, many of whom are on the payroll of these companies, to tell us the truth! To paraphrase: "Trust less and verify..verify..verify"
1
Members of the Sackler family who have owned Purdue Pharma, the company itself and chief executives as well as the executives of the company in charge of sales of OxyContin should be fined at least the cost of OxyContin since its initial sales until the present time. Many of these people involved with the inappropriate sales should be imprisoned for many years (much more appropriate than the imprisonment of many people currently in jail). In addition, many of the attorneys who have been inappropriately supporting the obvious illegal aspects of Purdue Pharma should return their payments and likely should be improsoned as well. In addition, Purdue Pharma should be expected to provide support to retrain physicians who's practice has lead them to over prescribe OxyContin and similar medications rather than provided appropriate treatment for patients problems (it is very apparent that many narcotic prescriptions originating in the emergency rooms is very inappropriate.)
6
I dated a pharmacist in '99 and she knew back then. 1 in 6 pharmacists abuse and quietly move onto new outlets... the dark side of legal drugs far outweighs illegal. Put us veterans in jail for smoking a joint in kansas, why I'm here in Washington. To bad the VA will pay big pharma for legal smack but not CBD's... I see Sessions likes hemp and Boehner is on a med-weed company board...
1
Everyone is looking out for their narrow interests (profits) at the expense of the public. Where is trust and compassion?
4
Gulianins back pocket filled by the Slackers
1
Gone with the wind through MBA mills. Money is fast becoming the ONLY value in this nation--so much for "people of faith"!
2
The problem with these types of articles is that they can lead to increased criminalization of opioids, and it is that criminalization which creates the problems, such as forcing addicts to turn to street drugs of unknown strength instead of the far safer prescription drugs. If allowed legal access to their medicine, addicts can hold jobs and be productive members of society. Doctors are far more qualified to address the drug problem than g-men with guns and indictments (and in some quarters, breathless journalists). The time has come to stop demonizing the pharmaceutical industry and drug users.
3
Some of your comments are appropriate, however, the pharmaceutical industry has greatly overcharged for the use of narcotic pain medications as well as over encouraged their use in inappropriate situations. Many doctors ar qualified the drug problem, however, many doctors also over prescribe narcotic pain medications when other pain medications would be much more appropriate and work just as well.
2
On the contrary, Camille, it's high time we held the pharmaceutical industry accountable for its shameful role. We don't need apologists, we need prosecutions!
2
We ought to spare the energy required for outrage, indignation, and assorted entreaties to big pharma to do the right thing because they are singularly impervious to such little pinpricks. This will continue apace for as long as these corporations keep their thumb on the legislative scale with their money. They fear only a criminal investigation or an election not to their liking. We can provide them with the latter on November 6 and the former on Jan 1, 2019.
21
"We ought to spare the energy required for outrage, indignation, and assorted entreaties to big pharma to do the right thing because they are singularly impervious to such little pinpricks.".....Just a small point. You use the term big pharma. Well nobody ever heard of Perdue until OxyContin arrived and I am not sure they have any other serious products. They hardly qualify as big pharma. Pfizer, Merck, Bristol, Lilly are big pharma, they have been around for a long time and have revenue from a variety of products which are vulnerable if they screw up.
2
My advanced age, plus my injuries sustained as a firefighter, left me with acute, chronic pain. After trying many, I believe most, of the non-opioid pain meds, I finally got a significant measure of relief from MS Contin. I took these for many years, frequently withholding them from myself for 10-15 days, as long as I could stand the extra pain, simply to prove to myself that I was not addicted. I stopped taking them altogether in November 2017. I miss the pain relief, but I never felt any physical effects of withdrawal. The fact that I was taking opioid meds was complicating my efforts among family and friends to help those who were clearly addicted get free from the stuff.
Maybe I wasn't addicted to the meds, but technically I was addicted to the pain relief. In fact, the difference is real, but small. After 18 months without, I finally found an even better non-narcotic solution.
Now, finally, those greedy people that profited from the addictions they created may actually be punished. It's about time!
By the by, I'm a college grad, retired firefighter, in my seventies, a voracious reader of everything. My context established, I submit that even though "pleaded" is, technically grammatically correct, "pled", in almost every place where "pleaded" is used in this article, simply reads better. I won't go into how I feel about beginning sentences with conjunctions, but this one simply needled me each time pleaded appeared where pled belonged.
IMNSHO, of course.
25
I suggest you read Dreamland by Quinones
4
The sphere of influence and leverage enjoyed by the Sackler family, insures that their interests are well tended to.
Their name underwrites some our most esteemed academic and cultural institutions and that is simply why they are too big to fail. It's not about Trump, Bush or Obama or even the Sacklers. It's about us.
5
Surely this comes as no surprise, right? Corporations do whatever they want to generate profit. And I mean ANYTHING -- this is what corporations do. Why not? What's to prevent them? Surely not the US Government.
The US Government has long ago decided its top priority is protection of corporations, and the corporations know it well. The precedents are many -- from the union breaking activities and allowing JP Morgan to 'bailout' the US Government in the late 1800s to Big Tobacco to the banking meltdown in 2009 to Big Pharma now.
The US government doesn't care about the people, and neither do most, if not all, corporations. Money and profit are the only thing that matter.
Now, killing your customers is bad business, so that may, MAY, effect some change, but I wouldn't expect anything more than to make sure they maintain their sales.
The only way to change the opioid issue is to solve bigger societal problems, and that will require a social conscious that this country has, at least, currently, deemed as no value (read: no business value). It also requires some significant political will, a will that we almost never see in our politicians.
Unless you have Koch brothers money to buy politicians, you, like me, only have one vote and limited dollars to vote with your purchasing choices show what you want from our society.
Vote! Spend your dollars with who you want to support!
16
Bring a new case against Purdue Phara--there must be some way, like a class action made up of the addicts and families who suffered the consequences of a legally prescribed, and sometimes lethally addictive, drug.
If Purdue had to pay out 50 percent of profits earned to-date, it still wouldn't be enough, in my opinion, for a disgraceful abuse of people's trust. How about city and/or state prosecutions of the decision-making executives and members of the Sackler family--and prison terms if found guilty.
I don't care how much the family has given to nonprofits--and I've worked in at least one beneficiary. The names of the guilty should be either scrubbed or amended with "knowingly pursued profits while causing sometimes irreparable harm to people's health."
6
The fact that Purdue Pharma lied to investigators when it knew about significant abuse, and continued its sales pitch to doctors and hospitals that its product was less prone to addiction that other painkillers, should void any prior agreements that it made with the prosecutors. Can they not go back after them now?
48
You misunderstand the rule of the Justice Department in dealing with corporate crime. They see their job is trying to make the public believe that they are adequately addressing the corporate crime wave, while exacting as small a toll on the corporate perpetrators as possible.
Ditto for the CFPB which generally just makes the corporate perpetrator give back the money and pay a meaningless, relatively small fine.
6
Let's go down the historical road on how we got to here on the opioid epidemic. An elderly man's children sued a California doctor for denying adequate pain medication in 1998. The patient was diagnosed with cancer and died. The Joint Commission, along with the medical community, mandated that pain was a fifth vital sign, and patients should be provided adequate pain management. Doctors, afraid of suffering the same fate, overprescribed patients ("opportunity knocks", said Big Pharma). We graduated from percocet to morphine to Dilaudid, which is 9 times more powerful than morphine. Oxycontin became the gold standard for chronic pain. While I wholeheartedly agree terminal illness is the exception to the rule, physicians, started to medicate everybody using Dilaudid. Savvy ( and educated) consumers come to the hospital and say to the staff that they are allergic to everything except Dilaudid and voila! Who can deny that you are in pain. So here we are. The pendulum is swinging to the opposite side now. The Draconian measures being proposed are taking over. Doctors largely don't care because we are allowing the patients to dictate their treatment, which is fine, but there needs to be a fine line and careful patient screening needs to be done in an individual basis.
