It's like the Sacklers themselves are all addicted to something.
8
These grifters make the Trump clan look like amateurs.
11
There are a lot of people in prison because of them. Unfortunately, if any of the Sacklers actually do get time, it won’t be the same prisons.
9
A morally bankrupt family. They have no shame, it seems.
9
Uh, $3.4 million donated to "help" opioid addicts--who do these people think they are fooling.
The Sacklers have spawned and fostered a crisis that has robbed families and friends of loved ones, have profited off their suffering, and have the gall to come back to the trough and figure out a way to profit once more?!
I hope our laws have the ability to force trials with prison sentences on this family. These are not good people. Their charitable gifts, for all the good that they have done, have a lingering stench. A plea bargain with multi-million dollar fines will just not do.
The Sacklers don't have impoverished childhoods, absentee parents, and a lack of education to explain how they came to be murderers. They worked knowingly, without shame, to exploit brain chemistry and create addicts for their products.
Purdue should be disbanded and the family coffers emptied to help today's Oxycontin addicts and to compensate people who have lost their loved ones due to the Sacklers' crimes.
16
My husband pointed out that the Stamford, Conn. headquarters of Purdue Pharma has a sculpture of a giant coke spoon out front. This seems to me to be extraordinarily dark cynicism on the part of the Sacklers. I suppose that they are giving a nod to those who helped make them so wealthy.
The spoon is actually a protest by an artist.
12
So when does SDNY or EDNY go after the Sacklers using RICO. Drive the family into bankruptcy directly and painfully, opioids not included.
8
About the same time they after the Trump organization. That is to say... never.
4
the pain and suffering i have witnessed after 35 years in the emergency room is beyond measure. the sackler family must be held responsible in some way.
15
Sackler... oh yes. I've visited Sackler named galleries or wings at major art institutions. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY and in museums in Washington DC. Likely there are others... but who checks the provenance of the checks at our most august cultural institutions? See no evil, but do cash the checks. A society in deepest decay.
13
A morally bankrupt corporate structure is at the source of unimaginable pain , death and suffering. This systemic corruption machine enlisted the help of doctors some of whom were not trained in pain management or addiction and some who were greedy and corrupt like the pharmaceutical companies to sell their product. Yes, powerful pain drugs for an end stage cancer patient is a wise and merciful medical treatment. Giving a young person 90 Percocet's for a wisdom tooth extraction not so wise. Let's not pretend the crisis is over. Scores of these people have moved on to street heroin. Ironically, big pharma just changed the recipe or the malady they pretend to be treating. However, many doctors continue to prescribe drugs that can harm patients weather out of ignorance or arrogance without seeing the patient in a holistic fashion and treating the whole person.
8
Addiction to opioids is treatable in a medical context, and spending public funds as needed to treat it is demonstrably more effective in every way than criminalizing it.
Addiction to profit, on the other hand, once it has advanced to the stage of killing thousands of humans and blocking attempts to help them, can only be treated by life imprisonment and complete confiscation of the ill-gotten gains.
12
Companies don't make decisions, the people who run the companies make decisions. I applaud NYT for showing the people who run the company, they should not be anonymous. Despite all that has been in the press about opioid addiction, it is likely that anyone reading this article can find a "Pain Clinic" willing to start them on chronic opioid therapy for non-cancer pain. It totally boggles the mind.
9
Next we'll find out that the Sackler's are investing in casket manufacturers, funeral homes, crematoriums, and cemeteries.
Their greed for money is endless.
30
These people are despicable. Cashing in on a drug that exacerbates addiction and the potential for addiction, and then planning to cash in on the drugs created to treat addiction? I am sickened.
The deeply outrageous thread that runs through this is tied to a saying well-known in the 12-step recovery community: "once a pickle, you can never go back to being a cucumber". What this means is that the Sacklers can try to look noble getting into opioid addiction treatment, but it will never change the fact that they've contributed mightily to the ruination lives. Their actions have permanently chained people to the always-uphill battle with addiction & recover - and for the rest of their lives.There is. no. cure.
10
WOW! 75 million for Oklahoma and BILLIONS AND BILLIONS for the Sacklers. Such a deal!
11
Most people believe that if this family knowingly deceived people about the dangers of Oxycodone they deserve prison. Prison is the only way to stop this kind of corporate deceit. Prison is the only way to send a loud enough message. How many people are going to die before we as a nation demand justice.
22
I feel the pain of parents of drug addicted children.
We sent a bright, highly accomplished son to a marquee university only to see that he got addicted to pot. To the best of our knowledge, this is the drug of choice for him. After dropping out of college, he has been under a haze of marijuana with no incentive to work, increasingly irrelevant skill sets and total isolation from society.
Now that he is an adult normal parental influence or intervention is impossible. We have mourned what happened to him for some time now without anywhere to go.
The popular so called recreational and now legal drug has wrecked our household. Heroine kills more quickly and decisively; pot invades the psyche just as badly destroying the mind and rational thinking. Do not cite research to me; the Sackler family can, I'm sure, cite research papers in prestigious journals extolling the virtues of painkillers.
Before you lobby for legalization of drugs of any kind, remember that altering the mind in any way, shape or form does not lead to a happy ending.
19
@Appu Nair
I hope the Times favorites THIS POST.
If they were black they'd have been in jail a long time ago.
17
The addiction to greed by these purveyors of pain and death knows no end. The consciences of those cultural organizations benefiting from this family's largess should be equally ashamed of themselves.
11
How much did they donate to presidential candidates in recent elections? How much to congress and the senate? How much influence did they have over the FDA highballing their product to future addicts? Why did the FDA get rid of propoxyphene the only non-addictive alternative to opioids? There’s your story young journalists. Go get them. All of them.
12
@James Arthur
CNN/Feb/2016:
Big Pharma's big donations to 2016 presidential candidates
By Nadia Kounang, CNN
Their biggest recipient? Clinton. She collected $336,416 in donations, over a third of the total contributions during the 2016 presidential campaign. The next biggest recipient was Republican candidate Jeb Bush, who collected less than half the amount of Clinton. Trump received the least in donations: $1,010, enough to buy one Daraprim pill.
4
@Maureen
Yes, but Trump wants to deregulate the FDA. As it is, there are concerns that post-market surveillance studies intended to monitor the safety of drugs and devices don't get done. It is only after something bad happens that drugs and devices get reviewed and taken off the market. The last thing we need is to have even less oversight from an already taxed regulatory agency.
1
Meanwhile millions of legitimate, chronic pain patients are suffering through both pain and opioid withdrawal because there ARE NO MEDICAL STUDIES FOR EITHER LONG TERM OXYCONTIN USE OR IT’S WITHDRAWAL.
Guinea pigs used by Big Pharma and the overly broad guidelines of the DEA, CDC.
2
Yes. Also we should note that they continue as well to propagandize and donate money to insure people don't realize the effectiveness of cannabis for reducing opioid use. They falsely call out cannabis as an "addictive drug", and they bankroll anti cannabis legislation everywhere possible. In states having legalized cannabis, statistics are now showing opioid overdoses have dropped by almost 25%. This is according to the 2014 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Can't get much more credible than that. Medicare savings to taxpayers are already calculated as well to be in the hundreds of millions for the reduction in prescriptions for pain and anxiety meds. Yep. So they're pretty much your run-of-the-mill everyday billionaires doing evil things. They dress in suits and ties and gear up with money and lawyers - instead of using machine guns and Putin styled assassinations to take what they want.
6
Cannabis is harmful to the developing mind of the adolescent. Up to 30% of those under 18 who use recreational marijuana develop a marijuana use characterized by underachievement, depression and increased risk of suicide. Daily use of high THC content cannabis is also associated with a more than 6 fold increase in later opioid addiction in those who begin in adolescence as "wake and bake stoners" and then go on to chase that next high.
https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/news-releases/2017/09/marijuana-use-associated-increased-risk-prescription-opioid-misuse-use-disorders?fbclid=IwAR2-NMbuPrODVyck9AGrRwX18Z4dadtc1QKEzKEo47PPMcabL2lMcJa4IPI
3
@georgec
STOP with the nonsense about marijuana. Read Appu Nair's remark right after yours. ALSO read Alex Berenson's book Tell Your Children - the eye-opening report from an award-winning author and former New York Times reporter that reveals the link between teenage marijuana use and mental illness, and a hidden epidemic of violence caused by the drug—facts ignored by the media "as the United States rushes to legalize cannabis."
3
@thewiseking so what is the argument here? no-one is talking about or approving adolescent use of cannabis. And this outfit is by the same people who classify cannabis as a schedule one drug - as bad as heroin. And saying cannabis use is associated with this or that problem is like saying taking Excedrin migraine is associated with headaches. I don't have a need to use cannabis, and disagree that anyone should have a daily habit except for those who need it for medical reasons - like those who can't afford $175/hr and three years of therapy for example. There is no argument here. Please do make one though if I'm missing something. Additionally, I don't believe the 6fold increase statistic. Cannabis is not a gateway drug. That is settled science. If you actually have evidence from hard working people of integrity and character - from people who don't lie for self serving ends - please post.
2
There is ample circumstantial, if not dispositive , evidence that the Sackler family has been running an ongoing criminal enterprise. The states Attorneys General are way too interested in civil cases (and obtaining big monies for their respective treasuries) and are, thusly, avoiding charging the Sacklers as the criminals they are.
This needs to stop. Either the Feds need to charge the Sacklers with wire and mail fraud, as well as conspiracy charges, or the individual states need to step up; or both.
This whole silliness of jumping onboard to just administer civil penalties is sickening. Indict these blights on society and stop being afraid of their lawyers.
To the Justice Department and various states Attorneys General: The NYT and others have already laid out the road map for criminal charges - so do your jobs, please, and restore faith that justice is for slimy billionaires too.
7
The drug distribution companies like McKesson are just as guilty. So are pharmacies large and small. I agree it's criminal but in a just world damages would go toward treatment and resolution so that we the innocent tax payer arent stuck paying for the care or damages.
As a retired addiction treatment program developer, counselor and manager, I can't help but think that the Sacklers are being over-vilified here. I'd like to know when they knew how addictive their drug was and what sorts of controls they tried to place on it.
Addiction does not occur in a vacuum. People have to abuse drugs to become addicted. If drugs are taken as prescribed (or less), people do not become addicted, however much their bodies may become dependent on them. That's because addiction is not simple habituation (bodily adaptation to a drug). It consists of cravings and drug seeking behaviors that interfere with daily life.
We need better medications that are less prone to abuse, a way to determine whether a patient is likely to abuse medication and better treatment for those who become habituated or addicted to drugs.
These days we see reports of families abusing drugs together. Clearly that is not the fault of a pharmaceutical company, though their marketing may have made it more likely IF they did not explain the addictive qualities to doctors.
This is another issue: older doctors are unlikely to have received any training at all in treating addiction or even identifying it. When I managed treatment programs at hospitals, interns and residents never and I do mean never came to our programs at all. They got absolutely no training in addiction medicine and little in psychiatry, of which addiction is a sub-specialty.
8
I would not be surprised if the Sacklers were behind the Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditatation (JCOHA) requirement that all outpatients have a pain evaluation and fill out a pain chart. While private, JCOHA wielded huge power to accredit or not to accredit medical provider organizations. The mandatory pain questionnaires seem unnecessary and heavy handed, given that providers generally discover and address important patient concerns. Next thing you know we will have mandatory questionnaires about diarrhea and constipation so the prescription drug makers can sell more GI meds. The ugly side of capitalism, promulgated arbitrarily by JCOHA.
2
Everyone with money now has the Trump attitude , we can stand in the middle of the road, shoot somebody and get away with it. Except theirs is “ we can push our drugs, kill you and get away with it. Or make you addicted, then sell you treatment. Ain’t America great? Really?!
3
These people are psychopaths! Go worship at the alter of Money!!! That’s all that counts for you, isn’t it!?
2
Initially, I didn't like the idea of a wealth tax. Stories like this are beginning to change my mind.
6
@Lester Jackson
So we should levy an unconstitutional wealth tax on all rich people because the Sacklers got rich selling a legal product approved for sale by our government? Yes, of course. That makes perfect sense. I'm sure AOC agrees with you.
2
Ask yourself, why would anyone do this for money?
3
Those involved and convicted by jury should be stripped of their passports and tried in a court of law. The fortunes they made killing should be clawed back. So too their assets. They should be thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. Their donations should be viewed as nothing less than an hideous demented celebration of premeditated murder. Imho.
5
@P
"Those involved and convicted by jury should be stripped of their passports and tried in a court of law."
So we should try people AFTER they're convicted? Makes perfect sense. Stupidity like this is why Dems keep losing.
3
@GMooG
Republicans apparently don't care about crime committed by the wealthy. That's why they elected the money-laundering fraudster Trump for president!
3
Thank you NYTimes for the photo of the sculpture and its placement
5
Sacklers are no different than famed firm Jardine Matheson's spearhead role in enslaving China by cultivating and then smuggling opium on a continental scale into China as the British Empire's capitalist-side policy of conquest. No difference whatever.
4
I was given Vicodin after surgery. I took one pill and knew this was a powerful addictive drug. Then threw it all out.
8
@Vivien Hessel Indeed, as I was given Schedule 2 meds after surgery and recycled them immediately at a pharmacy medication drop box vs. tossing them in the toilet (a bad idea for any drug, especially BC pills - feminized fish and all that).
5
Lawsuits aren't enough. With 200,000 dead due to their greed and deception, the Sackler family should be tried at The Hague for crimes against humanity.
12
Don't forget that Rudy Giuliani was hired by Perdue in a Federal court case in the mid-2000s. He lost the court case, but worked out a deal that avoided a bar against Perdue from selling to the federal government and restricting further lawsuits against the company:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/22/rudy-giuliani-opioid-epidemic-oxycontin-purdue-pharma
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/05/oxycontin-purdue-pharma-federal-investigation-dopesick-excerpt-219158
4
Why don’t we use mandatory minimums against corporations, since they’re people too, right..?
5
I design reporting for sales organizations and I promise you that the Sackler's and their corporate leadership know exactly which towns and which cities and even which stores are driving sales. They know the population of each town and the number of pills sold. This is how we look at the data for trends and growth and anomalies...so it is an absolute fact that they know the stores that sell more opioids than any other. They know where the pill mills are and the abusers are and where the numbers are just - off - the -charts.
That they knew and the only thing they did about it was try to sell more and more and more. - and the state should have known too.
Dear Reporters: What does the state collect on prescription data? What do they do with it? When they see unusual trends why don't they do anything to shut it down?
15
I hope the Sackler family, and their accomplices throughout the pharmaceutical industry, are brought to justice. The extent to which executives and lobbyists within the industry are willing to go to push their products, kill helpful legislation, and stuff their pockets is brazenly criminal. These executives are some of the most dangerous people in the world, killing thousands while getting rich in plain sight.
5
When will white collar crime see jail time? Money is something they can easily afford. Time rotting in jail, not so much. Once the drug addicts are released from jail and sent to treatment centres instead, the prisons will have vacancies for all those that profited from knowingly causing the drug addiction and deaths.
People want the Sackler family to pay and the few in the family that did directly push for the marketing should spend time in jail, but so should the enablers like the market makers, the bank executives, the FDA supervisors who approved the drug, the pharmacy board members who knew of the problems but refused to pull the drug because of the profit and the fear of retaliation from Purdue.
Self corporate governance has failed big time not only at Purdue, but throughout all the enabler corporations. The FDA is too underfunded and ineffective to protect the American public and too influenced by governmental pressure from above who answer to lobbyists and their campaign backers.
2
I am a recovering opiate addict. About 2 years after OxyContin was passed by the FDA in 1995, I relapsed on another pain killer after being clean for over 12 years. A physician gave me a prescription for 20 mg tablets. I immediately received went to another physician and got (60) 40 mg tablets. I couldn't believe (a) how strong they were, and (b) how much more addictive they were than Percocet.
At the time, they were still making 160 mg tablets; which could kill a child or elderly person. The FDA asked Purdue to stop making them, and they complied; however, they still made (and make) 80 mg tablets.
I was snorting and/or taking them intravenously. Typically for about 5 to 6 weeks or so, then I would run out of options (meaning doctors), and end up in a detox. I would then stay clean for several years in outpatient treatment. Then, a severe pain issue would crop up; like kidney stones, a fractured and a herniated disc in my lower back. I would take pain medication as directed, with someone else dosing it to me, I would invariably relapse months or years later.
Eventually, I started taking methadone about 5 years ago (something I swore I would never do after first getting clean at an inpatient treatment facility. I followed this with AA and/or NA meetings daily.