12
Now that cannabis is increasingly legal and 600,000 nonviolent cannabis users are no longer being jailed & imprisoned annually, the huge & largely useless prison industrial complex and police bureaucracies need new excuses to lock people up. So the villain of the day is opiates. The media falls in line screaming about opiates being bad, bad, bad.
Reality: Opiates are a godsend for those in pain. Millions have taken opiates, as prescribed, for dental pain, surgical pain or other intractable pain; most take the medication as prescribed and do not become addicted.
The real American epidemic is obesity, 2/3 of Americans now bring obese or overweight. Obesity contributes to the 1,200,000+ annual deaths from cardiac disease & cancer. Opiate and other drug overdoses are involved in some 60,000 annual deaths, half of which are suicides. If oxycodone was unavailable, the people with addictive mindsets would simply go to using heroin, which has an even higher death rate. Further, many of the overdose deaths do not involve oxycodone, but rather a much more potent and dangerous drug, fentanyl, which killed Michael Jackson, Prince and many others. Where is the outcry about fentanyl?
Because of anti-opiate hysteria, it has become more difficult for people who are in need of pain medication to get it. People in severe pain now need to drag themselves to the doctor every ten or thirty days to get a prescription refill, or be told they can no longer get pain medication.
13
Add that over 60% of health care costs, the factor driving the cost of medical insurance, go to pay for chronic health conditions related directly to obesity. The opioid issue is very serious. The obesity issue is more serious.
6
I have very severe epilepsy with every kind of seizure there is. After a good grand-mal when I have flopped around the floor for 20 minutes or so and dislocated a shoulder, bit my tongue, and pulled most of the muscles in my body, I do not ask my doctor for a prescription medication.
I simply open the cupboard and next to my coffee there is a small bottle of cannabis-infused tequila that I make for such occasions. One quarter shot and two hours later, the pain and vomiting are gone. Yeah, the tongue is still cut up and hurts for several days but I can walk around.
And fat people (bless their loving hearts) do NOT break into cars, rob stores, or throw their dirty syringes all over the parks like addicts do. They get up and go to work, pay taxes, and make very serious contributions to every facet of our society.
Yes, we could all do more for our health to drive down costs but I am not about to take away someone's Ben and Jerry.
13
What killed Michael Jackson was PROPOFOL not Fentanyl.
3
Gun manufacturers are shielded by law from liability for their dangerous products. Purdue Pharma has been shielded from liability (so far) for its dangerous product. Under the Trump administration, businesses are being absolved of responsibility for putting dangerous toxins into our air, water, and land. See the pattern here? It is not populism, it is not Make America Great Again, it is big business greed, greed, and more greed, the public be damned!
86
"Gun manufacturers are shielded by law from liability for their dangerous products".....Gun manufacturers do not have to get their products approved by the FDA after extensive clinical trials; nor does the purchase of a firearm require a written prescription from a medical expert.
1
Criminal negligence for sure. The fact that they kept promoting the drug and ignoring the consequences to people.....in some books that would be 2nd degree murder I believe.
This penchant for settling cases may help free up the courts (not), but it is allowing criminal practices to continue without real consequences. People are dying - how do you settle that?
9
Last October the "New Yorker" ran an expose by Patrick Radden Keefe on the Sackler Family and how their fortune has been built on addiction... with their knowledge.
Stunning, and a brilliant companion to this article.
Thank you, NYTimes and New Yorker for both exposes.
130
That was a fabulous piece. And appalling. And why this article does not surprise me at all.
9
And so we die so that others may be rich.
17
The Sackler Wing at the Metropolitan Museum? How about that munificent donation to culture comimg from the barbarous profits of pushing drug addiction?
22
What is interesting is that the significant cultural donations of the Sackler family pre-date the oxycontin crisis. It amazes me how few writers, even in major "exposes" of the family, recognize that the Sacklers made an enormous fortune from betadyne and senekot, evidently enough to underwrite Sackler galleries, museums, institutions of higher learning, etc.
3
Incredulous to blame Prudue or any of the other opioid manufacture. Purdue did not advocate breaking open oxycontin capsules to snort! Oxy is no more or less "addictive" than caffeine! How does anyone measure how "addicitve" or non-addictive a drug is? Totally silly. People choose to abuse it. Most do not. Stop scapegoating Big Pharma!
6
You are clearly deeply ignorant of - or willfully blind to - the realities of drug abuse and addiction in this country. I'd like to see you say 'it was their choice' (and therefore their own fault) to the face of someone who lost a mother, father, daughter, son, brother, sister etc. to addiction after they were first prescribed opioids by doctors who were influenced by Purdue’s blatantly (and criminally) dishonest claims about the ‘safety’ of their product.
2
Oh really? From the article- who profited from this- "Starting in 2007, the year of the settlement, distributors of prescription drugs sent enough pain pills to West Virginia over a five-year period to supply every man, woman and child there with 433 of them, according to a report in the Charleston Gazette-Mail."
1
"How does anyone measure how addictive or non-addictive a drug is?"
Well, for one, take a look at withdrawal symptoms of alcoholics, heroin addicts, and Oxy junkies vs. caffeine. Last week I was broke and went 5 days without coffee in Seattle. The only thing I noticed was that I did not watch a bunch of Star Trek reruns late at night before falling asleep. Watch a heroin addict go 5 days without shooting up.
2
oh, please don't tell me that our for-profit, huge and determinative medical-industrial complex is not operating in the public good.
7
And that's why you never call this Deliberate Opioid Attack (DOA) an epidemic.
If our government won't stop these corporate murderers at Purdue (slogan: "An unhealthy obsession with addicts")—nor their enablers in the "covfefe" GOP who deregulate them, nor the "health" insurance corporations who cover opioids better than ibuprofen or other less lethal pills—we'll all be DOA!
1
How shameful these corporations are. I hope they will have to pay every last dime for rehab for everyone who used their products.
1
Since Purdue is privately owned, the company could be sued out of existence without harming investors who may not have known what is going on. On the other hand, investors who knew that a drug company had a way to generate large sales of an addictive drug while avoiding legal trouble, would regard the company as a good investment as long as legal troubles did not loom. Thus public ownership does not guarantee good behavior; bad behavior will be ignored by investors and the business community as long as it will likely continue and be profitable. Even when it is uncovered, investors will bet on whether punishment will be severe, mild, or nonexistent.
Our business system is amoral and rewards successful immorality just as it rewards any other sort of success. Any solution must begin with the recognition that our system is amoral and therefore not to be trusted, which would entail the destruction of its present positive image among investors, the media, and the general public. This image must be replaced by an image of a useful, powerful, and dangerous system that needs constant supervision and will constantly seek to avoid and undermine this supervision; anything it says cannot be taken at face value.
15
The Sackler family is a wonderful family, a generous family to the people of this nation. Have you ever visited the jewel-like museum with their family name at the Smithsonian in DC.
1
They needed to put their name on SOMETHING good, didn’t they?