I have probably been to over 15,000 meetings. Also, I haven't had alcohol (or any other drug) since 1985. I even quit smoking almost 25 years ago.
I have tried Suboxone; it's worse than methadone. I want to quit.
16
Trump can tap them for Health and Human Serices or even FDA.
11
See today’s Onion: Quarterly deaths are down and the board is quite concerned.
5
Maybe I'm naive (probably so) but how do these people sleep at night?
3
there's certainly a legitimate use for OxyContin and similar drugs. nonetheless, the relentless pressure to generate more prescriptions without the requisite concern from the manufacturer about the patients' ultimate welfare is appalling.
i hurt my back skiing. i went to an urgent care physician as i couldn't even stand up. not my own doctor. a five minute examination followed by a prescription for 60 hydrocodone pills that was immediately filled at the pharmacy in the supermarket pharmacy next door. $7.97 out of pocket as my prescription plan paid the rest. i thought the number of doses was excessive and i only took 1 of the pills. dropped the rest off at the police station for disposal.
in the meantime, the sackler family feeds at this trough of value where the stream that fills it is overflowing. a $22.5 million mansion for one of the heirs. didn't even earn it. just collected it.
but this really isn't about a mansion. it's about abusing patients and driving sales with a total disregard for the consequences that others suffer.
some of us - and some of our doctors - know what to do. others follow that overflow down the drain to addiction, maybe abuse of other substances when the prescription runs out, and even death.
i would rather have the pain than face the alternate outcome. i guess the question is who is really the bottom feeder?
7
The Sacklers should be charged criminally for the deaths that resulted from their marketing of opioids and intentional lying about their addictive potential. They have refused to accept responsibility for their role in tens of thousands of deaths (for a profit). Interesting that so much money and time was spent trying to capture El Chapo but these folks have been living the life of great philanthropists as they sacrificed the lives of so many, just as many as the illegal cartels. They did not care about what this did to people's lives. The 1% is apparently immune from prosecution, even for mass murder.
12
The actions of the Sackler family are despicable, disgraceful, and immoral. For decades these people have rested on the laurels of philanthropy while hiding their dark side by consciously and purposely creating drugs known to be highly addictive and with a high probability of becoming street drugs, while aggressively touting their benefits to generations of physicians as the only treatment for post surgical (which is a legitimate use) and chronic pain (which is often how the addiction starts). And now they want to double dip in their shameful money pot by creating rehab centers so the very people who became unwittingly, in many cases, addicted to their drugs can receive treatment and the Sacklers become even more wealthy.
Their game came to the forefront last week when several major museums declined to take further funding from the Sacklers, people I believe are criminals. I am Jewish, and am further sickened that this deceitful and greedy family is of my faith. While their philanthropy is clearly a Jewish value, deceit and money hungry criminal activity is not.
15
Thank you, well-said. I, too, am saddened that they are brethren and believe their charitable donations make up for all the lives they have ruined and ended. They appear totally absent of any moral compass.
1
The Sackler family is not significantly different from MS-13, except that they are killing many more US citizens, and making a lot more money doing it.
We would clearly apply RICO in any other case, but the Sackler family is promoting phamaceutical genocide - kill the poor, and make money doing it.
What nice people they must think they are.
23
The members of this family are the most despicable of creatures! That’s the only way to describe them!
I hope the lawsuits result in the bankruptcy of all the Sacklers. Even if it means following their money overseas, if necessary.
I’ve been saying for years this drug should be banned.
Especially after seeing how MRI's demonstrate that OxyContin stimulates the same parts of the brain as heroin. You don't need to be a brain surgeon to conclude there must be strong addictive qualities to the drug.
I know they relieve pain for people that really need relief.
However, this drug cannot be used by the masses. The number of overdoses and deaths establishes that.
Somehow we survived pain before these opioids hit the market, I'm sure we will survive again without them!
4
I had major surgery 12 years ago and although I have a high pain tolerance (Thank God), my doctor warned me of the addictive nature of Vicodin and Oxy. I used the opiate for less than a week to help with pain management, and I tossed the rest away. Didn't need it! Any lingering pain I experienced, I just popped a Tylenol. It's sad that so many people have such unbearable pain, or, such low pain tolerance, and combine with Physician ignorance of the highly addictive nature of these drugs, that we have a pathetic vicious circle of for-profit pain - management - treatment /death cycle that it's hard to fathom it ever ending. So many good lives ruined forever for profits!
3
I am very saddened by the unfathomable loss of your son.
The Sacklers need to go to jail for a long time- period.
They are absolutely no different than drug cartel kingpins who go to jail. Until rich white American's who commit such heinous crimes go to jail, then injustice and unnecessary misery in our society will continue to flourish.
8
And people still believe industries can be left to regulate themselves.
11
I saw an expert in this field and he said the FDA has recently approvoved a new Opioid that is 1,000 x times stronger than the strongest one now made.
This is absolute madness !
2
Go ahead with the lawsuits but this is a true test of American justice. These people must be criminally charged and prosecuted to the limits of the law. They have callously raked in billions of dollars with the full knowledge that their money was covered in blood. Their shameful greed has both ruined and taken the lives of a great many Americans. The question is - Will they be allowed to buy their way out of this, or will they face the consequences the way ordinary Americans do?
5
Wait, what?! is that a giant heroin cooking spoon outside Purdue pharma building?
4
I'm reminded of that line in the Godfather about a lawyer with a briefcase being able to steal more money than five men with guns.
I'm also reminded of all the times Republicans preach "free market solutions" to health care. Well, here are some "perfectly legitimate businessmen" providing free market solutions.
10
@Duncan
Politicians have been doing this for years. Create a problem then run for re-election on fixing the problem. After all, who knows more about it than they?
The voters have short memories.
Patients rely on their doctors for advice and it's assumed no matter what the ill your doctor has a pill. Some patients feel shortchanged if they don't get a prescription in exchange for the cost of an office visit and that's why you see so many TV commercials telling you to ask your doctor about their product.
Gimme Shelter
No one will go to jail, lose any substantial amount of money (according to their standards), lose any property, or any sleep. They even will continue to grow their wealth by hiding it as they did with Rhodes Inc. no one will suffer but the true victims - the users. This administration has shown even in these dire times people under the guise of a legitimate company can be made to suffer and die from the drugs they push. And these supposed congressmen do nothing. Wait till it hits closer to home. That’s what it usually takes. Even then like guns they will say drugs don’t kill people.... Always an excuse to make a buck. And the old adage “ when is enough, enough? Evidently to the Sacklers and the GOP never.
6
As a white person, I wonder what would have happened to the Sacklers by now if they hadn't been white and philanthropic?
I understand that drug manufacturers need to make a profit, but if true, these allegations are stomach-turning.
3
The only experience I've had with opioids was post operative. I was grateful for their ability to allow me sleep while recovering. I stopped within a few days. The constipation associated with them was enough for me. What would have happened if that initial level of pain had continued for weeks or months, I don't know.
It's probably not possible to do, but placing such drugs in some sort of non-profit status might slow or stop their excessive exploitation.
3
Now *this* is a brilliant business plan: 1) make $$$ creating the problem, and 2) make $$$ solving it.
6
You can blame everything in drug addiction outside the dealer and addict if you like, but streetwise drug reality is that the dealer and the junkie are paramount, and will get along just fine dealing and using and creating new addicts with or without a compliant industry or legal system. If you are going to address hard drug addiction cycle of dealer, junkie & new user, you better start executing dealers and forcing junkies to give up their drug sources, or you make a mockery of the whole process.
1
We are living in a time when the current administration inspires fear by shouting the word SOCIALISM as if its a disease - and that system that begins with the letter "S" has absolutely no merit of any kind - came from nothing and goes nowhere.
Then, we look at the CAPITALIST system as it is in contemporary society - lauded as the best system possible
But it was corporate greed that inspired the mortgage crisis, the runaway cost of pharmaceutical drugs, the very problematic healthcare system and it's joined-at-the-hip bedfellow the insurance industry -- and other economic disparities that probably affect a majority of Americans in a negative fashion.
Why are we willfully blind to the extremely dark side of capitalism - that enriches a smaller and smaller segment of the population at the expense of a larger and larger portion of the population that scrambles for a small piece of economic insecurity?
Why are those of us who don't have enough to live comfortably within our needs - who are so often made to feel like slackers with bad intentions - so quick to "prefer" a system that reeks of excess and abuse of power over one (Socialism) that asks the question "what is a legitimate "right" of the average citizen?"
Are we entitled to health care? Education? Don't those two things alone make us a more secure, hopeful society?
This story is sickening. And for the Sacklers, getting into addiction treatment was a no-brainer - a great way to "hedge their bets"
11
Agree 100%
2
While less well-heeled drug pushers are languishing in prisons all over this country, the Sacklers bask in their ill-gotten mansions and no doubt clutch at their pearls when called out. You can't hide behind your smug expressions any more while you cause such misery. You heal nothing, you help no one but yourselves. How shameful & abhorrent, the lot of you.
4
Just another cartel.
9
Greed plus unregulated industry plus the billionaire class that owns the GOP arebreeding a culture of sociopaths and allowing sociopaths to thrive. This must end.
7
Attorney General William Barr's daughter -- Mary Daly -- worked at DOJ, and became the official DOJ "OPIOID COORDINATOR" a year ago.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-announces-mary-daly-opioid-coordinator
but she was shifted in February to work on money laundering ---
she left DOJ for a position at the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit (FinCEN),
which combats money-laundering and terrorism financing (https://www.fincen.gov/what-we-do)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/13/politics/barr-family-justice-department-moves/index.html
Daughter and son-in-law of AG nominee leaving the Justice Department
On the surface it doesn't make a lot of sense to jump from opioid coordinator at DOJ to money laundering at the Treasury.
3
@seemed_odd_at_the_time
"On the surface it doesn't make a lot of sense to jump from opioid coordinator at DOJ to money laundering at the Treasury."
Why? Are you her career counselor?
3
I had many surgeries and I always request Tylenol # 3 to my Dr. It worked fine and I am still alive and well.
2
The implied thesis of this article is that The Sacklers are getting richer by selling the poison as well as the antidote. However, that would only be true if OxyContin wasn’t a highly effective pain killer, it is. Any drug sold in conjunction with OxyContin, either as a way to mitigate the side effects or it’s addictive properties, is just part of the business of pharmaceuticals. Indeed, any prescription for OxyContin should probably include three separate medicines (1 for pain, 2 for accidental overdose, 3 for amelioration if the addictive properties).
Personally, I think the pharmaceutical industry represents a failure of market economics and should be treated as a public good. This article supports that. However, suppose you nationalized the means of production and distribution of OxyContin. Wouldn’t it still fall to the discretion of doctors to effectively control the opioid epidemic?
Yes, US capitalism at its finest. Truly a lesson for the rest of the world. Does not matter how much destruction you cause to people or the environment, as long as it leads to higher profits, it is okay. Thank goodness the Republicans are further reducing regulation. Yes, we are truly something.
9
I honestly just don't know what to think of this entire "mess" for lack of a better descriptive term. I'm thankful I am not a part of the legal minds trying to sort this all out.
I see plenty of fault to go around between the Sackler family, the physicians and yes, even some for the individuals that ruined their own (and their family's) lives.
But I don't think that fault should be spread equally. Individuals do have to shoulder some small part. It is ultimately true that there exists some individual responsibility for choices made. And they have most assuredly paid for their choices...many of them with their lives. But their fault pales in comparison to the responsibility of physicians to do no harm which in turn pales compared to the responsibility of this company (and it's owners) to behave in a moral and ethical fashion. That they went back to the trough after knowing what they had done and are continuing to do today with their new company is unconscionable. I hope that the members of the Sackler family who were involved are punished to the fullest extent of the law and are stripped of every penny they made off the miseries of so many.
4
Opioids and opium compounds have been used for over a century to keep terminal patients comfortable. Purdue represented to the FDA that OxyContin was not habit forming and could be prescribed indiscriminately. Now hundreds of thousands of deaths and 80% of heroin use is from the use of opioids. In light of this, why on earth has the FDA failed to rescind their approval for non-terminal patients.
7
@Robert Goldschmidt Because there are people like me. I have a genetic autoimmune bladder disease that makes it impossible to venture more than 5 minutes from a bathroom without pain medication. I've been through 40+ treatments and therapies, invasive and alternative, including a multidisciplinary pain program. None of them made the slightest bit of difference.
But, with opioid medication, I've spent 20 years earning a Ph.D., teaching, and raising my kid. Without it, I would have literally spent 20 years in a bathroom. My son wouldn't exist, because I wouldn't have been able to leave the house long enough to meet my husband.
There are many kinds of painful disease for which opioids are not the best choice. There are a few kinds of painful disease for which opioids are the only last-resort choice. Taking away my ability to work and spend time outside with my family will not save anyone. I hope to God the FDA realizes that.
5
Kudos to Domenic Esposito, the artist who created the bent heroin spoon and installed it in front of Purdue’s headquarters to protest Purdue’s role in fomenting the opioid crisis.
This artwork gets to the point more quickly and easily than news articles and policy papers (which are still needed).
The artwork speaks to the character of both the Sackler family and the Purdue company!
Thank you Mr. Esposito for following in the tradition of generations of artists who have used their art as a form of protest!
14
Here here!
3
If not them, what Company would be giving relief from acute pain? There are many in line. Many Physicans give more refills than needed.
I'm so totally disgusted by Purdue Pharma and its culpability in not only manufacturing the opioid crisis, but in providing addiction treatments too. It's like arsonists making money selling gasoline, and also making money in rebuilding the property that was burnt down. If one has to find a silver lining in all these, it is that Purdue and its owners are now caught red-handed. I hope this will bankrupt them, I really do.
9
My 90+ year old dad is in the hospital today, recovering from cancer surgery. I visited him for 30 minutes. He talked with my sister, to the nurse, to the doctor, and to I, and in the space of 30 minutes, he talked about his oxycodine pill dose 6 times. My dad does not have dementia. He lives alone, drives, cooks, takes care of his dogs, and cat. And has been an addict for 10 years. He has been through withdrawal more times than I can count. I blame his 'pain doctor', and the Sacklers. And when his doctor comes to his funeral, I will spit in her face.
8
You call him an addict, yet he still drives on OxyContin, aged more than 90, and you and your sister have knowingly permitted that?! How unbelievably reckless. It's not his doctor who deserves to have her face spat-in.
2
"A central concern of the investigations and legal cases against Purdue Pharma over the years, including the 2007 federal investigation, has been whether the company, its executives and owners were aware in the late 1990s that OxyContin was being abused."
The term Oxy was literally used in sitcom's, TV shows and every drug addled comedian throughout the 90's. If the Sacklers and executives didn't know the drug was being abused they should have their pharmaceutical licenses revoked for gross negligence.
2
This situation isn't about judging the addicted or whether we should live with pain or whether a family is too wealthy. It is about the Sacklers's not disclosing the known risks to patients using the products they were marketing. Then to make it worse they decided to profit from the treatment or rehab of their customers. When that wasn't enough they decided to sell the substance which would revive or bring you back, presumably to make another Purdue or Rhodes purchase. It is hard to imagine this kind of greed.
11
America has always embraced addiction as a business model, and the right to addict as a given for business. The law rams the burden of responsibility onto afflicted patients and then permits the sellers to propagandize, lie to, and prey on them. It's hard to understand how someone who uses this, and gets rich off it, can look at themselves in the mirror.
6
200,000 deaths is a terrible toll. But over that same period guns--no prescription required--have killed more than three times as many.
10
@DBruce There are a host of problems attendant to unrestrained capitalism. May we discuss our specific pain associated with this subject? By considering everything, nothing is completed.
These drugs were prescribed for me after surgery years ago. They worked well and my doctor was very attentive to getting me off them ASAP.
How come some doctors knew how to administer them and other didn't?
9
Incentives can make surprising bedfellows.
The Sackler Family is a drug cartel. They should be treated accordingly.
27
The next time someone tells you that business is best left to regulate itself, re-read this article. We are far too cavalier about how big Pharma sells itself to the American public, including the endless parade of television and magazine ads for various prescription drugs than none of us who aren't doctors or chemists can understand. Big Pharma wants to create demand for its products, not based on the efficacy of the drugs but by getting you and me to see these advertisements and demand that our healthcare providers give them to us. We are subsidizing our own destruction.
12
Any day now, I’m sure we’ll be hearing Trump say “I spoke to the Sacklers, they said they didn’t know anything about the addictions, and I believe them, I guess we’ll never really know.”
13
It is hard not to be cynical in the age of Trump and control outrage at every new evidence of that man's corruption.
I would like to say we should just up a lemon aid stand on Pennsylvania Ave. featuring state secrets for sale for a dime, but this is the grey lady I am writing for and I must keep my gravitas just as our president is doing.
Breathe just breathe. everything passes even our 'great' country.
2
The are worse than El Chapo, when are they going to prison for their despicable rich collar crime?
7
Thank you southern district attorneys! These companies should be responsible for funding billions in treatment.
How did the FDA and other authorities allow Rhodes to go into business selling these generics? Legal cartel rebranding. That is unbelievable!
10
Is the Sacklers rare public appearance due to shame or fear someone will off them or maybe they just don't want all those peasant eyes dirtying up their lives. Maybe none of these. Maybe with $13 billion they can have anything they want brought to them or they can leave their home and arrive elsewhere in total privacy so why not. I think it's shame. Unless the entire family are sociopaths (not completely impossible) who are incapable of such a feeling. I hope with all my heart, it is deep deep shame that tortures them every waking moment, otherwise, the Sacklers are getting away with murder.
6
If only El Chapo had made philantropic donations! Maybe he could have a hall named for him at Lincoln Center or a wing at the Metropolitan Museum! Instead of being paraded around in hand cuffs he could've been duded up in a tux and attended fancy luncheons and dinners.
Seriously the only difference between the Sacklers and the El Chapo's of the world are ethnicity and the ability to hide behind corportations.
15
All of this outrage towards the Sackler's is warranted. But we should all be outraged over the outcome that will occur. They will pay huge fines (greenmail), thier personal wealth will not be impacted and no one goes to jail.
7
Unfortunately, the seemingly ironic statement that health care companies will kill you if it means more money is true. It is the nature of the beast called capitalism. It is pointless to rant about how bad these people are. That is not an important point. There will always be plenty of bad people to conduct unethical business ventures. The point is the system of rules encourages this behavior, and it will occur over and over a gain as long as the system remains unchanged.
10
Narcos should do a season or two on the Sacklers.
10
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. I have a fractured spine courtesy of a cardiologist overdosing me on beta blockers. I can’t sue him because the doctors in California have better lobbyists than the lawyers do.
I use opioids to manage chronic pain and I’m not addicted to anything other than pizza.
7
@Garrett Clay - How do you define addiction?
200,000 Opiate deaths across America.
It is beyond Belief that no one has gone to jail for such a perversion acted out upon so many people who trusted their doctors, the regulators and the people who owned the companies that made the drug.
This unrequited desire for wealth at all costs and the pedestal of profit that is worshipped as the engine that provides it , blinds most to care or bother about the people who make their wealth and profit happen, made possible
who rapidly are seen as of no consequence once and from when that wealth thru profits is begun to be attained, then nothing will matter thereafter no matter the cost and consequences to others, nor even how many may die.
It doesn't matter who and how many may die except as or if they cause impediments to further gains and wealth but bribes are easily brought in to quieten the way forward and with that, there is no conscience to give pause or any consideration to others called victims as plans to find a way to make even more money are what only matters until the profits show how good an idea the path now followed takes them...
...as the body count rises all the more, as rising profit makes for the justification over all else.
As it will continue to be and done unopposed, unabridged, undeniable and unbelievable until the day enough people realise what has happened and is happening is not the way, must be stopped... now unacceptable.
That time is now. It must be now.
5
It seems to me that criminal conduct on the part of members of the Sackler family should be brought in view of what we’re hearing. It’s one thing to sanction a company and quite another to bring PERSONAL charges. When will these people be held accountable for their vile conduct?
10
Take everything they have. Every dime. It is all ill-Gotten Gains. Boycott Museums which have Sackler Wings and galleries.
10
As is always the case in a major issue like this, I'm willing to hazard a guess that no one will go to jail.
9
This family needs to be held accountable for their actions. Anything less than them all rotting in a jail cell will not be enough, but guaranteed they will buy their way out. And this is democracy?
3
I am so tired of having the entire opiate crises dumped onto the Sacklers. All 50 states have prescription monitoring programs to identify oversubscribing and doctor shopping. Apparently all failed. The Sacklers did not invent Hydrocodone, just the time release formulation. It is a knows addictive opiate. If trained doctors actually thought a time release version of this drug somehow eliminated the caution due these types of substances its on them. Not following up on their patients and doing due diligence on the amounts they are giving is criminal. The DEA has powers to legally dictate production quota's for controlled substances and did so frequently in the 70's to reduce certain drugs in vogue at that time and succeeded, apparently they don't do that now. The biggest problem with the opiate crises is the medical community which protects itself just like the Catholic Church. Most medical review boards are loath to revoke licenses, they usually kick the can to another state.
The real drug dealers are doctors, they need to be sent to remedial pain management courses.
You are correct in that the medical community cannot absolve itself of all responsibility, but you are missing the larger point. As opposed to trying to just make a profit, the vast majority of physicians are trying to help those who are suffering.
Oxycontin was marketed under false pretenses, and evidence seems to be emerging that the company did in fact promote this for inappropriate use despite having knowledge of the potential problems.
You, sir, have grossly oversimplified this problem.
13
@Edwin Pritchett
Prescription drug monitoring programs do work. What they can't do it is address the use of heroin and illicit fentanyl.
And only 49 states and DC have such programs. Missouri doesn't. Curiously it was blocked there by a member of its legislature who is also a physician who believed that drug addiction is a moral failing and that the state shouldn't be responsible for watching out for those suffering from it.
And OxyContin, as the name implies, is a long acting form of oxycodone, not hydrocodone.
2
Several posts claim that most of the 200,000 overdoses did not come from prescription drugs. According to the CDC, 218,000 overdoses did indeed come from legal prescription drugs:
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/prescribing.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html:
"From 1999 to 2017, almost 218,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were five times higher in 2017 than in 1999.1"
3
The fact that the Sacklers rarely appear in public is a good thing -- for them.
6
This emerging public health crisis was reported by Art Van Zee MD based on his observations over 20 years ago and the band played on. Interesting to note that as in the early days of the AIDS epidemic those who were dying initially came from marginalized communities, either ignored or despised. It took Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama 7 years to mention their respective epidemics publicly.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/
1
The greed of American's One Percent knows no bounds or limits!
Until Citizens United is over turned and "lobbyist" become a term of disdain and disgust we will always be here with just an other super rich family, another company and another deadly product that kills and destroys lives!
So whose' surprised at these revelations!
7
That is Trump's way of thinking, cause the problem and then take credit for solving it. Capitalism at its finest.
5
These tragic deaths are unnecessary. We are experts at research in this country. Someone did not see this coming? Will any of the Sackler's or their accomplices go to prison (or worse)? "What a piece of work is man!"
1
Cartoonist Gahan Wilson outlined this business plan in a cartoon he published decades ago: One little girl is selling poison lemonade for a dime, and around the corner another little girl is selling the antidote for $20. We need to stop pretending to be shocked when sociopaths we've coddled and rewarded find new and creative ways to hurt the rest of us for profit. This is what you get when you deify capitalism and denigrate regulation at the expense of human rights.
15
US killer capitalism.
2
Real law enforcement of rich people and big corporations in our country has always been a joke. Just look at what Trump got away with before he ran for President.
3
Purdue donated $3.5 million to a non-profit. David Sackler spent $22.5 million on a mansion. Thanks for nothing, Purdue.
8
It is interesting how Trump rails about drug dealers from Mexico, but not one word about our home grown versions. I don't see a lot of difference between the Sacklers and El Chapo besides that the Sacklers don't gun down rival drug gang members. They still have a substantial death toll attributable to their intentional actions. They should be locked up and the assets should all be forfeit.
6
What the Sacklers have done is called mass murder for profit. Under any just legal system they would be imprisoned for life.
10
Mortimer asked if they could sell a generic version of OxyContin in order to “capture more cost sensitive patients,” according to one email.
I imagine that "cost sensitive patients" is rich speak for poor-people-who-already-cannot-afford-the-high-cost-of-medical-care.
What ugliness!
11
"The Sacklers had a new plan." I call that plan Organized Irresponsibility - the hallmark of present day real existing American Capitalism (see today's David Leonhardt: A capitalist is worried). The name Sackler stands for this repugnant kind of capitalism void of even the tiniest traces of moral integrity and sense of social responsibility.
3
Unlike previous drug epidemics, the opioid crisis has clear ties to pharmaceutical industry marketing and profits. Crack cocaine and methamphetamine weren't being manufactured in corporate factories and sold in legal pharmacies. They need to be shut down.
Like so many others, I've lost friends to this epidemic. So maybe I'm being overly emotional here. So be it.
The Sacklers and their pharma industry brethren are no better than Pablo Escobar. They need to be jailed. (Fining billionaires is not justice.) If current laws don't allow imprisonment for knowingly marketing addiction to millions of Americans, the laws need to change.
6
Isn't privatised health care wonderful ? One of the many delights that the small state brings. Ayn Rand will be SO pleased.
2
A trifecta! Vertical, horizontal and generational integration and monopolization.
1
The Sackler family's ethic was inexistent and the business close to the paradox. In fact it was like producing and marketing landmines and ambulances at the same time. Incredible.
4
I want the top brass who are responsible held accountable for their greed and total disregard for human lives. Part of their punishment should require years of doing community work in rehab facilities.
3
There is no difference between the Sackler family and guys like El Chapo and Pablo Escobar. They knowingly make, sell, distribute and push dangerous drugs on the population. And like El Chapo and Escobar, they buy complicit politicians, cops and others (like doctors) for protection. They should be treated like the criminals they are.
4
We can only hope that this time prosecutors will also file criminal charges against the people who made these decisions and send them to jail. Corporations aren’t people ( no matter what SCOTUS says. They don’t make decisions; the people who own and run them do. Send a few to jail and take away their money and the culture will change.
2
Thank you for the link in this article to the Vogue piece about Mortimer Sackler’s Amagansatt spread. Such fun to see how “the other half” lives, particularly the bit about Mortimer’s young son’s budding interest in homeopathic pain medications.
“Lucian, now nine and a self-taught student of traditional medicines, will crush yarrow from it with a mortar and pestle to assuage headaches.”
Hopefully the young Sackler isn’t allowed to share his potions with the other kids in the neighborhood.
2
Of course, the vile harm produced in their Purdue Pharma labs and misrepresented with lies upon lies that lead to such destructive and heartbreaking ruin is crime enough.
But let us also closely, examine how they have been able to remain bulletproof and untouchable for so long, because, I, for one, do not believe that this was the providence of the money alone.
3
“Behind every great wealth is a great crime.” -Balzac
8
Why is the Sackler family not in prison? Any other drug pushers would be doing time.
3
behind every great fortune is a great crime.
1
A lot of comments here blame the addicts for their addiction. But the question of whether or not an addict is to blame for their addiction is a COMPLETELY separate discussion from the Sacklers deep responsibility for this epidemic. I believe the Sacklers bear the lion's share of the blame - for their greed, and for their willingness to ignore the overwhelming evidence in service of their greed. They are no better than corner dealers preying on the vulnerable, and they deserve to be treated as such.
4
As a cancer patient who had many surgeries to remove disease, biopsy, or do reconstruction, I was prescribed many painkillers - Hydromorphone, Percocet, OxyCodone, OxyContin - and meds such as Ativan, Klonopin, Flexoral, and more, all to get through the pain/anxiety of the surgeries. OxyContin's "punch" was bigger than any of the others - it took me from a place of deep pain to smooth sailing without a care, in record time.
Months after taking OxyContin, I found myself craving it. I was vacuuming my house - such a mundane, ordinary, dull thing to do - when I had a whole body sensation of craving one of those pills. I wanted it physically, emotionally, psychologically, and the thought went through my head that if I took one little pill, I'd feel so much better about my life. Fortunately for me, some other part of my brain kicked back in and reminded me that taking a pill in the middle of the day while vacuuming was NOT a good idea, and when I realized how close I'd come to fulfilling this bizarre fantasy I started shaking. I flushed all of the leftover OxyContin down the toilet because I was afraid that the craving would come back. I'll never take another.
At the time I didn't realize how lucky I was. I read the stories here and think "that could have been my end." There is so much heartbreak in these comments; the grief is overwhelming.
The Sacklers deserve to lose their fortune, go to jail, and then some. It's hard for me to imagine how they can justify their actions.
11
@Kristina
Your comment should be one of the times favs. It certainly is mine.
3
Any explanation of the bent spoon headline photo?
1
@Daveindiego The caption below the photo is as follows: A bent heroin spoon, built by Domenic Esposito to protest Purdue’s role in fomenting the opioid crisis, in front of Purdue’s headquarters in June 2018.CreditGregg Vigliotti for The New York Times
Sadly, when some who are addicted to Oxy cannot obtain it, they move to Heroin as an alternative.
1
Predators.
2
My mother developed back pain in her late 70s and was prescribed Oxycontin patches by a GP. She was kept on these patches for years. She was given to understand that the patches were non-addictive, due to the timed release nature of a patch. However, after starting these patches, she seemed to lose all motivation, even for self-care. She became easily angered and spent much time in bed. I tried to talk with the doctor, but he refused, unless my mother gave permission. She, of course, would not, and she slowly spiraled downhill. I wonder if any other NYT readers have had a similar experience?
2
This is why Republicans love free enterprise. It's alright to profit both ways when you're out to make a buck. Don't forget to maximize by getting your taxes minimized by hiding capital overseas too.
8
What a great business model!
First, lobby medical schools to teach the theory that all pain is bad, then make and sell the drugs that fix pain (and lead to addiction), and finally make and sell the drugs that fight addiction.
Learned and adapted it from tobacco, alcohol, and firearms.
Business leaders in addictive drug, tobacco, alcohol, and firearms sectors had better prepare themselves for spending quite some time in Purgatory.
6
My mother did as her doctor directed. She was prescribed oxycontin for pain when released from the hospital and sent home. Three years later she was unrecognizable and died. Her hair, teeth, skin, digestion and self esteem was ravaged. She was confused about why her pills seemed less effective and often doubled her dose. Her doctor shamed her lack of self control. She began to live her life as an addict in shame. When we admitted her to full-time care she explained that she had received "the wrong pills for her pain because they stopped working". We pleaded with her doctor for help. It was only the palliative care nurse who told us how often she had treated the elderly, hopelessly addicted and confused and without a safe way to get off these drugs.
Before oxycontin my mother enjoyed the fruits of living well, working hard and giving to her community. The Sacklers and Perdue have created hell on earth.
10
@Monroe
There are many aged living like this. It is a secret shame.
1
My wife was prescribed Oxy after a hip replacement two years ago. After a few days she was beginning addiction, and went through hell to break that pattern,including another hospital stay.
1
Tony Soprano or the Sacklers? Tony and his family cause many fewer deaths. Where are the criminal charges .... fraud? Racketeering? But what do I know, I’m only a physician who had specialty certification in Chemical Dependency. I recall Purdue’s marketing strategy through paid famous physicians claiming: pain is under treated and the risk of addiction very small. This accomplished making pain the fifth vital sign - it should be removed. Who could have imagined in the 1990’s that heroin analog drugs could be addicting? The same cohort who where shocked to find there was gambling at Ricks. Criminal charges with various Sacklers wearing orange would be an appropriate deterrent against future bad behavior.
8
“Pain treatment and addiction are naturally linked."
They couldn't have been clearer.
5
We allow corporations to exist, ostensibly, to improve our lives (how's that working out?). It seems pretty clear to me that a corporation responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths should not be allowed to exist.
Not all 200,000 'opioid' deaths may be attributable to oxy--percocet and darvon, etc. may be responsible for some--but oxy is by far the worst. And this number doesn't even count those that became addicted to prescription oxy and then turned to the street when the prescription was no longer available.
These deaths seem to have resulted from criminal conduct on the part of several of the Sacklers. Prison and disgorgement of their 'ill-gotten gains' seems appropriate.
11
It seems to me that the Sackler family could have been exposed years ago, but there were too many people, in high places, benefiting from their largesse. And still, despite the hundreds of thousands of opioid deaths, there are those who continue to accept the handouts.
14
I'd like to know if there are any reputable studies showing the percentages of people that become addicted to illegal drugs because they were first given prescription medication and stopped being able to obtain prescriptions in comparison to the numbers of people who never used prescription meds and were just addicted to illegal drugs. While this family (and other drug manufacturers) have contributed to this epidemic, its unclear to me that all that are addicted became so due to legal drugs. While how an addict got there may not be the point, it is a factor when considering the use of empathy-some addicts get empathy and other (see crack addiction in the 1980's & 90's) do not.