300,000 dead Oxycontin addicts is not "generous," it's an epic mass killing on a par with genocide. Lock the Sacklers up and sell their collections to pay for addicts' recovery. https://youtu.be/msv7tGoqMmQ
2
Perhaps this comment about the generosity of the Sacklers is meant satirically and suffers only from a failure of tone -- or perhaps it suffers from a total lack of moral imagination. The Sacklers profit and for many decades have profited directly from ravaging the public health of this country. All the sweet little reflecting pools, gem-like named galleries, and impressionist paintings in the world mean nothing beside the devastation and suffering wreaked by immoral greed for profit. Visit the galleries if you like. Enjoy them. It's the very, very least the family could do. But it is nothing.
1
While people talk appropriately about the problems of opioid addiction, in particular the lack of funding for treatment. There is another drug problem which is very prevalent and can be at least as deadly especially among the elderly. This is sleeping pill dependence especially ambien and temazepam, 18 million to 30 million Americans take sleeping aids among them 1/3 of the elderly. Prescription sleeping pills increase the death rate among the elderly from 3.5 to 5 times depending on the annual dosage. This is done significantly by increasing cancer risk. If this was not bad enough ambien increases the risk of dementia among the elderly as well.
Ambien like other narcotics has severe withdrawal effects including being unable to sleep without the drug.
In Massachusetts the drug is prescribed as "Every night as needed for insomnia" and many physicians are unaware of the long term problems with the drug. Much tighter control of prescription ambien needs to be made. Indeed it shouldn't be prescribed in significant quantities to anyone over 60. Better to deal with the original insomnia in other ways including Cognitive Behavioral therapy.
3
Sleeping pill abuse is “at least” as deadly? Please. Opioid addiction/abuse is the leading cause of death in America currently, after swiftly surpassing car accidents and heart disease in statistical metrics.
Incidentally, Melatonin is probably among the most effective (and natural) sleep aids that exist, and its sold with no prescription required.
1
Uh, no. Heart disease kills over 600,000 Americans a year, cancer kills another 600,000. Opiate overdose is the cause of death in 60,000 cases each year, some half of which are deliberate suicides, some of which are from heroin. Opiate and sleeping pill overdoses do not even make it into the Top Ten causes of death in the USA. Look it up on the CDC site.
1
I've seen some of the numbers regarding opioids and I do not want to remark that this is not a serious problem. That being said see http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000850, and their estimate , "Rough order-of-magnitude estimates at the end of the supplemental files suggest that in 2010, hypnotics may have been associated with 320 000 to 507 000 excess deaths in the USA alone". This of course does not include melatonin which is not a hypnotic. Its difficult to sort this out precisely because ambien and temazepam are potent carcinogens so a significant fraction of the hypnotic caused deaths are due to drug related carcinogenesis
The spokesman saying Purdue is part of the solution is like arsonists helping put out the fire they started. I had arthroscopic surgery to deal with a minor meniscus tear. Doc prescribed 50 OC pills to deal with the pain. Never took one. Advised the insurer who paid the bill, they did not care. Purdue certainly needs to be held accountable but the problem is bigger than they alone. Doctors, pharmacy operators and insurers are all complicit.
10
The case is concluded that misbranding, a euphemism for selling a dangerous product and evading the consequences, which has became one of the largest public health problems in the country. The idea that the US gov't could be outgunned, so to speak, is outrageous. Big Pharma is one of those industries that engages in marketing with low regard for potential for abuse. They knew that their product was a highly desired product by addicts who were paying large sums to acquire the product. Yet they continued to flood the market with their product and physicians created an army of drug seekers and national disaster of drug overdoses.
10
The best argument against this oxy junk and its ilk actually appeared in The Times back in January.
The gist of it is that after surgery you are supposed to feel some pain. It is not good to be completely anesthetized. In time you will recover.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/27/opinion/sunday/surgery-germany-vic...
The pushers who make oxy should be sitting downtown, in jail with El Chapo.
14
The Sacklers and the other people who run PurduePharma and no better than El Chapo, maybe worse.
21
Mostly heroine and opium abuse. Attacking pharmaceutical companies is fake news.
Whoosh! That’s the sound of something just sailing over your head, Bob. That doesn’t make it fake news.
1
Why does Purdue get 100% of the blame here? You can’t buy OxyContin without a prescription. So where are all the malpractice suits for sloppy prescribing and supervision of patients who were prescribed addictive narcotics?
I don’t think physicians should get a pass “because Purdue said it wasn’t addictive”. That’s not even a credible response.
My own personal experience is that doctors are horrible with pain medication education and use instruction. If you even whisper the word addiction they will just revoke any pain relief. I got lucky and learned to use oxycodone on my own (minimal dosing schedule, maximal pain relief) but I had to ignore my doctors blind instructions of just taking 8 pills a day. I tried it for 3 days after surgery but it left me in such a fog I couldn’t function and I had to cut it back until I found the sweet spot of schedule and quantity, which turned out to be half or less than what I was given.
12
Who: the Sackler family and all decision-making Purdue executives. What: confiscate every dollar of net worth, and imprison for life. Not an excessive price to pay for killing so many people, and a valuable message to other greed-at-all costs criminals.
9
About 20 years ago I had a nasty backache. I went to see a doctor who prescribed naproxen sodium. It worked well. Now naproxen sodium is sold over the counter. The most popular version is sold as Alleve.
A couple of years ago I had serious shoulder surgery. The doc prescribed some of that OxyContin. I took it one time. Not only did it not alleviate the pain it got me constipated. I remembered the good result that I had by taking Alleve and went back to it, taking the prescription dose, not the recommended over-the-counter dose which is roughly 1/2 the prescription dose. This worked much better that that oxy junk and the constipation went away.
So, why would anybody resort to oxy when they can take non-addictive pain-killers which are just as, if not more, effective.
Oxy should be banned.
6
I am a board-certified psychiatrist.
Opiate use is not a "plague," except metaphorically. Nor is opiate use an "epidemic." These are medical terms that are inappropriate to use regarding chosen behavior.
There is no disease causing opiate (or any other drug) use. Diseases do not cause people to take drugs.
Please also consider what business the government has illegalizing *any* drug use by adults. Prohibition was tried regarding alcohol and simply fueled the growth of the Mafia.
Please note that the NY Times, which did at least finally come around to advocating the legalization of marijuana, does not address the larger issue of recreational drug use itself, and whether government should again be prohibiting drug use.
Also, have you wondered why adults can't buy prescription meds without prescriptions? Have you noticed that the consumer empowerment (so to speak) movement has not addressed this issue? I can buy assault rifles, knives, car brakes and other potentially dangerous things, but not drugs. Do you wonder about the lobbying power of the medical profession?
There are so many options to consider, but you must think for yourself first.
The NY Times is good for news, but not for discernment. You have to supply that yourself (which is only proper).
9
Very good points! A diabetic cannot even buy the right insulin not to mention syringes without a prescription.
1
It's the American way. Addicts go to jail or die, the pushers are supported by the government and get rich. The rest of us pay the price.
4
Where I live, having 4 grams of heroin in your pocket can net you almost 6 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. Possessing 28 grams of cocaine can land you in the pokey for almost three years, plus a $50,000 fine. If you sell either substance the penalties are much more severe.
Why weren’t the corporate officials of Purdue held to standards as stringent as these? Could the fact that they were rich and white have anything to do with it? Perhaps its their corporate status that insulates the leaders from responsibility of their actions. Limited liability was originally meant to limit loss of property, not life. That has morphed into the legal notion that corporations are people.
This legal fiction breaks down in the spiraling descent of pain and suffering of millions, all created by the greedy myopia of this one corporation. If you want corporations to be good citizens, send malefactors to prison for a long time. Fine their companies at levels commensurate to the crime of killing 200,000 fellow citizens.
In other contexts, we would call this a crime against humanity, suitable for trial at the International Criminal Court. Today, we call it business as usual.