4
From the Center for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/prescribing.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html:
"From 1999 to 2017, almost 218,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were five times higher in 2017 than in 1999.1"
3
@bcb That's number doesn't answer the question, though, because the CDC definition of "prescription opioids" includes counterfeit pills manufactured to look like prescription drugs.
Also "related to prescription opioids" means anyone who had any opioid at all in their system, whether or not that was the cause of death. The bulk of the overdose epidemic is from people taking multiple drugs at once, or taking prescription drugs with alcohol.
1
Selling a second drug cure for side effects gotten from the original drug prescribed is a standard Big Pharma move.
Atypical antipsychotic gives you permanent diabetes? Sell you a diabetes drug.
Paxil gives you weight gain or diabetes. Same.
6
What about the doctors that insist on prescribing 30 out pills for every surgery, of which I take one or none?Why not prescribe a few and tell me to come back if I need them? How many of these pills find their way to addicts? Like so many things, opioids have good and bad attributes. We won’t solve the problem just by suing the Sacklers.
1
In the past Rx for a few pills was common practice. After orthopedic surgery a few years ago I got a bottle of 90 (ninety) OxyContin pills!
1
My husband had routine dental surgery after moving to Florida and they prescribed him Oxycontin for recovery. We were pretty surprised. I called my girlfriend, a nurse in Texas, to get her take on this as it seemed a little dangerous to me. She laughed and said, "Oh! It's because you are in Florida! They give out that stuff like candy there!"
It was a bit ironic because my husband had had six surgeries for compartment syndrome and been in the ICU back in Texas. He was given Tramadol upon being released at the time.
6
Can the Sacklers ever be satisfied? It is not enough that the are really wealthy beyond belief, it is simply unbelievable that they started hiding money, plus built a so called Funnel scheme to get both of ends of the opioid crisis and make additional profits.
Have they no morals? I guess you do not need them if you are multi billionaires.
People like the Sacklers and Trump give the wealthy a bad name
8
Another casualty in this will be trust in doctors. The next time a doctor recommends something, will we be asking ourselves "Whose pocket are you in?"
2
The hidden purpose of the Trumpian Wall - not to protect the American people against the influx of drugs, no, to protect the biggest domestic drug cartel against the competition.
9
The FDA is complicit.
13
@Moses They classify as a Schedule II drug.
"Pain treatment and addiction are naturally linked" on a chart of Purdue Pharma reveals how evil this cpmpany is.
Complicit members of this family and company should be tried for what is surely homicide.
NYT, please investigate why the FDA did not or was unwilling to step in to stop this scourge.
3
This is straight out of the Philip K Dick story A Scanner Darkly.
Profiting from the misfortunes and even deaths of others. I'm grateful that I can't even imagine myself doing something so cold and opportunistically unethical.
2
Alcohol is responsible for far far more deaths than any opioid yet no one would dream of suing a distillery or of banning alcohol. Workplace accidents, drunk driving deaths, crimes while drunk etc. happen constantly but all anyone seems concerned with is medicines that stop excruciating pain. Could this be that the Feds and local govts. make money from taxes on liquor? You bet it is. You don't choose to get addicted but you do choose to abuse. Stop blaming manufacturers for the bad choices that people make. When used as prescribed, opiates pose no problem. Only when people abuse them does it lead to addiction. Stop punishing pain!
5
@Rescue2 - "no one would dream … of banning alcohol."
Ever hear of Prohibition?
1
At least alcohol abusers have a chance to survive. Yes, alcoholism causes many deaths over time. But alcohol poisoning kills far fewer people each year (2,200, according to CDC) versus opiod overdoses that killed 47,000 in 2017. There's no coming back from death. Alcohol abusers at least have a chance to get treatment. Opiod abusers, not so much.
And your argument that people wouldn't get addicted if they only use opioids as directed is just silly. How about this: they wouldn't get addicted if opioids weren't so addictive
3
@Rescue2
"You don't choose to get addicted but you do choose to abuse. Stop blaming manufacturers for the bad choices that people make. When used as prescribed, opiates pose no problem. Only when people abuse them does it lead to addiction."
You're wrong about this.
3
I spoke with a pharma rep who confirmed much of this. Told me Purdue gave direct cash incentives to reps for each Oxy Rx and that Richard Sackler accompanied reps on office visits. When the jig was up many of those same reps jumped ship over to Reckitt Benckiser, manufacturer of Suboxone and began their push to flood the zone with substitute opioids. No surprise that the Sacklers would make haste to jump on that side of the transaction. Now, we have an epidemic of addiction to substitute opioids. Of course any heroin addict will tell ya how they would sell their suboxone for cash which they would then use to buy more heroin, reverting back to suboxone on the days they knew they would be drug tested. Wait till all of these suboxone addicts attempt to wean off that opioid. Word is that buprenorphine is more difficult to come off than heroin. They will be in a very dark place indeed.
2
First of all, no mention in this article about Dr. Curtis Wright and his involvement while at the FDA in 1995 (under the Clinton administration) as the "team medical review officer." He should be investigated as should anyone else in the Clinton administration who had any oversight of this agency. Who knew what, when?
Secondly, that three Senators are now asking Purdue to make a formal commitment not to profit from the treatments it is now selling is a joke.
The Sackler family should be shunned, indicted and hopefully convicted and imprisoned for the harm they have done.
The government has spent over $1 Trillion dollars of taxpayer money since President Nixon on the futile and racist "war on drugs". Somehow we always seem to find the will to imprison and attack those without money or power but let the really big criminals, like the Sackler family go free.
4
Reparations and prison. Anything else would be a failure of our legal system and moral compass........
2
Rome burns while we waste time on this kind of stuff. Anyone thinking an opiate would not harm nor addict you needs their head examined. Death by such is called natural selection. Most of the Sacklers sold out years ago and the family has little control anymore but that means nothing to the media.
1
But if they are rich then they must be OK. Seems if you get the money then all things are excused.
1
Profit motive is fine for auto manufacturers, toxic and destructive for drug manufacturers. Purdue isn’t a rogue outlier, it is the poster child for the industry and their ravenous greed.
2
Every "gift" with their name on it should be rededicated with a huge plaque saying,
"This Was Paid for with Money from the Thousands of Humans Killed, Imprisoned, Sickened, and Impoverished by the Greed of Sacklers "
People do decades of prison time for dealing their drugs. Decades for depraved indifference to the loss of life their "bad choice" causes.
Will Sacklers be locked in prison alongside their poorer, darker-skinned equals in prison?
Will a Sackler spend ten years in a prison cheek by jowl with the people they addicted, Sackler drug addicts when they committed their crimes, such as selling Sacklers' drugs for a profit ?
People have been consigned to poverty due to addictions.
-- Will Sacklers be allowed to keep more than poverty level of what they are "worth" thanks to their "poor choice" of consigning tens of thousands of Americans to death, prison, poverty, in their greed and depraved indifference?
Freedom and millions to pass on to their babies..
... while the parents of Sacklers' dead victims visit the graves of their children whose lives the Sacklers knowingly destroyed,
They will remain rich beyond imagining for most of us, tens of millions to squander after the fines..Not fined as much as the profit they made on their killing spree.
A slap on the wrist, the best doctors to soothe the painlessness.
While the ones who made them rich are shackled in chains around the waist.
Impoverish and imprison the Sacklers.
Or free their victims.
3
America in a nutshell. Morally bankrupt liars making billions off of the misery of poor people.
There is a way to resolve this:
1) Take every cent they have to help pay for the treatment of people addicted to their products,
2) Put them all in prison.
Then go after the for-profit colleges, payday lenders, and every other evil predator who gets rich off of the misery of others.
8
Can we also talk about how doctors are enablers here? they will happily take the goodies (read incentives) dished out by pharma reps and will merrily prescribe opiods to patients who do not have the same medical training and degrees to realise its long-term consequences.
2
The behavior of the Sackler family as described here is despicable. Unfortunately, it is the typical modus operandi of all pharmaceutical companies, and has been for years. Buy "thought leaders" in the medical profession to tout the drug, expand its approved use through marketing schemes, then - when the headlines hit due to the death toll rising - sometimes pay large corporate fines. None of this behavior will change until the executives involved are held accountable and tried in a court of law.
6
The Sacklers should be sued but the problem is a large majority of us who used Opioids without abusing them are not being represented.
We are the unseen chronic pain patients now lumped as junkies;who sadly for us, lived through opioid withdrawal and therefore seemingly suffered no legit financial damage.
Six back operations, Fibromyalgia and nerve damage led me to OXY 22 years ago. My first doctor,who regularly had Perdue Pharma reps in his office prescribed 280 mg. a day plus LORCET. After two years and feeling brain dead, I asked him to reduce the dosage. He got very defensive,accusing me of “not having Legit pain.”
I left him and went to one of the largest pain centers in my state and reduced my dosage (voluntarily)to 20mg. twice a day with no Lorcet. On that level, I could function and have some kind of normal life.
I never got my drugs early or failed a humiliating DEA urine test. But my doctor lost her license and in one week, thousands of her patients were kicked to the curb,without withdrawal meds.
My withdrawal symptoms are still ongoing 22 months later and I am out $5k for random ER visits. We are the unseen guinea pigs for which no stats exist on long term opioid withdrawal.
Do I miss OXY? NO. But I miss not having diarrhea,seeing more hallucinations than I ever experienced experimenting in the 60’s, and all the other random things that have left a wake of doctors scratching their heads. But I can’t sue ANYONE because I lived and followed all the rules.
5
I'm sorry for each families loss. It's a terrible situation. Though there must be personal responsibility. These people took the medication on there own. A Dr did not force it upon them. Parents in some cases let children medicate themselves after surgery not paying attention to what was happening to their child. Pain medication is helping so many people who suffer from chronic pain these people are responsible with their medication but it's sadly being taken away causing sucides due to uncontrolled pain. We must find a common ground on this issue so the suffering stops and that's more then law suits.
3
@ironlion, please see @carlton (and virtually anywhere else) for enlightenment.
I'm trying to figure out the difference between the infamous drug lords like "El Chapo" and the Sackler family. It appears that both were fueled by greed and unconcerned by the harm their actions took. Even when the harm that the opioids they manufactured was apparent, they looked for "a work around" to evade detection and keep selling "Generic" versions of the drugs.
8
@Mike
Easy. The Sacklers commit their crimes with the full endorsement of the laws and politicians of the society they poison. Tells you something about who the system was intended to benefit.
2
Very smart family. Knows how to make money regardless what happens to human lives. We got plenty of them.
5
It's the American way!
3
JCAHO (The Joint Commission for hospital accreditations) also played a role in opioid epidemic by making pain the "5th vital sign"
3
" Richard Sackler urged the company to blame the patients. “We have to hammer on abusers in every way possible,”
As good a representation of the 1% as can be found.
25
Genius Business Idea
Take heroin, package it into a pill with a new name, and sell it using the fabricated claim that it’s safe in small doses. Profit from the addiction and heartbreak this causes.
That’s the grand sum of the Sackler Family’s contribution to the world.
Hint to 2020 democratic candidates. Go after this issue head on. Trump has done nothing useful to help with the opioid crisis. This unites red and blue states. Nobody wants their kids and loves one addicted to this garbage and almost everyone can agree this is a criminal injustice.
8
@Baldwin
Trump has done a good deal.
This monstrous thuggery arose under Democratic rule.
The rest of your comment I heartily agree with.
@Baldwin Democratic candidates should hear this too: Before the mid-80s, people like me spent their entire lives homebound or institutionalized. I was born with a genetic autoimmune bladder disease; I can't venture more than about 5 minutes from a bathroom without pain medication. For people with disabilities like mine, it's not "garbage" - it's more like a wheelchair allowing mobility.
Without pain medication, I would have spent the last 20 years homebound. Instead, I've gotten to earn a Ph.D., teach college, raise my kid.
Go after unethical marketing of controlled substances - yes, absolutely! But don't "go after" the medication itself, because that just avenges one marginalized group by stomping on another.
2
If this clan of criminals can murder half a million people, make billions off of it, and have their name posted on every fancy school and art gallery around the world, then no person, from the lowest drug dealer and up, should ever respect the legitimacy of any American laws.
Will the Sacklers finally face a reckoning? The world is watching.
10
Making money while encouraging the sale of addictive pain meds, and making money again while encouraging anti-addiction medications?
Dr Seuss is once again proven to be an American visionary, in his story "The Sneetches", having forseen the Sacklers in Sylvester McMonkey McBean (the Fix-It-Up Chappie), who charges ten dollars for a Star Off machine to remove stars from bellies, and another ten dollars to put them on again.
8
Sacklers should be in prison.
We'll need a Memorial 4 times the size of the Vietnam War Memorial to record all the names of those that have died as a result of their greed.
6
@Samantha
Natalie Jean Bauer 2/9/1983 - 1/29/2017 Cincinnati, OH
Children Left Behind: Jaxon, 3 Brianna, 9
2
Pablo Escobar was also known for his philanthropy in Colombia. Doing good deeds to mask crimes is an old tactic and the Sacklers are no different.
But since they’re rich US businessmen, nobody designate them as a cartel.
9
A family of drug dealers disguised as a corporation. Period.
11
Deliciously evil business plan......smart though.
I still blame the junkies not the company though.
Sorry.
1
@There
You should be.
i know that the sackler family is certainly the most reviled family in america. i just hope that they know this. the name sackler is now tantamount with evil personified.
5
Drug cartels would kill for the chance to have the kind of marketing that is available to big Pharma. Purdue Pharma is probably responsible for more deaths than El Chapo.
7
OMG people....There is NO opioid crisis! There is an illicit fentanyl crisis. Stop punishing pain.
3
The Sackler family is nothing but a gang of drug dealers, slinging their drugs through a vast network of doctors versus young men dealing on street corners.
3
What is with the spoon sculpture, is this for a heroin barbecue?
2
@David - Yes, apparently it's a protest art installation that has been going the rounds of opiate producing companies.
1
Can we please drop “Family” from the reporting, these aren’t Ward, June, Wally and Beaver sitting around the kitchen table scheming over big glasses of milk. The Mafia is family too but that’s completely beside the point.
3
@John Doe
The Manson Family, “the Family” ring allegedly behind the string of kidnapping, sexual assault and murder cases in Adelaide in the 1970s-80s — it’s been a long time since the word “family” risked conjuring up images of saccharine TV wholesomeness.
@Bill, please, things feel hopeless enough as it is without having to hear the hammer pounding of the final nail going into the coffin.
Break them. Bankrupt them. Imprison them. Remove their name from every monument to their murderous greed.
8
This is a true drug crisis. It deserves to be declared a national emergency. Dear Mr President: Please focus! It is not coming from immigrants!!!
3
Doctors now work for HMO's.
Health Mismanaged Organizations which practice medicine without a license for the purpose of profit, not healing, are also responsible for the opioid epidemic.
The current administration is not capable of implementing a successful Single Payer Health Care System. Only people who care about their responsibilities to other human beings would be able to do that.
First do no harm. Have medical professionals abandoned this principle? Yes. Many of them have. I have encountered them and so I no longer trust doctors to give me the information I need to remain healthy or to guide me sensitively through a difficult illness or the possible diagnosis of a life threatening illness.
Years ago doctors held themselves to the principle, First, do no harm, and were, for the most part, trustworthy.
4
A maximum income and an upper limit on amount of wealth that any one person could hold might solve a huge number of problems the country faces. There would be less incentive to con people.
3
Three years ago I self-published a novel about the greed of pharmaceutical companies, called ‘In Jake’s Company’. In it, an executive espouses the 8 rules for making the most money off their products:
1. Our realities are based on faith. Trick doctors and patients into having faith in our drugs.
2. In ads, use images that promise relief from pain, symptoms, and discomfort of all kinds. Use as few words as possible.
3. Use ‘salvation images’, which show smiling patients after they’ve been ‘saved’.
4. Copy the most successful methods used by top evangelists, cigarette and booze manufacturers, and politicians.
5. ‘Scientize’ the pitches to doctors and patients: i.e., use seductive, fancy-sounding scientific terms in all promotions.
6. Use ‘indirection’ in all promotions: i.e., never be direct, or portray the actual realities of pain and disease.
7. In ads, no detail is irrelevant. Every detail - what the actors wear, their hair styles, etc. - has the potential to manipulate.
8. Addiction to our products is the best possible thing for our company’s bottom line.
Purdue nailed all 8 of these with OxyContin. It made Purdue the envy of its industry, and when this big splash settles down, the sum of their fines and legal costs will not have amounted to a drop in the bucket of the billions they’ve made off OxyContin: they knew that years ago, when they devised their successful business strategy - like the strategies that promoted Halcion, Ambien, Ritalin, Vicodin, etc., etc.
5
@James Murrow
Did you work for them?
1
Richard Sackler- “We have to hammer on abusers in every way possible,” he wrote in a 2001 email disclosed in documents filed in the Massachusetts case. “They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.” Yes, the "reckless criminals' who are seeking help from chronic pain, who are entangled in an American drug cartel's web of deceit, corruption and all out greed. Drug pushers dressed up in tailored suits and 1% pedigree who make charming dinner companions at the Met Gala. Besides the Sackler family's nefariousness, this article highlights once again our nation's ongoing healthcare crisis where affordable therapy and long term care are cast aside for an instantaneous fix from drugs.
3
Criminal charges have been filed in multiple states yet no one is going to jail. In that same America, smoking a joint or dealing pot can easily land you in prison for years.
5
Purdue Pharma, aka the Sackler family, pleaded guilty to a federal felony and paid more than $600 million in criminal and civil penalties.
Forbes estimates their fortune at $13 billion.
They only had $12 billion 400 million left. No one went to jail. And the fine was either written off as a cost of doing business or simply passed along to addicted customers.
Meanwhile, back in the city, some poor kid was sent to prison for years for selling a bag of pot on the street corner.
But hey, Sackler wears a tuxedo and donates to charity.
Ya' know?
21
For a change, I am close to speechless. The Sacklers PLANNED to exploit the most desperate, ruthlessly, in order to extend their wealth, while being accorded royal treatment in their art and social circles.
5
Isn't this the American way ... the right to make money trumps healthcare ... this is just one of the many ways people get rich off of others misfortune ... and the Republican-led Congresses over years has insisted upon maintaining the status quo by doing nothing to seriously address these issues ... blame Mitch and Lindsey ...
2
If we don't control these super-predator/oligarchs they will crush us all. Elizabeth Warren has some good ideas. Whoever wins the primary should listen to them. Meanwhile, thank you Massachusetts and New York and good luck with Project Tango.
1
This is SO Tragic,
And I’ve witnessed first hand the machinations
Of this greedy meat grinder system working in the field with the prescribers and the
So called recovery programs,
Using the most vulnerable among us in concert with the insurance companies to extract the most money and suffering possible.
It’s apparent to us all who work in these
Hospitals and systems,
We talk about it all the time, and we are horrified and sad,
We are powerless in these systems,enraged even at our helplessness to make any difference.
Money is power in capitalism,
And we drop dead on the alter
of greed
We are heartbroken.
Everyone witnesses what’s going on,
It doesn’t matter.
No change
Thank You NYT for investigative journalism
Thank God
Right?
2
There is only one punishment that fits this crime: the forfeit all of their wealth and possessions and it is liquidated and put into drug rehab programs.
5
These people should have all of their assets stripped from them and spend the rest of their lives in jail. Even leaders of drug cartels don't pretend that the narcotics they are selling are beneficial to the health of their customers. But, I am sure that high-paid lawyers and creative accountants will help the Sacklers avoid facing the consequences for their crimes. Laws and punishment exist only for poor people.
5
Since OxyContin was introduced more than "200,000"
have died! That is a horrific number of people and yet this
legal US cartel that deals in synthetic heroin goes unscathed.
Why hasn't the US government stepped up to the plate
and dealt with this issue?
7
We live within a system that values the profit motive as a primary means of advancing growth and prosperity, but when it comes to healthcare, where lives are destroyed knowingly, that is a CRIME of the worst order!
1
This should be pursued as a criminal enterprise by the Justice Department. These State lawsuits are insufficient to bring this crime family to justice.
6
Drug addiction has been a problem in our country for more than a century. Heroin was introduced as a non-addictive version of opium. Some people have become addicted from legitimate prescriptions. Then there is the vast majority who chose drug addiction starting by faking back pain or a terrible toothache in the ER.
Doctors are still responsible for their prescriptions so it shouldn't matter what the drug salesmen said when they noticed their patients requesting more drugs. Of course, there are doctor shoppers, who like Rush Limbaugh, portray themselves as victims. People need to take responsibility for their own actions. What is stopping addicts from asking for help when they notice they are getting dependent? By claiming it is a disease, people are absolved of responsibility. Let's go back to calling drug addicts what they are; lowlifes who will lie, steal and cheat to get their fix. The drug company did not twist their arms to take their drugs.
2
Not sure it would happen, but is jail time for the Slackers even a legal possibility?
http://time.com/3908684/in-the-latest-issue-34/
Time magazine ran this issue back in '15. You can probably find it at your local library. Goes into detail on how the pharmaceutical industry lobbied to change the laws regarding the circumstances under which doctors could prescribe opiates. And once the laws were changed to their benefit, how they aggressively pushed their product into the medical arena. It's a real eye opener.
5
I'm beyond disgusted after reading this article. The Sacklers and Purdue Pharma could care less about the addiction to opioids - this is and was all about money, money, money. They all should be ashamed of themselves, but their egos are too big to comprehend any of this. This is capitalism at its best y'all. And that "Project Tango" funnel diagram really sent me over the edge. These people want to profit at all costs.
That said, this article should win a Pulitzer Prize and other awards for exemplary investigative reporting on this subject. Kudos to all of the journalists who wrote this piece!!! This is exactly why I subscribe to the NYTimes to read articles like these. Keep up the good work. And thanks for keeping us informed.
I guess I'm naive because I can't comprehend how anyone can continue to manufacture and sell a drug that is killing people. Is there no sense of morality or ethics left?
@DC Ibuprofen kills thousands of people a year, by gastric ulcers. Tylenol kills just as many through liver damage. Any drug can kill people - that's just reality. The difference is in not being honest about it, which the Sacklers weren't.
With all of the horror this story contains, and all of the cries for stripping these people of their ill-gotten fortunes, I think we are missing the most obvious answer to bringing this kind of stuff to a halt. It's called "prison" -- something rich people by-and-large are never particularly worried about. I think we have enough laws on the books to pursue serious criminal charges against many of this family's members. They seem to me to be accessories to murder. Civil actions just haven't gotten their attention. Lock 'em up.
2
It is ten years ago this week that my grand-daughter, a freshman pre-med student lost her father as a result of an oxycontin overdose. She recently requested the Sackler Trust to give her a full scholarship in honor of her dad suggesting that these type of actions may at this time secure a more fitting legacy for the Sackler family than all the millions spent on past "philanthropic" endeavors. We're not holding our breath.
1
They sell you a problem, sell the treatment, then sell other meds for the side effects of the treatment. Meanwhile walking around the dead bodies in designer shoes. Definitely worse than the corner drug pusher.
3
@Jan
Exactly. For years, they’ve also sold the laxative Senokot to treat the opioid-induced constipation their OxyContin causes.
A more trivial and benign example, but it’s the same Machiavellian and amoral logic.
1
Isn't this just blaming the bartender for the drunkard? The Sacklers may be horrible people, but more likely they are just excellent bartenders who invented a new drink.
1
The bartender doesn’t tell you that alcohol is harmless. Or subvert the surgeon general from warning of the risks. He cuts you off when you’ve had too much. So no, not like a bartender.
3
This is just transference. Blaming one shady family conveniently saves us from examining other causes of the opioid epidemic such as isolation/alienation, a hyper punitive criminal justice system, and a profit-first sick care system.
We can’t lash out at these sacklers and then wash our hands because ppl are gonna keep dying until we make some real investments in them.
1
Tell me how this differs from every other corporate scandal we have seen. From Ford deciding to forgo a small plastic part to prevent the Pinto from blowing up after a rear end collision, to the Boeing 737Max.
We now have a governmental system that says corporations are people, but corporations don't care about people. They never have, and the bigger the wealth they create, the worse their indifference to the damage they cause is. None of these companies should be allowed to use insurance to relieve themselves of the liabilities they cause. The Boards of Directors should bear personal criminal and financial responsibility for the actions their companies take.
Big tobacco killed millions, ruined families, and walked away with a slap on the hand. Not a single executive spent hard time in jail for the murders they willingly and knowingly committed.
Now we have them gearing up for the marijuana trade. Anyone want to bet they will add nicotine to their product? Why? To economically enslave another generation of Americans , and feed their greed.
Our government doesn't seem to understand the value of pro-activity in this. They let foreseeable problems occur, and then sue the companies, who cause those problems. But that money doesn't go into making the lowers whole, it goes to the government to spend on something else, which just bloats our government, and rewards it for not being proactive.
1
When my daughter had a wisdom tooth extracted, she got a prescription of 30 day supply of this thing while at the same time told to come back if pain does not go away within a few days. Why deliver 30 days' supply then?
4
When billionaires get reduced taxes for making charitable contributions, we all share in the cost of those gifts. Our taxes must cover what the Sacklers' gifts save them in taxes, or we all share in the deficit and debt that arises from too little taxes coming in to cover expenditures. Personally, I'd rather they pay the taxes than that I get a deduction for my small charitable gifts.
3
The letter from Senators Markey, Whitehouse, and Manchin to Purdue, insisting that the company make a more formal commitment not to make money from opioid addiction treatments, shows how impotent Congress actually is, beholden to an industry that pays for its election campaigns. Thanks to BigPharma dollars, our drugs - as approved and (allegedly) monitored for safety, are not safe...the F.D.A safety function. has been totally watered down. In addition to 200,000 opioid deaths over time, over 100,000 innocent Americans die every year from other prescription drugs taken as prescribed.
2
It is with great hope that I see the myriad of lawsuits evolve nationally, hopefully before the family declares bankruptcy and has all of its money transferred to the Cayman Islands.
Clearly the 2007 lawsuit did little to slow the drug production/distribution, but we did get a smarter rat to work through a more complex maze of regulations. Possibly by naming individual family members as personally responsible, this round of lawsuits will save lives and create some recompense for families directly - not the rehab industry. I hate to count the number of lives lost and families destroyed since 2007, when the courts had a chance to provide justice for the Sackler family greed and lack of conscience. How do they ever sleep at night?
3
In 1998 my 19 year-old son's car was struck from behind. He went to the doctor for back pain. The MD, who was also my MD, prescribed Oxycontin.
When addiction struck, there were family troubles, stealing from family, his trips to dark parts of the city in the middle of the night, physical struggles between father and son in attempts to prevent purchase of the "stuff" that would ease his pain. Then to rehab after rehab with limited durations of the stays. Insurance allowed only short times, and rehab is exorbitantly expensive.
In 2003, five years after the Oxycontin prescription, in a hospital facility seeking cure, the attending doctor gave him 60 mg of liquid methadone. My son, in his sleep, died when his heart stopped, and no attendant was there to save him.
The next morning's New York Time front page story read, "Methadone, Once the Way Out, Suddenly Grows as a Killer Drug"
Without Oxycontin, Methadone would never have been necessary. Without Oxycontin, my son would still be here-alive.
No one can ever erase the ANGUISH that I feel over my son's death, all originating from Oxycontin.
14
Yet another chilling example of what happens when profit is the motive in healthcare. The motive should be cure, and we should devise a way for those who provide it to be compensated.
I, for one, would gladly move to a subscription-based model where I continue to pay for a cure for chronic conditions, including pain management. We do it with software, yet our health is much more important.
4
These people are no better than El Chapo and have killed just about as many. They need to be charged and tried and, if convicted, jailed for life and their wealth confiscated and used to help those whom they have harmed.
27
@MIKEinNYC -- plus, the museums that have received fat contributions from the Sacklers must return those ill-gotten gains and remove the Sacklers name!
1
@MIKEinNYC
I’ve seen several comparisons to el chapo. In my opinion these people are fundamentally worse than el Chapo. Yes, he was behind gruesome crimes associated with his drug business. But, he did not invent, manufacture, distribute and sell his drugs. And it was clear that el chapo was dangerous. There was no question.
Some can of course argue that someone else would have invented OxyContin if the sacklers didn’t. Except that you’d think someone would have already, before the mid-90’s. I can’t help but wonder if they just happened to be the ones devoid of a conscious. In fact I’m sure that is it.
2
El Chapo is involved in hundreds of murders, maybe a thousand or so. The Sacklers are involved in hundreds of thousands.
1
So do we condemn the Ford Foundation because of car crashes?
4
Cars are not addictive.
3
@Chris
Your attempt at comparison is incorrect. Car crashes and opioid prescriptions don’t compute as analogous to one another.
1
@Chris No we go after the doctors who are on the payroll of this company and the people that peddle this poison. People are supposed to trust their physicians. Suing Ford in some instances would be OK, if they knowingly put faulty airbags into their vehicles and peddle them as being safe etc.
1
Why, WHY are these people not in jail? the whole freakin' family. They are a crime family like the Mafia.
LOCK 'EM UP.
20
@Concerned Citizen
The Sacklers are “legal” drug pushers. El Chapo is an “illegal” drug pusher. In my mind the Sacklers and El Chapo are the same type of person, both are criminals against society.
This was not "responsible" management of a controlled substance -- this was deliberate flooding of the market for profit! They should NEVER be allowed in the drug industry again, like many big banks. "At Purdue, sales representatives focused on doctors who were high-volume opioid prescribers, as well as inexperienced providers and primary care physicians who knew little about pain management, encouraging them to prescribe higher and higher doses for longer stretches of time, according to the court filings. Sales representatives could earn tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses and were rewarded with trips to tropical islands."
9
@mjpezzi
The entire Sackler family, cousins, half siblings, aunts uncles, all involved should be taken through court and subsequently thrown in prison.
@Homer Sounds like the French Revolution or the overthrow of the Russian czar. How about going after just those who are guilty of criminal activities.
Put them all in a cell with El Chapo. In the meantime, let Netflix start working on "Narcos, Stamford" so we can understand what lowlifes they really are.
19
"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works."
And you thought Gordon Gekko was fiction......
13
Even the name is sickening... "Project Tango". I guess the "two" being pain treatment and addiction treatment. What a sense of humor, those Sacklers.
21
".....after the company admitted in a 2007 plea deal that it had misrepresented the drug’s addictive qualities and potential for abuse".
"Misrepresented". In other words, the company and its owners lied. The company and its owners and executives knew their drugs were addictive and would be abused. And they lied. That is called fraud. It's a crime. Send the Sackler family and their chief executives to jail.
Restore justice to this country.
20
Stated simply, the salespeople told the doctors that the drug was effective and non addictive and the doctors prescribed it.
Are there really no safeguards - like a clinical trial - against promoting such blatantly false claims ?
11
Just another example of the Republican idea that "If corporations are deregulated they'll 'do the right thing' by choice; the market itself will regulate them." Just kidding.
17
The Sacklers are basically the Jardine Matheson of our day. JD addicted a huge swath of China to heroine, Sacklers, through Purdue and Rhodes, did just the same thing but were much more clever about it. It is almost a common place now for drug companies and others to make money from the damage they cause. One of the chief protagonists of Statin drugs actually makes money from a company that sells Statin pain relief services. In anti-depressants the treatment for a bad reaction to the drugs is more of the drug. Absolutely amazing and appalling.
7
Nice . .. nepotism plus a criminal enterprise. A marriage made in a bank:
"[Purdue] could make money at both ends of the funnel as an 'end-to-end pain provider.' Dr. Kathe Sackler, one of the eight family members on Purdue’s board, instructed employees to devote 'immediate attention' to the effort."
10
@Pebbles Plinth
What's the first line of the Hippocratic Oath? First do no harm?
1
It seems that OxyContin has actually created more pain than it has relieved.
11
Where was the FDA in al of this? Is it unusual for business people to be greedy and ignore the dangers to others when their profits are in the balance? Hardly.
That's why we have laws and a government to enforce them. I'm all for going after criminal elements in the business community but it seems like they had a direct partner in the FDA.
I am beginning to conclude that the whole setup is a grand criminal enterprise. The major distinction between legal and illegal seems to be, less, any serious moral qualification but, more, whether or not you are able to buy the politicians to write the laws that transform what would otherwise be considered illegal by a normal person into the "legal".
As Samuel Clemens noted, "We have the finest democracy that money can buy." That Sacklers just took it one step further and became "patrons of the arts". Is this disgusting or what?
8
From the perspective of a physician, discussion about this topic frequently seems to ignore the fact that for many patients with acute or intractable pain: opiates are the only real answer. Simply put, these drugs are unique and incredibly effective when used for their intended purpose, and even you - dear NYT reader - will likely be grateful for their existence some unfortunate day.