29
Money first. People somewhere down the line. Near "welfare."
America's priorities.
1
Once they passed laws making pain the fourth vital sign I knew we were heading for a multicar freeway crash of immense proportions. They highjacked the medical system way better than Cambridge analytica ever could our political life. They attempted and succeeded in making the overtreatment of pain derivative to what a person says. The other three vital signs are not subjective. Your blood pressure , temperature , respiratory rate, pulse ox reading etc are not subjective. Vital signs are not subjective. To think otherwise is enabling and actually causing all that followed. I can't believe the owners of Purdue pharma now shower medical education with this I'll gotten treasure to rename medical school programs in their honor. It's equivalent to naming a.major trauma center "NRA trauma" or "Colt hospital. ".
5
Rich, white and powerful, get a slap on the wrist for pushing huge amounts of drugs. Poor and/or Black and pushing a few pills, serious jail time. Same as it ever was
14
Donald Trump has called suspected MS-13 members "animals." So what are the Purdue executives who helped create the opioid epidemic? And what should we call their lawyer, a certain Rudolph Giuliani?
23
Whatever makes a dollar is good.
-Big Pharma
( besides, there are no penalties for corporations )
2
Endo Pharma (Pennsylvania) also knew of the dangers of Opana, and the FDA rightly forced them to pull it from the market. Overdoses started the first week they launched it.
It's time for this pharmaceutical to pay a big price
My brother died from OxyContin there is no way they will get away with it this time he was only 19 years of age.
10
How do you sleep at night? Are your kids and relatives addicted yet because of your lies?
6
They take Ambien.
2
Fake news! Everyone knows America's opioid epidemic has been caused by bad hombres pouring across the border from Mexico. Build the wall!
I'm just kidding, of course. Alas, the President of the United States and the members of his zombie cult are not.
16
Hey, if water had any effect, weaklings would be abusing it snorting it injecting it (ha!).
1
Why are these well dressed drug pushers being treated any differently than Big Tobacco?? They should be held accountable for their actions and made to provide financial compensation for the damage they knowingly caused. They are in fact culpable.
265
More like why are these well dressed drug pushers being treated any differently than the drug dealers on the street. We crack down on black drug dealers who peddle their goods on the poor. But make that deal white, put him in a nice suit and add a pretty college degree and all of a sudden these are good business men who made some bad decisions.
Shame on the government for failing to prosecute real criminals even when they have evidence that they lied.
351
Really? The executives of the major tobacco companies testified under oath in Congress in the early 90s that they were still unaware that cigarettes were addictive despite later revelations that they had internal memos going back years identifying this. Yet not a single one was ever prosecuted for perjury
32
Well at least Big Tobacco was finally banned in the US and wiped out for good. Oh, no, wait: Phillips-Morris posted $7B in profits last year. I guess the drug companies ARE getting treated just like tobacco companies after all!
2
I am someone who uses these medications when needed as prescribed for severe pain.
I'm also someone whose livelihood is working with individuals whose lives have been ravaged by heroin and cocaine abuse.
These drugmakers should be held criminally liable, but of course I know they won't be.
12
Arlen Specter characterized the settlements for "misbranding" as nothing more than “a very expensive license for criminal misconduct.” Indeed. The lesson: wear a suit (not a hoodie and jeans) and make sure to incorporate.
13
Simply put: Lock them up.
12
Nothing happened with this info under the Bush administration. Add this to the list of lingering horrors from that awful administration.
4
Look at the timeline and you'll find that both parties had an opportunity to do something, and didn't.
PS - you'll find the same scenario with the financial crisis ... both parties need to look in the mirror.
6
Nobody cared when it was just Appalachia. Well, the chickens have now come home to roost. There is an enormous corporate crime behind this epidemic and, like the AIDS epidemic, was ignored by our president and our "trusted voices" in the media for far too long. This agressive, dangerous marketing was reported by Dr Art Van Zee way back in '09 in the American Journal of Public Health and was ignored. The LA Times, STAT News, Sam Quinones were all way out front on this story. Barack Obama ignored the crisis. Interestingly, it took him 7 years to publicly even mention it, the exact length of time it took Ronald Reagan to mention AIDS. Finally the mainstream "important" press here in New York is on the story and the outrage has grown. Let's hope the enormous settlement funds will do some good and not wind up like those wrested from the Big Tobacco criminals.
"Behind every great fortune there is a great crime"-Balzac
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/
9
We live in a different reality than these people and our ability to limit our involvement in their reality has nearly slipped away. When people are seen as consumers only and projections on a spreadsheet this will only continue to get worse.
4
Many of our representatives, especially Republicans, would argue, sending pharmaceutical executives to jail would hamper innovation and risk taking. Thereby, preventing new medicines coming to market in a timely manner. I wonder if these folks really have the public’s interest in mind. Or is their interest mostly with not losing campaign funding. The need for campaign finance reform has never been greater.
10
Nobody argues that. And every Republican I know supports jail for convicted felons. Period.
2
A health care system where providers answer to the American people instead of to only those few who own their stocks would go a long way towards solving these kinds of problems.
7
And how big are/have been the Sackler's political donations, as well as those of Big Pharma, to local, state and federal officials. Big Pharma always swoop in to crush any legislative move -city council, state legislature, congress - that impacts how opiates and other drugs are taxed and disposed. Many communities want safe and secure disposal options to dispose of unused drugs, yet Big Pharma does not and always sends their people to ensure it doesn't happen.
11
Let's pretend that the law is fair and that it is to be applied equally to all. Now, let's look at the suggestion that Purdue should be prosecuted because they knew OxyContin was being abused.
Back around 2000, doctors were writing illegal prescriptions, pharmacies were selling illegal quantities, users were selling their supplies and dealers were dealing, all of which was criminal. So the abuse of OxyContin involved independent criminal activities of countless others.
Now, remember that alcohol was widely abused causing far more deaths back in 2000 (when Oxycontin caused about 2000), all kinds of foods were abused causing a cardiac crisis, and on a smaller scale, Halloween masks were used by bank robbers, child abusers used the internet, and al Qaeda was soon to cause thousands of deaths with airplanes.
The law almost never makes a company liable just because they know people misuse their product. And the same law applies to Big Pharma as Delta Airlines. There are other issues raised in this article. But the main issue -- the one referenced in the headline -- suggests that Purdue is criminally liable because it knew its drug was being misused.
The case against Purdue is weaker than the other businesses referenced because all kinds of criminals that Purdue did not control were directly responsible for the misuse.
Because we're pretending we believe in justice we must reject the premise of this article and refuse to treat Big Pharma unfairly under the law.
3
The central issue isn't that Purdue knew that some people were abusing their products. Every pharmaceutical manufacturer knows that, and I can't imagine a period in time when that wasn't the case. What Purdue did that was criminal was to falsely testify to Congress that they were not aware of the abuse issues. That's very illegal and dangerous, and it's why they should have been prosecuted.
8
They hid information about their product. Halloween mask makers and airlines didn’t do that.
7
I certainly wouldn't argue that Purdue et al. don't share *some* of the blame for the situation we now find ourselves in.
That said, not disclosing the implications of product MISUSE is not the same as hiding information concerning the implications of PROPER use.
If the FDA approved it, and continues to approve it, I don’t see how or why Purdue should act any differently. I don’t dispute that there is an epidemic as well as loads of signs that this drug should be regulated - so, perhaps, an expose on the incompetence of the FDA and the limits of our regulatory system would be more worthwhile?