Misrepresentation of known risks is wrong, as is inappropriate prescribing and use. We should attack those problems with all of our force and will. We should beware of collateral damage, however, and recognize that we currently rely on a free market and the promise of profit as the nearly sole motivators for the innovation and production of our cures. If we make appropriate production and marketing of these medications so publicly shameful and legally tenuous that it no longer becomes a viable business strategy to sell this product, we risk becoming victims of our own success.
13
@Fiznat As someone who has lived with intractable pain my entire adult life - and lived well, casual acquaintances have no idea anything is different about me - I sincerely thank you for raising this point.
5
@Fiznat You make an important point - both with regard to the collateral damage to victims of pain, and the fact that the profit motive reigns supreme. We absolutely must protect patients from a lack of access to the medications they need. This is an issue at all levels of care. Also, the promise of profit drives American innovation, and has proven to be a big fat failure. There's a reason many European countries and beyond both innovate and provide excellent medical care at far lesser cost to the consumer. Healthy government intervention. If we had effective regulation and single payer healthcare we would be far less likely to want to -- or need to -- shame publicly the greedy pharmaceutical companies who put lives at risk in order to line their pockets with gold. It would not be perfect, but honestly, is our current structure working? No.
1
I remember when Oxycontin was released. There was excitement in pain community medicine because this drug was supposed to be effective for a long time and essentially non-addictive. It was heavily marketed as such despite a lack of clinical studies supporting the claims. Where was the FDA ? How did this drug get approved without the proper PMA process in which clinical trials must be performed proving that a drug does what you claim it does before marketing as such?
9
@LAM It's not ethical to do long-term placebo-controlled trials on the group of patients who most benefit from long-acting opioid medication: people with rare incurable conditions that don't heal and already failed all other therapy.
What happened instead was (being a drug company) they did 2-3 month clinical trials on the most common pain conditions, so they could get approval to sell the most medication. Those more common conditions are the very conditions long-acting opioid medication is least helpful for.
Where FDA dropped the ball was allowing marketing of controlled substances at all, especially marketing long-acting opioids for anything other than intractable pain that has already failed other therapy.
1
“it is a maxim of the common law in this country that no one should be allowed to profit from his own wrongdoing.”
Except those who can afford billions on lobbyists to write the legislation that makes crime pay. In this country graft and bribery is legalized as "lobbying" - the only fully bipartisan initiative.
10
Years ago before Oxycontin, I was selling medical systems software to endoscopist physicians to record their treatment of patients when one of my clients suggested that I contact a physician in his hospital that was practicing pain management. I showed him what our software did and he described what information he would like to record during patient interviews. We were fully compliant with HIPA rules and I said the best way to proceed was to let me attend these patients interviews. First of all, I was amazed at how much pain these people were in an how desperate they were to finally get relief. Some patients were unable to sleep very much. We tried to develop the software but were unable to provide any benefit from recording this information for physicians.
Many years I moved to Atlanta and when moving into my new home got to know my next door neighbors and in a conversation with them about their young adopted son, who was the child of their daughter who had died from a drug overdose. Well she was in a bad auto accident - she was on her way to work when she was hit by a careless driver. My new neighbors had minimal insurance and the surgery required was more than they could afford. She was started on Oxy and then when that became too expensive, she went to Heroin and finally overdosed. The Sackler family has made billions of dollars preying on people's pain. It is time to stop this slaughter and capture their billions and help their victims.
225
@Butch Burton Sad story and pitiful that it happens in the wealthiest country in the world. Poor Mexico where I retired with almost 1 million other English speaking Americans and Canadians, has Universal Healthcare for all legal residents of Mexico. If the daughter had lived in Mexico she would not have been given strong pain meds but she would have had free surgery to heal her. Viva Mexico.
15
@Axixic And, as I found out when I went to the hospital in Queretaro, opioids are not legal. Mexico is wiser than her northern neighbor.
10
@Emily Pickrell. Ironic though, that a portion of the funding for that universal health care comes from proceeds from the illicit drug trade killing US citizens.
3
Several of my siblings were addicted. One died from over dose and the other's death was influence by his addiction. I have another sibling addicted still alive. Five siblings with three addicted. All by prescribed dope. Money in politics is why this was allowed. After the Civil War many people were addicted by opioid pain killers. Which is why drug laws were initially passed. No excuse saying ignorance. I am furious about this killing people for money. Usually of course poor people.
278
@Anthony: "killing people for money. Usually of course poor people." Indeed. The exact definition of present day American Capitalism.
14
It clearly appears that the Sackler family pursued profits from expanding market share despite evidence that their claims regarding the addictiveness of Oxycontin wasn't accurate.
I don't condone that strategy, but many letters here seem to display a lack of experience with the often mind numbing, life altering effects of severe pain. Within two years I feel out of an attic, damaging my back and spine, and was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Each incident resulted in extreme pain, though in different areas of my body. In the latter I was prescribed Oxycontin by an oncologist, which I took for 10 months and stopped without issues.
Pain meds affect individuals differently. I admittedly don't understand why some people become addicted while others don't, and I don't want to blame victims. But it's dangerous to demonize all manufacturers and doctors for drugs which, in many cases, mitigate the effects of pain that degrade a patient's quality of life.
".. opioids are [FDA] approved medications that have legitimate uses for certain patients with advanced cancer or short-term severely acute pain, and are still prescribed, despite limited evidence, for some patients with chronic pain."
In my experience, they work when no other medication or action, like ice, heat, exercise, or rest provides relief. Let's be careful to separate profit driven strategy from clinical value. Blanket damnation of everything opioid related is not the answer.
152
Why are Americans in so much pain and why do they insist on pain killers. Pain is a part of life and the healing process. At some point we have to learn to deal with it or find out for why so many pain is unbearable. Do people die from pain alone? What did older generations do when they broke a limb?
27
@SMKNC
It's important to acknowledge that many of the Times' readers are envious of wealth and success, and when it comes to scapegoating, the wealthier the target, the better. If you happen to be a billionaire, you must have gotten that way through theft, deceit, murder -- anything but hard work, good ideas, ambition, dedication.
15
@Kat
In the "good old days," before anesthesia, they gave you a stick to bite down on during surgery. Consider me a fan of modern medicine.
43
When I worked for a large workers compensation insurance carrier I saw the damage that opioids can do to otherwise healthy, happy and productive people. Workers would have their claims accepted for a full range of injuries which arose within the course and scope of their employment. They would see doctors and in many cases require some form of surgery which entailed a long term recovery. I noticed in the early 2000's a dramatic increase in the number of recovering injured workers requiring pain management programs that were approved for drug dependency arising from their treatment, rehabilitation and recovery. Doctors were prescribing Oxycontin, and oxycodone like candy and otherwise productive members of the workforce were getting addicted. I saw, first hand, how the Sackler's insidious and greedy campaign to make money, slows injured workers return to regular work and the employer is left without a good and reliable employee. The Sackler's campaign to increase access and availability to opioids has had a direct impact on the economy...They need to pay.
220
@Harley Leiber It's complicated, though, because as opioid medication disabled a lot of people it also re-enabled other people who had no other way to join the workforce with untreatable painful disabilities.
Not all pain management programs are like this. Some are the only doctors who accept last-resort patients like me, living with lifelong genetic disease unresponsive to other treatment, totally disabled without pain medication.
People like me used to spend entire lives homebound or institutionalized. I (and others like me, however rare) would never have been in the workforce at all without that increased access.
On the other hand, marketing for first-line treatment, without ever trying other therapy? That's a different issue, and where it happened that was the deadly problem.
16
@Harley Leiber
I did my pain fellowship in the 1980s in a program which had an inpatient component. Many of the patients admitted to the inpatient program were ones who needed to get off opioids and were unable to do it while living at home.
2
@Reese Tyrell
I've been a pain management physician for over 30 years and must admit yours is the first program I've ever heard of that treats only people with pain secondary to lifelong genetic disease unless you want to include things like diabetes and arthritis as genetic disease.
I'm curious as to what kind of diseases your patients suffer.
1
These people, and a few top level administrators at the FDA should be tried for mass murder. The re-labeling of oxycontin to include long term pain management is enough. They knew that opioids lose their pain killing value over time and lead to addiction. They knew many lives would be lost, but they also saw the profits in providing treatment for the addictions the wrong labeling of their drug created.
I'll leave the details of legal arguments to lawyers, but from an ethical perspective, the only remaining issues are how to distribute their fortune to their victims and what penitentiary to house them in to maximize the deterrent value their imprisonment will produce.
4
@SierramanCA Not everyone loses pain-killing value over time or suffers addiction. Opioid medication should never have been marketed for every kind of pain. I'm fully in favor of whatever punishment the Sacklers get.
But. The FDA re-labeling of opioid medication to include long-term pain management gave me, and others like me, a life, a career, and a family.
While it's rare, there are conditions (e.g. certain genetic diseases) that don't have treatments, or where all treatments fail. My entire adult life, I've had an autoimmune bladder disease that makes it impossible to venture more than ~5 minutes from a bathroom without pain medication.
Because opioid medication was re-labeled for long-term pain management, I got an education, a career, and a family. Before that label change, people like me spent their whole lives homebound.
And in case anyone is wondering, nobody pays me to say this. I say this because somebody needs to. And because - unlike many who lost their lives to pain-related suicide before opioid medication allowed them a life - I'm still here.
Naloxone (Narcan) and Naltrexone have existed for 50 years, and 35 years, respectively. They should be dirt cheap responses to or treatments for overdose and addiction.
Once again, the greed of American companies shines through once again:
"Naloxone is available as a generic medication. Its wholesale price in the developing world is between $0.50 and $5.30 per dose. Vials of naloxone are not very expensive (less than $25) in the United States. The price for a package of two auto-injectors in the US, however, has increased from $690 in 2014 to $4,500 in 2016.[12] The 2018 price for the NHS in the United Kingdom is about £5 per dose."
Price has risen from $690 (already obscene) to $4500 in 2 years???
Where is the FDA and Congress on this financial rape of the American people and insurance companies?
18
Why would anybody work for this company?
1
@John Higbie Same reason people work for el Chapo. Lucrative killers.
1
"... another business opportunity..." come on. this isn't and NEVER WAS a "business opportunity" as you blithely call it. It was an ADDICTION from the word go. And do you think any of the Sacklers will ever go to prison? Of course not. They were just very rich and they can afford the best (?) lawyers.
2
The Sacklers/Perdue claimed that OxyContin had an extremely low risk of leading to addiction. And that people taking the drug for pain wouldn't even get high, according to articles I read years ago.
The Sacklers are drug pushers. Aren't there still laws on the books recommending the death penalty for big-time drug pushers?
5
May I suggest the family should also be looked at for ties to the heroin and other illicit drugs market.
2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/one-small-town-two-drug-companies-and-123-million-doses-of-opioids/2018/02/15/6436fe16-11a0-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.aac07fb2db26
The Sacklers are heavily implicated, yes.
But the list of culpable entities is very large;
Companies that distribute drugs
Pharmacies
Crooked doctors
Law enforcement that either looked the other way- or participated
Law makers who profited from lobbyist funds
This is the great age of greed.
3
I'm wondering where personal responsibility plays in this story. People know that opioids are addictive. Taking them in a lenited fashion when they're absolutely needed is responsible. Taking them recreationally or taking them in a way not prescribed, is not the fault of Purdue, the Sacklers or anyone but the user.
1
@Erica You show no understanding of addiction. When you're addicted, you're no longer entirely in control of your actions; the addiction controls you. Your comment is deeply offensive to anyone who's ever struggled with addiction, or lost a loved one to addiction.
4
JAIL and RICO takeover of all of their assets is the only learning curve for a family that is this vicious. "The same year Purdue lawyers negotiated the federal guilty plea, the Sacklers quietly formed a new company to sell generic opioids, called Rhodes, according to the New York lawsuit.
“Rhodes was set up as a ‘landing pad’ for the Sackler family in 2007, to prepare for the possibility that they would need to start afresh following the crisis then engulfing OxyContin,” the suit quotes a former senior manager at Purdue as saying."
1
When companies such as Wells Fargo and Purdue repeatedly take out full page ads in the newspaper you know they are guilty of hurting people and their families. Unfortunately the criminals responsible for their wrongdoing lose only money. They should lose their freedom.
1
This is America’s best current example of unregulated corporate capitalism at work. Our lawmakers are also to blame for this national tragedy and disgrace. They allow these profit centers to run amok.
1
A sick example of nepotism and capitalism. A reason why greed and corruption left unregulated destroying American families and ethical businesses.
1
Meanwhile, another drug merchant of death, El Chapo, sits in prison awaiting his final sentence. I think he needs company, and the Sacklers seem to be ideal candidates.
The 200M+ deaths attributed to their avarice, also puts them in the same league as Idi Amin and Fidel Castro. They have blood on their hands and their "philanthropic" efforts to try and use to wash their hands, should be seen for what it is. They don't deserve to be lionized, just brought down to earth.
1
The story of the Sacklers might be a useful case study for the history of capitalism in USA. In the past couple generations capitalism took a wrong turn and placed money, greed, and shareholder value over and above the human person.
1
The New Yorker did an in-depth piece on the Sacklers a while back. Apparently, now that the jig is up in America, they are aggressively expanding their opioid-pushing operations in South and Central American markets.
5
Last week lawmakers sent them a letter. Why not 6 or even 10 years ago?! Way to stay ahead of the curve (lawsleepers).
1
It is shameful to walk around in fine clothes and participate in elite organizations as though you were an asset to society, when in reality, you are really just the dirt of society, real thugs.
5
“Prescription opioids are Food and Drug Administration-approved medications that have legitimate uses for certain patients with advanced cancer or short-term severely acute pain, and are still prescribed, despite limited evidence, for some patients with chronic pain.” I demand to know the Times’ source and justification for this breathtakingly misleading and irresponsible statement. My wife has a degenerative spinal condition. She has tried every treatment under the sun for her excruciating pain, including having a spinal cord stimulator implanted. She would not be able to function without prescription opioids. They’ve enabled her to keep working full time, and have done quality of life. Yet because of ignorant, unsupported opinions like this, she’s treated like a junkie and forced to jump through all manner of bureaucratic hoops to get the medication she needs. Chronic pain patients are NOT driving the opioid crisis. Do your homework and you’d know the research shows this. Please, please correct this garbage. It’s doing real damage.
4
@Chris T. There is "limited evidence" because people like your wife, and like me, can't sign up for clinical trials. We could be totally disabled for the duration of the trial, and who can afford that?
I really wish journalists understood what "limited evidence" actually means. It doesn't mean "evidence against."
@Chris T.
You say The Times is wrong. Could please cite the evidence that supports the use of opioids for management of chronic pain. And I mean actual objective research, not anecdotes as medicine is supposed to be practice according to the former and not the latter.
@Steve There are supporting clinical guidelines, for diseases such as pyoderma gangresonum, interstitial cystitis, ulcerative colitis, sickle-cell disease, and (in some cases) epidermolysis bullosa and end-stage rheumatoid arthritis.
As for research, I did see a German study from 2015 which concluded “Only a minority of patients selected for opioid therapy at randomization finished the long-term open-label study. However, sustained effects of pain reduction could be demonstrated in these patients. LtOT can be considered in carefully selected and monitored CNCP patients who experience clinically meaningful pain reduction with at least tolerable AE.”
Sacklers are simply the white, privileged “legal” version of El Chapo.
3
Quite frankly, ir there is justice in this world, the Sacklers ought to be banned from gouging us and destroying lives just to pay tribute to their god, Greed. And punished, if the 'rich and powerful' would ever get what they deserve, the removal of impunity by paying their way to freedom (license, actually). This type of nefarious behavior, highly unethical, is what gives capitalisn a black eye.
1
The latest green field for Oxycontin is in hospice care. My Mom's first hospice nurse wanted additional pain relief for my Mom's discomfort but not acute pain, and suggested going from Tylenol to Oxycontin! What!!!! I was stunned as recommending Oxy was so out of the blue. Does the nurse get a sales bonus for making this "suggestion" to a patient's family?
The nurse is gone. Mom is taking low dose methadone and is not in pain. Methadone is a fraction of the cost of Oxy.
2
@Nellie Sunbeam
No, silly. The nurse gets the Oxy.
Not once in this article is Rudy Guiliani and his law firm’s involvement in defending Purdue Pharma for 20+ years, reported elsewhere in the Press, mentioned. When Trump wants to know where his unethical lawyer “Roy Cohn” is, all he needs to do is look around. He’s that wide-eyed, mumbling fellow, pushing others out of the way to get to the microphone and inadvertently expose more dirt on Trump.
4
These people are worse than big tobacco in its heyday.
Pablo Escobar was an amateur compared to these pushers. And yet the US spent hundreds of billions in a lost war on drugs that hit mainly the poor coca farmers. What an idiocy.
2
Shameless, morally deviant crooks. I wonder who they voted for in 2016. Any wild guesses?
1
@Nelson
Probably the woman who received the lion's (and I do mean the lion's) share of the money pharma gave to the political candidates. Wanna bet?
Let the punishment fit the crime. Get the Sacklers addicted to their own product, strip away their money and leave them as prey to the pushers and the dodgy dealers on the back streets of some down and out city. Alternately let them be bunkies with El Chapo, no, cancel that, birds of a feather.
1
Mom has Cervical spondylosis. She's 79 years old. This is a severe form of osteo arthritis in her spine. She tried everything to deliver her from the chronic, severe, inescapable pain- to no avail. Oxycontin is the only pain med that works for her. She has been using it for 5 years and carefully manages her dosage on a strict schedule/regimen. She had never increased her use in this period of time. The pain still persists, but is now manageable. She is able to maintain a semblance of normalcy and lead a fulfilling lifestyle. It's not easy.... and she would have a hell of a time withdrawing form it after so much time. She is fortunate to have the resources to work with a responisible pain management clinic and navigate all of the obstacles to both receive and fill prescriptions of this medication. I'm posting this comment to demonstrate that not everyone is a victim of this drug. there still exists legitimate need and use for it. I hope these lawsuits don't lead to a total ban of these opiates. Don't think it could happen? Look at how they almost banned Celebrex! Don't take away hope for so many sufferers of chronic pain!
5
Honestly what do you expect from big pharma. They are the most powerful entity in the history of the world and the most profitable. There's a reason they have twice as many lobbyists on the hill as the next industry. They own both parties and can do pretty much anything they chose to. Of course, 200,000 deaths don't look so good, but it will not stop them one bit. They will continue to change laws so as to maximize profits. I wouldn't be surprised if (as in the case of vaccines) we will have censorship put in place so that no information about their misdeeds will be allowed to be shared. That's almost certainly coming down the pike. Welcome to the Pharmaceutical States of America!
6
When I hear commercials for law firms suing companies for abuse like Roundup and certain drugs, I wonder whether these companies are investing in the law firms and profiting at both ends of the funnel drawn by Purdue.
3
This is the very height of capitalism which is making exorbitant profits at both ends. Feed the addiction and then cure it.
6
@Wally Wolf
You forgot to place "unfettered" before capitalism.
Its a $1.50 word meaning minimal regulation or no regulation.
1
The Sneeches
@magicisnotreal
You're right. Thanks.
Purdue (and therefore the Sacklers) must have known that they were manufacturing and selling far more doses of Oxycontin then could be prescribed for legitimate uses and certainly their marketing to doctors encouraged them to write more and larger prescriptions than was prudent.
Distributors like McKesson (2018 revenue - $208 billion) and CVS/Caremark also bear responsibility but are rarely discussed. They also must have seen large amounts of Oxy "pushed" through their networks but did nothing about it. The Sacklers will pay for their avarice - and since this is a legally produced and regulated drug it can be brought under control.
I am more concerned about the Chinese flooding our streets with Fentanyl, mostly entering the US through Mexico, far more deadly and difficult to stop.
1
@Mister Mxyzptlk
Yes Yes a thousand times YES
The Sacklers were involved in a conspiracy to maximize their profit at the direct expense of those who bought their drug, knowing that it caused deadly addiction, while claiming it was not really addictive.
I see little difference between the Sacklers’ actions and the tobacco company executives who stoutly denied that cigarettes were a major cause of lung cancer, while making their product more addictive. They did that all the while knowing that their own scientists had shown them how deadly their product could be, and while funneling donations to politicians to prevent as much regulation as possible.
Both sets of executives (Sacklers and tobacco executives) have more blood on their hands than Osama bin Ladin did.
5
@AS Pruyn And, sadly, neither will do any jail time.
As others have opined, nothing can compensate for the loss of a loved one to greed, avarice or carelessness.
The shame of it all is that the Sacklers will most likely get off with some fine in the millions or even billions that seems impressive at first glance, but averages out to some pittance for each life taken. Yes, I mean taken - not "lost". The word "lost" suggests chance. There was no chance involved here.
4
Yes, let’s drain the swamp. 13 billion is a start. That money will help the sufferers of the opioid epidemic, which this company and family pushed for and enabled.
Hundreds of thousands of deaths were avoidable.
David Leonhardt has a very good column today about how capitalism is destroying itself. I agree. We are being eaten alive by the greed, lies and inhumanity of the many (certainly not all) whose only motivation is unbridled wealth. Our society can’t continue like this.
2
@Michael Capitalism is not only destroying itself, it is destroying our democracy. Indeed, it is destroying the earth.
..."That year, after a federal prosecutor highlighted 59 OxyContin-related deaths in one state, Mr. Sackler wrote: “This is not too bad. It could have been far worse.”...
If I was the cause of 59 deaths, I would have either a life sentence and no possibility of parole or be executed.
The Sacklers and their companies will pay a few billions in fines and go on with their lives.
Ah, the American Corporate Way of Life!
Justice? How quaint that would be...
3
I always think of Arianna Huffington saying it was easier to get wealthy acquaintances to donate to the opera than to the poor.
Again. You amass millions by the usual methods of wage theft or borderline fraud, by stock manipulation—or extreme methods like addiction and death—and the purpose of this is—
donations to art museums?
How many visitors go to Alice Walton's 317-billion-dollar art museum in Bentonville?
Perverse purchase of "refinement" by ruthless predators who don't know a brush stroke and cannot interpret a symbol—I was going to say to save their souls—but. Yeah.
How do artists themselves feel about this irony?
4
Harvard got ahead of the curve by consolidating its art museums — the Fogg, the Busch-Reisinger, and the Sackler — under the name Harvard Art Museums. Still, the Sackler name has appeared on plenty of institutions to which they donated to burnish the family reputation for enlightened philanthropy.
2
About two decades ago, I was working at a consumer ad agency on a DTC launch of a pharmaceutical product in another therapeutic category.
After, the product was on the market, incidences of liver failure and deaths started to occur at rates significantly above what clinical trials had predicted.
Because there were no other comparable products that provided the same benefits, the FDA allowed the product to remain on the market with what is called a black box warning to prescribers.
Eventually, a comparable product without the risk emerged, and this one was removed from the market.
The day of that announcement, during happy hour at the company bar, I overheard the brand manager exclaim “Well, at least we made our ton of money!!!”
He now runs his own agency.
4
How about placing blame on the physicians as well who knew the dangers of how addictive this poison is yet continued to write scrips for patients? No one put a gun to the head of these doctors to continually prescribe these drugs. Find an alternative to them. I was prescribed oxy for oral surgery and it didn't lessen the pain quite the opposite it exacerbated it. I then got rid of the remaining pills. The sackler family need to pay the penalty for what they have wreaked upon the world. In spades they should pay.
3
@Margo Channing The Sacklers absolutely should pay, for irresponsibly marketing long-acting meds for oral surgery.
But some of us don't have alternatives.
Not everyone reacts to medication the same way. “Find an alternative” doesn’t work when you’ve already done 40+ alternatives, including a multidisciplinary pain program, and none of them made any difference whatsoever.
Granted, we’re a minority, but there are patients for whom this is not “poison” at all, but an essential mobility aid that allows us to work and live normal lives despite gruesome diseases that would otherwise leave us disabled.
Among other things this tragedy could have been prevented by a properly functioning FDA. Its failure is a sign of corruption of the regulators and elected politicians they theoretically report to. Who was paid off, when and how much? Many of the Sacklers should face the consequences of any proven crimes. Their enablers should as well.
4
I didn't think any family could out-Trump the Trumps, but these guys nailed it.
4
Sooooooo. The Generals and others waging the "War on Drugs" were completely outflanked to the detriment of thousands of families. I thought the job of our government was to keep us safe.
5
Since when have we as a society not known that powerful narcotics are addictive? They were first outlawed in 1900, for a good reason. Then the FDA was established in 1906 to regulate prescription meds. After that, we created the DEA in 1973 to crack down on the illegal trade of narcotics - pills as well as powder. And then came the Controlled Substances Act, and the Rockefeller Drug Laws... and so on, and so on. So, as a nation and regulatory body, we never have been ignorant of the dangers of opiates/opioids. So was Purdue "covering up" this fact? Only if we had suffered from mass amnesia. It's pathetic to blame a company for having lied to the nation about the addictiveness of narcotics. Why don't we just haul all the liquor and beer families in, while we are at it, and blame them for all the drunken driving deaths and charge them for having lied to us about alcohol impairing our faculties?
Altruism in the name of tax deductions is simply greed dressed in a cloak of pompous self-importance. The putridity at the core of this "dynasty" is still discernible, and it comes from a disease even worse than the ones they have wrought.
4
As a judge I all too often see the effects of the opioid crisis and how hard it is for people to get clean.
The utter gall of the Sacklers to even consider making money off the misery they have wrought is just astonishing. If you have been following this as closely as I have you know that they were deeply involved with the sale of oxcy and knew what was happening.
Perhaps they should be forced to live for a week in a small town somewhere in West Virginia where the epidemic has raged for so long. Let them live in the devastation they have created.
7
I fail to see the moral and ethical difference between the Sackler family, Purdue Pharma and the illicit drug cartels. Both profit from addictive drugs, work to build a client base and market share while avoiding legal culpability for their actions. That the Sacklers use some of their profits to build cultural self-aggrandizing legacy monuments is no different than any other image laundering scheme. The history of wealth built on questionable business activities is foundational capitalism. Profit before anything else is considered a virtue and this industry does pursuit of the dollar above all other considerations better than most. Expect high price lawyers and pr firms to spin and prevaricate while doing their best to muddy the waters. The tobacco industry succeeded for decades and is still in business building market share, why should this be any different?
10
I went to my local pharmacy to secure Oxycontin. To my surprise, they wouldn’t let me buy it. I needed a scrip.
What we have here is a lot of lawyers and “journalists” practicing medicine.
This company peddled not a single pill to anyone not expressly authorized by the government to receive those medicines. Those medicines were expressly approved by the FDA. As you write:
“Prescription opioids are Food and Drug Administration-approved medications that have legitimate uses for certain patients with advanced cancer or short-term severely acute pain, and are still prescribed, despite limited evidence, for some patients with chronic pain.”
(Leave aside the gratuitous, opinionated aside in a “news” piece. These are legal, beneficial substances, and we entrust MDs with the discretion to prescribe them, as the law permits.)
These suits represent nothing more than a form of extortion. Given that juries actually buy junk science – remember silicone breast implant cases? Been paying attention to the Roundup and talc cases? – it makes sense to settle rather than fight. Alas, that simply encourages more such suits.
Put simply, it doesn't matter how the drug was "marketed"; what matters is what the FDA said it could be prescribed for. If you contend that MDs acted improperly, sue them.
In short, you're looking for a deep pocket villain to blame for either MD malpractice or someone else's self destructive behavior.
1
@Brenda
So what you are saying is that you have not paid attention to and pretty much do not care about the actual facts in this situation.
OK
2
@Brenda
"I went to my local pharmacy to secure Oxycontin. To my surprise, they wouldn’t let me buy it. I needed a scrip."
To your surprise? Really?
1
Amorality is becoming epidemic in this so-called “capitalist” society of ours.
Your comment provides evidence in support of that assertion.
Profit and the “OK” of a potentially rigged regulatory process do not justify any and all actions ...... at least not in a world guided by mores and ethical considerations.
Here's the problem. This is Capitalism 101. It's a genius business idea, because it maximizes profits. But, it is morally bankrupt and, by the way, it kills people. The only things stopping them are regulations and lawsuits, so why would anyone support the largely, but not exclusively, efforts of Republicans to do away with them? Why do people think that corporate profits are worth more than human life? I've said it before, I'll say it again:
If you don't want corporations to be regulated, tell them not to require it.
49
@scott
Let's also not forget that the Sackler family and Purdue lied to the FDA, about the addictive nature of the Rx in the first place. I do agree it's "morally bankrupt and it does kill people".
2
That spoon in the photograph of this article reminds me of the 17th century dunking stools of Puritan America. Hopefully, the rule of law will suffice and alternative punishing will not necessary.
@jay Another hallmark of Capitalism?
Edward Abbey on Capitalism: "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell."
And now the ONLY driver of the U.S. economy is Innovation for the sake of Innovation, innovation that drives the economy without any link to the concept of Progress.
43
The FDA and congress are the ones who take our tax money and in return are supposed to be looking out for the best interest of Americans ,the responsibility is theirs not drug pushing corporations. Our government has yet again failed us, I truly feel for the victims who thought this country was looking out for their citizens.
20
Get the Sackler name out of its donations.
Each state should pass a law which allows a charitable institution to remove the name of the donor but keep the funds donated if it can show either that the funds came from illegal activities or the donor was involved in such activities.
14
"Last week, three Democratic senators from states hit hard by the opioid epidemic, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, sent a letter to Purdue, insisting that it make a more formal commitment not to make money from the treatments".
Why did only Democratic Senators from states suffering from the hard hit opioid epidemic attack this problem?
Where did their Republican counterparts, e.g. Sen. Capito of West Virginia, not sign that letter as well?
This is just another example of Republicans not caring about their own constituents.
24
The intersection of money and health is going to lead to abuses, no pun intended, like this. However, the statement “Pain treatment and addiction are naturally linked" is absolutely true and has been at least since the use of opium and heroin to treat headaches and coughs in the 19th century.
5
A minority kid on a ghetto street corner gets caught selling a pill and does hard time.
I guess all one need do is to scale their drug business appropriately, make massive donations to charities and politicians...
And be white, of course.
71
The high produced by Oxycontin is not from the medicine as it is prescribed.
Instead, people who want a high chew it (bypassing the time-release mechanism) or grind it up and snort it.
This isn't the fault of the medicine, or of Purdue/Sacklers.
It is a useful and good medicine. If you have ever been in pain you would know this. I had it. I don't intend to snort it. If I decided I wanted a "high" and snorted it, I would be responsible, not anybody else.
Many people like to rail against villains. It is so much more satisfying than looking to ourselves as the architect of our own lives.
11
@Dan The problem with humans is that we don't always follow the directions. For this we should suffer the misery of addiction in support of some family's dynasty?
2
The risk of escalation in the consumption of highly adictive pain medication for the mitigation of overwhelming chronic pain is real. The Sackler’s understood that, per their concern that the warning of highly addictive properties were too obvious. I would caution against judgement of those who where encouraged to escalate dosage until they were addicted.
1
@Tim
The problem is that if we followed your reasoning, then opiates would be considered inherently dangerous goods like lawnmowers and ladders. Thus, strict liability would be ascribed and make the drugs prohibitably expensive. Nobody could afford them. Sometimes, you have to bear the burden of your own mistakes....
Unchecked Capitalism run amok - a fine example of why our Democracy needs effective and strong oversight abilities.
17
Ignored (again) is the Sacklers’ effort to push their opioids to the rest of the world.
They are truly demonic.
https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-oxycontin-part3/
15
As far as treatment for iatrogenic conditions is concerned, I was INCENSED to see ads to treat tardive dyskinesia, especially as the actress promoting the medication played "dumb" about the causes of the disease, and parroted the tired chestnut about "not stopping your medications" when in fact all the neuroleptics IMO opinion do much more harm than good, and TD is known to be irreversible.
1
@e pluribus unum You're painting with pretty broad strokes here. I assume you are not a physician (as an informed one, at least, simply would not say what you have). It would be worth remembering that broadcasting half-baked medical advice based on personal experience and internet searches can cause harm - sometimes even disastrous consequences. One need not look far for examples.
Here is Trump's opportunity to say why support of the death penalty is necessary for cases of "drug pushing", by crime families, like the Sacklers. Oh that's right, those penalties would only apply to minorities and the poor, as with the case of Manafort, since the Sacklers have no doubt otherwise had a blameless (aka rich white family, run by a patriarch) life.
9
It's a little more complicated than attributing all of Hell to one company and one family. There's no mention of a CVS being on every corner. Did Walgreen have no skin in the game? Does the AMA have clean hands? Didn't every doctor with a pen handy make money as well? And was there never a medical benefit experienced by pain sufferers? I'm not making excuses. (Philanthropy had tax benefits). If the family deliberately sought to hook vulnerable people then they are personally no more innocent than El Chapo and deserve just as harsh a penalty. I'm simply saying a lot of interests cashed in on Hell.