6
The marketing of this drug was misleading, but prescribers should have had the critical-thinking skills to know better than to prescribe a long-acting opioid for a short-term need. The "-contins" are drugs meant for use to treat chronic, painful maladies like cancer—pain that ultimately would be relieved by death of the sufferer. Multiple short-acting pain-relievers are available for short-term problems like post-operative pain. Any prescriber who continues to write scripts for these drugs for those for whom it was never (or never should have been) intended should have their licenses restricted. Likewise, those who lack the ability to differentiate between the two different types of pain and two types of individuals should be monitored.
But, simply monitoring the manufacturer and the prescribers won’t solve the drug problem. Those who become addicted must receive mental health counseling. Myriads of folks over the decades have used addictive pain medications for short-term issues without becoming addicted. Like those who have an internal chemical composition that makes them prone to the misuse of alcohol, some folks are prone to addiction to narcotics. Like the alcoholic and the diabetic who must learn how to manage their diseases, those who get something more than pain-relief from opioids must learn to manage their condition.
A variety of problems have arisen alongside becoming civilized, but being civilized allows us to manage them instead of them managing us.
5
Vs. 1980’s crack epidemic when the CIA knew where the crack was coming from (it paid for it.)
5
So, why aren’t these people in jail? So much for the war on drugs...
23
They are far too rich to be held accountable.
4
Don’t underestimate the power of direct to consumer advertising ( that we share only with NZ) and crass seduction of crass prescribers. Free dinners and travel to hear shills claim that these drugs were safe and a strategy of targeting dentists and primary care docs - amongst the least likely groups to know. Once the heat rose locally on Purdue they globalized the strategy with Mundipharma. What a bunch of gangsters. Starting with that family they need to atone with billions for rehabilitation, compensation and science.
3
Opioids don't kill people, only people kill people.
3
So the Purdue executives and their owners the Sacklers lied. What's the big deal, we have a president of the US whose whole life and administration is founded on lies. Lyng is the new norm in America.
6
Arthur Sackler, the late brother of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler who started Purdue Pharma, initiated the practice of leaning on physicians to use specific pharmaceutical products and rewarding them for it. My father worked for him at the Medical Tribune, and considered him to be both an extremely savvy marketer and a moral imbecile. It is because of people like Sackler that "arm's-length" policies became necessary.
44
Why are these drugs even on the market? Couldn't we fix the opioid epidemic by making them illegal? There are other pain killers that are not so addictive.
1
And this article is surprising...because?
3
I believe it's the first public knowledge that the DOJ didn't pursue charges that were recommended by their own prosecutors to be brought against Purdue. Correct me if I am wrong.
4
I'll go ahead and correct myself:
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/business/31oxy.html
That said, it's a much larger issue now, 11 years later. 60,000+ people are overdosing every year.
Well played, “powers that’s be”. Way to destroy a democracy. Erosion of the employment base and educational systems. Citizens United. Fox News. Big Pharma pushing “safe” painkillers. This all amounts to: Uneducated and/or drug-addled populace that either: a) votes (against their own interests) for plutocrats or candidates they own or b) doesn’t vote at all. The rich and powerful get more rich and powerful ... until everyone is either poor or dead, leaving no markets in which to peddle product ... oh well ...
9
Anyone surprised by this? I'm not...this article is a classic example of how protecting US Corp profits is the business of the US gov't.
Plus it shows how the FDA has devolved into perhaps one of our more poorly run departments. This line sticks out; "The F.D.A. decision was not based on findings from clinical trials, but a theory that drug abusers favored shorter-acting painkillers..." A theory led a Govt agency, an agency with the primary job of protecting consumers, to issue a nonsense decision, and as such release Purdue to go-ahead and do whatever they wanted and ignore the mounting evidence to the contrary.
Not a scientific theory, backed with plenty of evidence and science community agreement, but one more like those held by a random daytime talk-show host that the earth is really flat.
To any observer, its long been apparent that the US Justice Dept, along with our Congress do not wish to prosecute, or persecute US Corps when it comes to their dangerous products and subsequent bad behaviors as citizens.
The excuse that they (US JD) will be overwhelmed by the Corp lawyers efforts to delay, etc...is no excuse. And in fact should be addressed by our Congress. That is if they care about the voters and the public health over their campaign coffers.
But I don't expect much in this regards under Sessions. As he, like the FDA, prefers unsubstantiated theories when it comes to things like marijuana and immigration control.
5
The DOJ, the FDA, and the DEA are all used to promote corporate capitalism (and I am sure other agencies as well). The DOJ, like you stated, does not prosecute white collar crimes unless someone rich gets ripped off. Compare the Bernie Madoff scandal to the mortgage-backed securities crimes that were committed during the real estate bubble. Madoff stole from rich people and was aggressively prosecuted. The DOJ didn't bring a single charge as a result of the 2008 crisis. They even waited 7 years to make the laws more aggressive, that way the 7 year statue of limitations would be in effect once the laws changed. So corrupt it's staggering. The FDA is a joke and their opinions and approvals are often highly subjective, and they have stood largely silent while prescription drug use has skyrocketed over the last two decades. Just watch TV today and see how many of the ads are for prescription meds. 'Just ask your doctor..." for drugs you probably don't need. Meanwhile, as obesity continues to grow, elementary schools are allowed to fulfill vegetable requirements by using french fries, because they claim technically a potato is a vegetable. The DEA insists that there's no medical use for marijuana for a few reasons, but the largest one is because if it were to reverse course, people would likely start using marijuana for things they currently use prescription meds for (big Pharma's dirtiest secret of all).
It's disgusting and dangerous.
7
What is it going to take in this country to hold people who run corporations accountable for criminal behavior...why does our government reject DOJ recommendations to prosecute Big Pharma executives and cover up information of their lies,abuse and exploitation of the American people.
We then are asked to put tax dollars towards prisons and mental health/addiction recover centers, etc. the damage to our society is immense from drug addiction... but the real drug pushers are exempt from criminal prosecution.
And all this from the administration that started the war on drugs!
Enough is enough.
5
This article uncovers critical information that is helpful to understand the public health crisis. However, it is deeply flawed because it focuses entire on one group of people, and ignores or downplays the following facts:
1) the FDA under the Clinton administration approved the drugs in question,
2) the pharmaceutical companies and their executives donate heavily to the democratic party (check the records, it's true),
3) the pharmaceutical company is based in a solidly democratic state (Connecticut),
4) Obama ignored this public health crisis as it exploded during his presidency.
Instead, the writiers focus solely on republicans and blame them. Which isn't a surprise, because that is all this paper does.
Too bad the article ignores that the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) made it easier for these companies to make even more money.
We will never solve these problems until we hold ALL politicians accountable!
#FeeltheBern
7
People are agitating for the Koch name to be removed from museums. Same should happen to the Sacklers. It is hard to enjoy the Temple of Dendur (aka Sackler Wing of Met Museum) now knowing what funded it.
10
There was plenty of opioid abuse before 1996, the year that OxyContin came on the market. I worked in addiction treatment in New Haven during the '80s and early '90s. My agency had three outpatient methadone clinics, an addiction clinic for counseling and an long-term inpatient facility elsewhere in CT. And that's just one agency, albeit a well-equipped and well-skilled one.
About 100,000 people live in New Haven, with another couple of hundred thousand in adjoining towns.
No doubt Purdue's claims that OxyContin was not addictive didn't help, but neither did it start the epidemic. Opioids have been widely abused since the 1800s, when they were in many patent medications and even in soft drinks (the "Coca" in colas).
Anyone who believed that an opioid of any kind was not addictive was not paying attention, no matter what Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies claimed.
That said, there is no excuse for any company to withhold such information, just like there was no excuse for tobacco companies to claim that smoking and other tobacco use doesn't cause cancer. These companies should be held accountable for their lies. Let them pay for the treatment that so many now need, among other remedies.
6
Whoever profited by creating this mess should pay for the huge damages inflicted to our society.
1
Put them in prison
4
It's shameful that a corporation would put greed ahead of the health of people using their product, which was supposed to reduce suffering. It was shameful when they ignored information at their disposal all those years ago, when they looked the other way while some doctors and pharmacists got rich obtaining obscene numbers of pills and sold them on the black market with the knowledge of Purdue. It's shameful that they courted doctors to prescribe a drug they knew was addictive.
It's troubling to me that the government did not do what it was supposed to do - protect us from the greed of Purdue. When people become addicted - say, a high schooler who bought pills off a friend - they need to keep getting the drug. And they keep finding it, or, now, dangerous illegally manufactured opioids. When people had surgery and got oxycontin without knowledge of how addictive it is, they took a risk that may have gone on to ruin their lives and their families' lives.
Purdue is still in business. The opoid epidemic is rampant. The public that should have protected against oxycontin is the public that is paying for the damage its addictiveness has caused. No amount of money can lessen the tragedy of kids being raised by AWOL parents, grandparents, and foster parents or the grieving of people who lose family members and friends.
This sort of bad behavior by our government, in my opinion, is one example of why so many are willing to take huge risks to kill "politics as usual".
3
I'm confused as to why this story is appearing as "news". It has already been the subject of at least one book, Sam Quinones's "Dreamland", that came out a few years ago and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Why is any of this "news"? What gives?
3
Because people are dying daily from the addiction caused by it.
6
Sam's book "Dreamland" should be mandatory reading for every citizen and especially politicians. I have recommended the book to countless people. If anyone wants to know how we got where we are with the opioid crisis Sam Quiñones explains in his book. Read it.
2
Because the Times got a copy of the confidential Justice Department report that shows they knew their productive was addictive despite protesting that they didn't. It's in the first paragraph - the Times is reporting what was in the Justice Dept report, as they should.
2
The drug lords, be they Colombians and Mexicans, or Wall Street CEOs, don't care about their victims. The only thing that matters are the profits.
23
I recently read an article in the NYT that detailed how the partners and friends of people who overdose are being given lengthy jail sentences if they had anything at all to do with procuring the drug. Yet these white collar drug dealers go free. That's the American way, I guess.
114
That's the entire reason for the media splash of this "crisis" - to lead into yet another oppressive drug war against the peasants. Less freedom, more cops, more asset forfeiture, more prisons, more inmates working for 15 cents/hr.
4
Sadly, one of the most effective treatments for severe pain triggers an irrational craving for excessive use in a percentage of people. Some people just seem to be opioid addiction prone. The majority of people are not opioid addiction prone. If treated for severe pain with high doses, for a long time, they will have physical withdrawal symptoms such as diarrhea, goose-flesh and insomnia. However, they will not develop the irrational craving to use excessive amounts which defines addiction.
I was one of the physicians who believed Purdue's Pharma's story that OxyContin would be less addictive because it was slow release. The MA Attorney General decided to prosecute me for my prescribing practices with this drug and also with benzodiazepines, drugs like Xanax, Klonopin, and Ativan. Although I spent over $100K on my defense, I did not have the legal resources of Perdue Pharma or even those of the AG's office. My medical license was suspended in 2001 and revoked in 2007. I was convicted of improper prescribing and sentenced to 1 year in the county house of correction followed by 10 years probation in 2007. One condition of my probation is that I not practice medicine anywhere in the United States.
I lost my medical career at age 51, in part for being too lenient in prescribing OxyContin. Am I justified in resenting that individual doctors are punished harshly while wealthy drug companies get slapped on the wrist?
120
“The majority of people are not opioid addiction prone.”
I am sorry but given the statement above I am glad you no longer have the right to practice medicine.
However, I do agree with you concerning the “punishment” meted out to the pharma execs. They should be given life in solidarity confinement without parole.
24
You understate the effects of withdrawal from opiates. You should not have been allowed to prescribe them.
17
It's a correct statement though - similar addiction rates to alcohol, around 5%, but some place the range at 1-10%. Luckily you don't get to decide about painkillers. There are people who need them and doctors who prescribe them based on their training - not on what they read in a New York Times article.
Any old drug epidemic can be something of a problem, as we all know.
But the real troubles to flow from this wholly-corporate-created-and-profit-driven debacle, to be felt in the not so distant future, will be based on the absolute conviction developing among the wretched classes (or the 99%, if you crave a historical reference) that these games, this economy, these courts and that government are thoroughly, hopelessly, utterly corrupt.
That America is a game so epically fixed there is no chance any rich person, politician, executive will ever be held to account for any action, however heinous, illegal, sociopathically self-serving.
That only a sucker could conceive of America as a nation of laws, or of the police or the courts as anything but tools of a depraved and vicious elite.
The time time will come when this conviction manifests on the street. It will be a bad time to be rich and powerful in America.
Of course, it doesn't have to go that way, but the willful obliviousness, the slavish devotion to wealth and winning, have us careening down that road at a pace that will soon become chillingly difficult to control.
These executives, those investors, the courts and legislators who help them maintain this killing spree, need to lose everything and spend decades in jail thinking about what they did. About what they stole from us in the name of "business".
7
The timing of the Arthur Sackler marketing breakthrough that put Oxycontin into the bloodstream of America was diabolically clever.
The promotion of the drug as a ubiquitous pain reliever coincided with the economic breakdown of many communities across America, accelerating their destruction.
The two go together.
57
Take a look at Sam Quinones's "Dreamland".
3
I understand and I agree with the concept of pharmaceutical companies responsibility regarding the use of their drugs and the consequences of this use. However, what about the FDA ? This is an agency with the authority and, a very important responsibility to oversee the medicines in this country. A key question to ask is what went wrong in this oversight. And a corollary of this question is, why the U.S. is so unique relative to other countries in its reliance on the use of opioids in pain management. Company greed, failure of the governmental oversight, irresponsible physician behavior, or all of the above?
5
FOR THE THOUSANDTH TIME. PLEASE DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
The "morphine problem in New Zealand and Australia" is an issue of addicts doing "home-bakes" ... cooking up their own heroin.
Sure you morphine has the same physical dependence, but it has certain side effects and a limited amount of euphoria that makes it fairly unappealing for an addict. It just doesn't offer the same sort of euphoria offered by heroin and oxycodone ... and has a very strong and unpleasant histamine reaction in higher doses.
In many european states it's actually become a fairly common maintenance drug ... and has always been their go to for pain patients when absolutely necessary. So somehow I think our problem has less to do with the mere fact that these drugs are on the market in general.... and more to do with *which* drugs and how they've been dispensed (excessive amounts to patients with acute pain).
1
Frankly this article almost looks like a whitewash due to the way it harps mostly on the company name, Purdue Pharma, instead of the name of the family which controlled it and made the decisions despite the abundant evidence of the vast misery they were causing. That name is not "Purdue" and this story is rather old news: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-e...
9
Why not just say it? It's the Sacklers.
1
Indeed these medications were / are being crushed and abused. Blaming the manufacturer will not change the situation.
The majority of abusers are on some sort of insurance - private or public. All of these insurance providers have access to patient records by way of billing.
The insurance providers and individual state agencies & federal agencies should be requiring for payment detailed electron invoices (such invoicing is currently done, but not always submitted in electronic format).
Invoices are by patient number and include medical facility ID.
Those patients and those facilities that are dispensing such pharmaceuticals on a routine basis to individuals (routine basis = addiction maintenance quantities) should be caught and punished by license suspension and fine.
In the USA we track vehicles and tires for recall by serial number and registered owner's address. We could do the same for drug abuse.
2
Honestly, heroin has been so much cheaper for roughly the past 14 years. These drugs are not the problem, and were only a problem when they were essentially free (when Medicaid doctors overprescribed them to people who were already addicts, or middlemen ready to pass them on).
I do wish people would catch up with the reality, reporters too.
3
Anything, anything to make a buck.
9
200,000 dead?
Shades of the NRA!
What struck me about this was the dates: This happened under "W" Bush, and, lo and behold! there's Rudy as an attorney for the villains!
What will he call this: "Opigate"? "Addict-gate"? How about "Purdooeygate"?
There's a line in Casablanca: "Round up the usual suspects!"
Once again we find that the "Usual Suspects" are Republican, corporatists, 1%er's and "knew all along".
200,000 dead.
And Trump & Co. are still making billions off their drug-peddling and protecting each other from jail.
They all knew.
They all still know.
Print this article out and pass it on to someone you love.
63
Call me a cynic (after the collapse of Wall Street with no arrests) but why do I suspect that none of the highly paid Purdue Pharma executives will ever see the inside of a cell, despite the fact that they clearly are Drug Dealers. And our so-called president has even spoken about the death penalty for some drug dealers.
139
What happened to “the death penalty for all drug dealers”?
57
He didn't realize that it meant Rudy - no, no, not RUDY, too!!!
He thought it meant "other people's" friends, not HIS!
10
This was surely widely understood by many people with experience in addiction, including folks at FDA and NIDA.
Not new news.
Certainly a disgrace.
11
Just goes to show how ineffective this idea of the "War on Drugs," really is. While we have lost many to both the crack and opioid epidemics, it is painfully obvious that we aren't treating the problems - only the symptoms.
People aren't getting high just for the thrill of it. Some are doing it to escape real trauma and or to self medicate real medical issues that aren't being addressed by the people who are supposed to help treat them. Either because they are doing a poor job of practicing medicine or the problems presented are just outside of their bailiwick.
We can blame Purdue Pharma (Which they are indeed culpable) all we want, but just like the Nino Brown's of the world, they were just feeding our desires. The fact is we need a better system to address the mental health issues that run rampant in our country and more doctors who are willing to say "NO!" to our desire for quick fixes.
8
The "M" in MS Contine stands for "morphine." The drug is simply morphine in a slow release form . While "drug culture" sources could explain how to get morphine from MS Contin, a proper journal article in 1990 pointed out the danger and also gave an effective method of extraction Crews and Denson, Cancer 66:2642-2644,1990) "Recovery of Morphine From a Controlled- Release Preparation A Source of Opioid Abuse ". The current article mentions problems in 1998, long after the article appeared. The product remain as dangerous now as it was then.
17
It appears that prior to OxyContin receiving FDA approval, both Purdue Pharma and the FDA were aware that the medication could be crushed eliminating the purpose of the time-release capsule.
But neither of them believed this misuse of the drug would become widespread. ‘‘We did not foresee the widespread abuse and misuse of OxyContin that has been reported in the past few years.’’
FDA believed warning consumers not to crush the pill would prevent people from doing so, amazingly overlooking the oblivious that by advertising the defect it may have actually encouraged people to crush the medication.
It's indeed incredible. Quite evidently there was Quid pro quo without which FDA would never have bent backward to accommodate Purdue Pharma.
Think of an example of an opposite of ethical leadership, mindful leadership, sustainable development, ethical capitalism, l'affaire OxyContin meets it all.
25
I became addicted to prescription pills when I was fourteen and had surgery to remove my wisdom teeth. After some years, and some more ‘experimentation’, Heroin began to flood the streets of New York again.
When an addict can’t get their drug of choice, they go for the next best (or cheapest) thing. Prescription pills are a lot more expensive than Heroin, and this entire painkilling game is a socio-economic recipe for disaster.
6
Just to correct a much propagated myth: studies have shown that less than 5% of people who use opioids fo rnon-medical reasons go on to use heroin.
There are no studies showing that anyone who uses prescription opioids for genuine pain problems end up using heroin and that includes those whose doctors stop prescribing the opioids for them.
11
Oxycodone is approximately equal to diamorphine in purely analgesic terms, and “genuine pain” is a genuinely subjective concept.
Of course there are no studies of any revelatory value regarding a Schedule I Controlled Substance. That’s the point.
I don't know who conducted that study or where that study was conducted, but it wasn't on the streets or within the drug community. I can tell you in Baltimore and the surrounding counties, a large number of heroin addicts under 40 years old started turning to heroin once the street price of pills got to $1 per milligram back in the late 2000's. I would put that number way above 50%. If you think the sudden surge in heroin use over the last 10 years started because people just thought "Hmmmm......maybe I ought to start doing heroin, I got some prime waterfront property in Joshua Tree National Park to sell you and those who conducted the "study" you referrenced.
Of course they knew. Greed is good!
29
Not just widely abused. That's not the point. The point is that Purdue Pharma lied. They knew the drug WAS/IS VERY ADDICTIVE and sold it saying it was NOT.
Lying is now acceptable behavior, so the deaths, destruction and profits will continue. After all that is how Trump made and is making his money. He is setting the example, a really bad example....
The flyover states are most in need of undoing Citizens United and the least informed on the real problem with their bought and paid for racist, rifle toting politicians.
475
That may be, but is seemed that the Bush administration, not Trump's, let the company off the hook with a fine and a slap on the wrist. And, pray tell, what did the Clinton or Obama administrations do beside lip service?
11
Please don’t obfuscate the real culprit(s) with your political agenda. Opioid abuse has nothing to do with Trump, guns, and Citizens United. If you recall, Bill Clinton was POTUS 1996-2000.
This article perfectly illustrates what’s wrong with American capitalism - it allows for unchecked greed. To the point of death. And the wealthy titans of industry get off scot-free.
Meanwhile, local police and prosecutors are so frustrated by the epidemic’s toll they decide to hold accountable drug users’ “enablers” - fellow users who share, friends and family who buy the drugs or provide money.
The class war cannot come fast enough.
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But they lied to doctors who should have known better and, if they didn't, should never have been prescribing OxyContin or any other opioids in the first place.
13
The willful loss of memory about the shared culpability if a drug company in the deaths of thousands is nothing less than despicable, all to make a quick buck. Who said that greed is dead? And now, what are we going to do about it? Look the other way, expect different results by accepting the status quo, and go on, 'business as usual?
7
While it is true that OxyContin's potential for abuse caused it to be crushed and snorted for immediate effect, the insidious and counterintuitive nature of "time release" opioids as encouraging addiction in patients who took the drugs for pain as prescribed should not be discounted.
As the patients' tolerance for OxyContin ratcheted up - they accelerated their dosage- causing large amounts of a time release drug to build up in their system actually encouraged addiction - the absolute opposite of the 'safe non-addictive' marketing hype that was used to promote these drugs initially.
Moreover, patients taking this drug for control of pain that tends to be irregular or with 'spikes' of 'breakthrough' pain would be disposed to take larger doses to address the spikes, with residual time release of the drug at a higher overall average rate as a result.
Was all this intentional and evil? More likely it was opportunistically embraced as a market positive instead of being understood as a problem and addressed by those in a position to profit. Isn't that too frequently the problem?
4
Sackler family were advertising and marketing masters . Also see the piece in the New Yorker written about them . Once they had the hundreds of millions , rather billions , that influence could buy off investigation and prosecution from justice dept . Through connections
Absolutely amoral aka Weinstein , Madoff , Etc
107
Just another classic example of how Justice is different for criminals who wear a suit. I never understood the leniency of white collar crime. It is so obvious these people knew the drug was being abused but were making too much money on it to take it off the market or at least be honest in their marketing. This is no different than the same leniency that was shown for Wall Street executives who destroyed the economy in 2008. Not only did we not put them in jail but we rewarded them with a trillion dollars. That’s why Americans are so hard nosed now about the gilded one percent.
179
Well, it paid to make donations to the Obama administration as it does to any administration. Is it any wonder Obama had his hand out as soon as he left office for speaking fees to Wall Street? Eric Holder was a joke and probably a plant (in both meanings of the word).
5
No suit, no loot.
No tie, no pie.
6
Clearly you are a purveyor of fake news, so that the possibility of any of your statement having any substantive truth is highly unlikely.
On the other hand, if these boundaries have been crossed in the past, does that mean that it is permissible for the practice to continue.
You and your fake news compatriots seem stuck in "if you did it, (doesn't matter how negative it is) we can do it too.
1
Reading of the predictable lack of will to prosecute corporate criminals in the W administration, while sickening, is no surprise.
Knowing that the same lack of will to pursue corporate criminals persisted in the Obama administration also makes me sick. Especially when we saw it over and over again in the aftermath of the the Great Recession.
If the Democrats can regain power in the coming elections, it will only be due to leaders coming to the fore who are willing, able, and ready to champion working Americans in every part of our country who despair of our democracy and cry out for men and women of character to lead us in rebuilding our government and society.
37
The country has now experienced 3 totally avoidable addiction epidemics (meth, opiods, and nicotine vaping). All because of greedy executives and their lobbyists corrupting Congress. This will just keep happening until we start sending company executives to jail for long sentences. Their greed has done more damage to this country and caused more deaths than any terrorist organization.
250
You might add smoking and alcohol to avoidable addiction epidemics. Or are those just too obvious?
14
I left those out because of how long-standing those problems are... Humans were abusing alcohol since before the New World was discovered. And the settlers were getting addicted to smoking shortly afterwards.
These recent addiction epidemics are different. PBS Frontline has a very enlightening documentary on the start of the Meth' crisis if anyone is interested. The DEA under Reagan tried to avoid the crisis right at the beginning and were thwarted by industry lobbying of both Congress and the Executive branch. I amazed that there haven't been class action suits brought against the companies and their lobbyiests.
1
Thank you, I was going to cite the Frontline episode on meth: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/
The greedy and powerful are responsible for an astounding amount of preventable suffering.
1
If Purdue planted the seeds of the epidemic, it was doctors who watered and fertilized them and harvested the crop.
The reason why doctors could so readily belief myths propagated by Purdue regarding OxyContin was the little education most receive on the use of opioids and pain management in general (about 11 hours during all four years of medical school.)
Yes, sales reps mislead people but for doctors to blame Purdue is a bit like you're buying a non-hybrid car and being told you'll get 100 miles per gallon of gas and blaming the salesman for misleading you. People would ask how could you be so ignorant to believe it. The same could be said of docs who believed Purdue regarding OxyContin.
10
"Starting in 2007, the year of the settlement, distributors of prescription drugs sent enough pain pills to West Virginia over a five-year period to supply every man, woman and child there with 433 of them..."
Nothing there that would raise any kind of red flag, right?
205
Justice to the highest bidder is plainly on display once again. Thanks for the history lesson, NYT. Can I expect a similar article on the financial shenanigans of 2007-2008 in ten years?Attention spans being what they are, all a malevolent actor has to do is commit ( fill in heinous act ) lawyer up and wait. The only recourse the people have is to hit the oligarchs where it hurts. That means voting in politicians who aren't afraid of the word tax. Fat chance!
13
Are these the type of drug dealers Mr. Trump would like to execute? I’m guessing no. Wrong ethnicity. Wrong socioeconomic class.
367
I've been a journalist for more than forty years, trained at Columbia Journalism school and mentored by the conscience of journalism, Fred W. Friendly. Given that background, I read this rehash of an old case wondering why this is on the front page. It is also biased and misses some very important points. First, the law under which the executives pleaded guilty was one that is unique in our judicial system. You are guilty EVEN IF you did not know about the illegal actions--in this case of the marketing people. You are guilty just because you were in a position of authority in the company--not because you did anything wrong. Paul Goldenheim, Howard Udell and the other people in leadership could have faced jail time if they did not plead guilty. But they were unaware of the wrong doing of the marketers and when they learned of it, Purdue notified the FDA before the FDA knew about it. I write now because I've read and reread these biased articles on this issue. Narcotics are addictive and people abuse them. lt's a problem, but these men were not criminals. It saddens me that a reporter at the veritable NYTIMES, the paper of record, continues to leave out this important information.
2
LOCK THEM UP !!!! Right next to low level " street dealers ". It's the least we can do. Seriously.
46
Lying to Congress, lying to doctors, lying to patients, and being caught red handed but allowed to continue the fraud in pursuit of their filthy lucre.
Lie, cheat and steal until you're wealthy enough that the laws no longer apply to you. That's the real American Dream.
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I’m a parent with an adult child whose life has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic, Simply put, there needs to be some serious accountability. I’m certain that there are many millions of Americans who share my feelings in this regard.
156
The US justice system has evolved subservient to corporations. It has become a shield for the rich and powerful, and a weapon aimed at the poor and weak.
Not sure why Americans are OK with this state of affairs. Steal from, or defraud, an individual, you’ll get arrested, tried and incarcerated. Steal from, or defraud, many thousands, you get to admit no liability, keep your freedom and have shareholders pay a fine representing a small fraction of your ill-gotten gains. This isn’t any kind of deterrent for illegality, it’s an actual incentive.
390
these 'American' corporations have no allegiance to the U.S.
their only nationality is Money.
17
Sorry, this company was cooperative and made a lot of money and should probably see jail time for the sales team. But it is the way doctors work that is the heart of the problem. You don't need a medical degree to know that strong opioids will be addictive. They should only give out the minimum necessary to prevent serious pain. Doctors need to think more instead of simply following formulas and believing every thing they are told. For years they have spewed incorrect dietary information based on false research. Doctors should be engineers or scientists not simply well paid technicians.
49
And you're a doctor, right? Bet you don;t really have any idea what chronic pain patients are like, their drug need parameters, etc. This latest drug war hysteria is hurting more people than just the addicts - just in case you care.
7
Hey, pain is the 5th vital sign, and if your patients don't appreciate your attempts to control their pain, you get a bad report card and your hospital gets a bad reputation.
Really.
The opioid crisis was wrought by the two biggest motivators of human behavior: money (pharma greed) and pride (doctors/hospitals wanting a good reputation).
Here's something for journalists to consider: who thought that publically reporting patient satisfaction scores for pain control was a good idea? Can that person go to jail?
59
THAT PERSON was Medicare which created the hospital ratings.
That score is no longer measured but the damage is done
11
Of course they knew. They knew it from the beginning. They knew it was highly addictive and likely to be abused, but they lied their way in and out of doctors’s offices singing its praises. They are singularly responsible for the opiate problem we have now, singularly responsible for creating a culture of chronic pain sufferers who have no physical causes for their pain (back pain, primarily; I don’t dismiss people with debilitating illnesses that cause serious pain or put them in the category of drug misusers), and singularly made wealthier by exploiting their concoction. It makes me sick.
111
"creating a culture of chronic pain sufferers who have no physical causes for their pain (back pain, primarily;" -- what is your source for this inflammatory statement? You obviously don't know anyone who suffers from chronic pain.
11