8
@tony barone. Doctors don't make money prescribing. They are not dispensers.
1
Regardless of the legal outcome of the pending lawsuits, the avarice, immorality, and indifference to life reflected by the Sackler family's persistent and aggressive efforts to promote opioid sales by companies they control, despite full knowlege of the tragic consequences, is damning.
10
I'll bet (after looking at the photos of the members of the Sackler family) that what bothers them the most is the public shaming caused by elite institutions such as universities, galleries, and museums severing ties with them. Being exposed as nouveau-riche grifters and being kicked out of the Club must really hurt.
33
Should not some of these people go to jail?
24
These companies are the real drug dealers. They create addicts and the addicts create thousands of jobs in law enforcement etc... make all these companies who knowingly create these problems like this pay for Trump’s Wall.
1
@Fran And for Life!
The opioid crisis that is killing Americans has almost nothing to do with the Sacklers. It is cheap fentanyl that is cooked up in labs and mixed with the heroin supply.
The Sacklers were happy their now pain killer was selling well, and surely someone in the company should have noticed that various distributors were receiving ten times the amount of oxy that should normally be sold in an area, but company owners seldom get details of sales.
The effort to "sue the drug companies" is just a money grab by the states.
What will save lives is getting seri9us about rooting out the heroin dealers, importers, and manufacturing operations pumping fentanyl into the system.
5
@Kip Hansen. Cheap Fentanyl is simply a by-product of the states' enforcement/control of opioids. Opioids became harder to get and the market economy stepped in offered an alternative. The drug companies may not be the big beneficiaries of fentanyl sales growth, but they lit that fuse that made it possible.
14
@Kip Hansen - There would not be such a demand for heroin, if not for the wave of addicts generated by the Sackler's pushing of opiates in the first place. The people who get addicted to Oxy would prefer to continue abusing Oxy, but they run out of money, and heroin is cheaper.
I'm guessing you haven't known anyone personally who became addicted via pharmaceutical painkillers? If you did, you would realize where the problem began.
I hope it doesn't take the death of a close relative of yours, for you to open your eyes to the truth, and the ugly greed of this family.
3
This is just totally factually incorrect. Google one single article on this topic before commenting: Patients get instantly hooked on legitimately-prescribed OxyContin, following some sorts of sports injury or work injury.
Then when their second or third prescription runs dry, or they need higher doses of the drug to fight their chronic pain, they often are forced to switch to much cheaper heroin. And THAT is when people often tragically O.D. from heroin or the terrible fentanyl combo. This includes celebrities like Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman. Blaming the addicts has been officially documented as the Sackler management’s internal marketing approach.
But they knew that the legitimate, prescribed OxyContin was creating a public health crisis by setting people on the path to ultimately shifting to heroin to feed their OxyContin addiction, once they can no longer afford to fill whatever prescriptions they have left. The heroin dealers are just the cut-rate alternative. At least do some de minimus research before you make uninformed comments.
3
For anyone who tries to blame the users, let me say this. I was unconscious on an ER table and they tried to ply my body with opioids. Thankfully, my body rejected them violently and now I have a note on my ER file, "NEVER GIVE OPIOIDS". I'd like to mention that I'd been in the ER five previous times (PTSD) that year, and had never been given opioids. Suddenly they were being pushed on everyone. The pain killers we had before opioids were fine. This was a push at the corrupted, dark and perhaps even governmental level.
13
@RCJCHC Opioids have existed since the dawn of humanity, but I'd actually like to make a different point. We hear a lot about "everybody did fine before opioids," but some people didn't.
People like me (rare genetic autoimmune disease) spent entire lives disabled. When the tide started to shift in the 90s, allowing some use of opioid medication for non-cancer pain (cancer/non-cancer is an artificial distinction), people like me finally got to work, live, and raise families like everybody else.
The problem is, that pendulum swung way too far in the 00s. We need to find a reasonable middle ground.
2
Instead of corporate greed in plain sight, you choose to suspect a dark government “conspiracy”? No wonder these problems don’t get dealt with. There are too many people willing to believe fantastical explanations rather than hard facts. The only government conspiracy at work here is the hand-to-wallet relationship between corporations and paid-for legislators who work for large donators, rather than for the interests and safety of their constituents. If government regulations don’t prevent “legal” dangerous drug pushing, exactly what will? Really, it IS always all about the money.
1
@Melinda Mueller Well explain to me why US troops are protecting Afghan poppy fields to the point of replanting them when their clerics have the locals burn them?? https://www.globalresearch.ca/drug-war-american-troops-are-protecting-afghan-opium-u-s-occupation-leads-to-all-time-high-heroin-production/5358053
The Sackler family is particularly venal. They viewed the deaths their drugs caused as just so much collateral damage. And all the while, they knew how powerfully addictive these drugs were. So much so that they sought to make a profit with opioid blockers. Even as addiction to these drugs grew more widespread they continued to peddle them. But all the while they knew. Hold the Sacklers accountable in every manner possible. It will be small recompense to those families who have lost the ones they loved.
20
Purdue Pharma is like the medicine wagon and the Sacklers are the slick Medicine Man. Preying on individual carvings is nothing new. (Actually there is a difference -- now corporations are much better at employing better techniques to get out of town fast but the behavior is the same.) There is no shame when there's money to be made.
6
@From American Outback (Escalante, Utah)
Except those slick medicine men weren't marketing their products to trained physicians but to gullible civilians.
Purdue was marketing to gullible physicians who should have known better than receive the ludicrous claims about OxyContin being less addictive.
1
Great article and I hope more follow through until these Sacklers are in JAIL. Let’s get their names off the buildings, museums and Art Centers and treat them like the hard drug dealers they are. Can you imagine what would have happened to them if they were Black? White people seem to be able to push legal drugs and get away with it ( tobacco and pills) but let 2 brothers with Gerry curls own something like this Co. and they’d be behind bars in 10 minutes.
9
I wish a DA in West Virginia had the gumption to charge the people who controlled policy at Purdue Pharma with the appropriate charges. Namely felony murder, multiple counts, for deaths that occurred due to commission of a felony.
6
The Sackler drug cartel needs to be in prison. They deliberately lied to everyone to sell a powerful drug that they knew could kill people. Then, to make a few extra bucks, they created a 'cure' for the addiction they caused.
These people are no better than any other drug cartel and should be treated the same. Shame on us for allowing this.
8
Why stop at opioids? We know the addictive nature of alcohol and the terrible deaths that follow the addiction to it. Not a thing will get done about any of it, in any real and lasting way.
4
The pursuit of profit (shareholder value) by U.S. corporations, often to the detriment of the American public and society, is endemic in the U.S. - a long-standing tradition, in fact, if we were to look at the history of capitalist enterprise in the U.S. from 1776.
As the GOP seeks to loosen or eliminate health and safety regulations for U.S. corporations, I can't help but note that it's apparently easier (safer) to litigate the activities of a foreign entity than any US companies that finance our political system.
11
One criminal family in the White House.
Another criminal family in addictive pills, doctor’s offices, hospitals, and addiction treatment centers.
What could go wrong?
6
I'll be out in front of Purdue
with a Needle and a Spoon
and another Scam to take my pain away....
1
The merger of money and treatment will always bring rise to questions. The FDA is supposed to be the overseer in this country when it comes to food and drugs. Once they approve something the manufacturer of a product looks t that as carte blanche to push their product. How many commercials to you see by drug companies trying to sway the little informed consumer to urge their doctor to put them on drug x instead of drug y. This big business is deplorable. Maybe pharma shouldn't be allowed to advertise on television at all? Leave the decision making to the doctors? But they're in the pocket of the drug companies anyway. How can we win? For starters...Don't be an idiot and get addicted to painkillers if you end up getting a prescription. Don't abuse drugs, that's what your mommy told you when you were little. Don't hang out with the wrong people. The Sackler family may be a bunch of greedy businesses owners who share some responsibility but pinning everything on them is vague.
1
America's most intractable drug addiction problem has finally been traced back from the shooting gallery to the boardroom. Given the money at stake, is it any wonder?
2
The Sacklers need immediate treatment for their addiction to money.
7
The cover photo for this article shows a Perdu Pharma building and a huge piece of public art - a mini-van sized spoon - outside the building. No caption that I can see.
Given the connotations related to heroin that even a lay - reader can pick up, someone either has a particularly eccentric sense of humor or just didn’t think through symbols and consequences enough.
Was the photo chosen by the editors to make a point?
Very grim series of articles. Certainly newsworthy. And sad. And tragic no matter how you view it.
Look again. That photo is clearly captioned
4
@Anita Larson
So it is! Thanks. It seems looking at photos on my phone is not a good way forward.
There is a caption that explains the spoon as a piece of protest art placed there temporarily--I'm sure just until the Sacklers could get it removed.
1
The Sacker family is a drug cartel and should be treated as such! They should be in jail and all their assets seized.
8
The Sacklers should be housed in the same federal prison alongside El Chapo where both cartels can share marketing strategies .
5
Corporations run the world. Don't fool yourself.
8
How abut also going after the doctors to whom Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies paid tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to say opioid addiction among pain patients didn't exist despite research to the contrary and then did a 180 and were paid to say it was a problem and that we needed to use abuse deterrent products like those Purdue then made and which allowed them and other companies to claim they were new products entitling them to reset the clock on generics.
Yes, Purdue should pay for its misbehavior but so should the doctors who were paid to promote its products who should have known and quite possibly did know that what they were saying to their fellow physicians was false.
5
@Steve
I just wanted to also ask a question.
How comes The Times isn't doing stories on the docs I mentioned in my comment and also all those docs who inappropriately prescribed OxyContin.
I am glad it is doing stories about Purdue and the Sacklers but I don't understand why it's ignoring they others responsible for the epidemic of misuse of prescription of opioids.
Perhaps one of The Times reporters or editors can explain this.
2
The rise in vaccine refusal can also be blamed, albeit indirectly, on this family. Never mind that Purdue does not manufacture vaccines and that more than a half century of successful administration worldwide proves their safety. We hear it every day: “the pharmaceutical industry lied about opioids so they can’t be trusted on vaccines.” This is highly unfortunate.
9
Doctors prescribe meds or surgery to treat pain. They do not study other methods. Ask your doctor what percentage of their education is spent studying musculoskeletal pain. Not internal medicine, pharmacology, or surgery, but the biomechanics of the human body. They don’t study it. They study body parts only in isolation which is why you need to see separate doctors for your neck, shoulder, and hand if you have arm pain. It is unfathomable to them that there might be a connection. The wrist man cant find the source of pain: voila! Opioids are necessary, or surgery. God help you if you ask whether it might be related to the neck because to question a doctor is an insult of the highest order.
6
What about the DEA’s role in this. Do they not decide how much raw opioids are imported into this country? Someone in our vast federal government oks the import of the raw materials to manufacture codeine derivatives. The Sacklers are just the middlemen, you have doctors on one end and the federal government on the front end. Now if someone can sue the pants off of Reckitt Benkiser, a British company profitteering off of suboxone. Buprenorphine used to be a cheap and plentiful opiate alternative, then suboxone was created, marketed and now costs $10 a dose. Money and capitalism at its finest.
7
@Harry B
So true. Why did the 19 physicians at the FDA approve this medication. There was already a long acting narcotic on the market. Who lined their pockets?
1
This is what happens when profit-making is the primary motive and inextricably tied in with providing health care in our Country. Unless we fundamentally have a reset in our approach to health care, where it it not viewed as another business, we will continue to have such crises in the future. So, if the current medical-insurance-health care byzantine complex model is what we we rely on, let us not fool ourselves that we are going to have any sane, simple healthy outcomes. Do I hear another Oxy..blah.. blah medical miracle cure-all in the horizon brewing now for the 2020's and 2030's... and on?
18
Guilty for the push to people who didn’t truly need the strong pain med such as toothache or sprains etc. But to those who need pain management this is a life saver! Now these people with server pain have to jump through hoops and are labeled the bogeyman. With a nasty suspicious eye from every pharmacy. Until you are in chronic pain you will never understand the need of relief which now will become so much harder to get. In fact I’m betting soon unless marijuana is legalized there will be a rise in overdose from people who just want a life without pain.
8
The politicians on the 'right' brag about their success at deregulating, and demand less regulation, of the greed driven corporate gangsters. They believe that if Purdue, or other corporate/criminal enterprises, add jobs or make larger profits their crimes should be ignored. Their only frame of reference for success is the bottom line with no concern for those who are injured in the process. "Growth" is not always the best measure of societies needs...
17
Another piece of this addiction puzzle is that it's an expensive habit, and it does lead to crime. In addition, though, when people can't afford to pay for their habit which might cost $100 or more per day, they turn to black tar heroin. This is the very cheap heroin often cut with fentanyl. It might cost $10 per day to get high.
8
@Paul
Great point in the world of extreme capitalism they just don’t care. The cigarette companies know they were killing people and they just don’t care as long as they are making profits for there shareholders, peoples lives have never mattered to the corporate powers. Look at Facebook sold our privacy and kept misleading the public for two years.
It’s difficult to understand where the character is in these peoples entitled lives. The
3
What about our venerable and esteemed doctors? Give them a free pass?
8
I would like to see personal criminal liability come from this investigation. Two hundred thousand people were killed by their product that they knew was faulty. Another half million people were killed indirectly because of their faulty product. Then they also profited from undoing the damage of their knowingly faulty product.
War criminals have been prosecuted for less than these atrocities.
The entire Sackler family should spend the rest of their lives in prison.
31
this article states more than 200,000 americans have died of overdoses related to prescription opioids since oxycontin came on the market, but does not reiterate the fact that opioid use has a direct affect on heroin use - and subsequently, the number of deaths of overdoses of herion since oxycontin has come on the market. someone please write an article about this too.
to quote sackler"this is not too bad. it could have been far worse"
11
The biggest drug dealer in the US of A, legal and enabled by the government.
6
I hope any contributions of family wealth to trusts in anticipation of lawsuits for their crimes against the people of this country are recognized for the fraudulent conveyances they were.
Also, nice to see the Queen made Theresa Sackler a dame. Good to know the monarchy is still in bed with opium pushers. The less things change, the more they stay the same!
3
Craven cutthroats. What happened to do no harm!
I see a few blame it on the patient comments. Perhaps.
Looks more like avarice to me.
1
These people are no different and no better than the leaders of illegal drug cartels. Their utter indifference to the suffering and deaths their product has caused, their cynical and greedy methods of making money at both ends of the problem they caused, and the attempts to shirk responsibility are stunning in their inhumanity and callousness. The Met may as well name a wing after El Chapo.
I sincerely hope the Sackler family is held personally responsible for their actions. For too long, we Americans have suffered at the expense of corporate decisions that have a direct and detrimental impact upon our lives, yet somehow the decisions of corporate "persons" are never the result of actual people. This, of course, isn't true. It's inexcusable and has to stop. If corporate board members are going to play fast and loose with human life in their pursuit of profit, they must be held personally responsible. Corporate behavior has become immoral and sociopathic.
17
They all appear so upstanding, proper, well polished and posh. Behind every great fortune is a great crime
19
If these people had gone to prison for their previous crimes, it.might have saved tens of thousands of lives. Teens with a few grams of pot in their pockets get twenty years, while billionaires actively cultivating oppiod addictions resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths get slap-on-the-wrist fines that don't even eat into profits.
It is time to stop treating billionaires as if their is a moral way to amass a billion dollars. No person's actual productivity is that high. The only way to get s billion dollars is through fraud and manipulating markets and government.
Global corporate mass media is owned by, for, and of global billionaires, and they have used it to make themselves demi-gods at the expense of the rest of us.
Government is not the enemy (as the media and the traitorous party of Trump keeps telling us). It is our Republic, how democracy gets things done according to our Constitution.
Stop believing pro billionaire propaganda and start prosecuting criminals for their crimes.
And as drugs are made legal, don't let corporations sell them. A corporation protects owners of a business from responsibility for the actions of that business. The owners of marijuana growers and retailers, for example should be sole proprietors, not global corporations with only extracting profit as their one goal.
7
How this article does not even mention Methadone - Blows my mind.
1
@caseylee Well, you leave us in the lurch yet ...
How very Trumpian---create a problem that did not have to be a problem and then offer a solution that will enrich your family.
13
Until criminals like these face life imprisonment for their murderous greed corporate America will continue to treat human lives as simply another input into their profit calculations.
What is the worst thing that can happen to the Sacklers? That they have to declare bankruptcy? My wife does not have a mother thanks to them, and her story is the story of hundreds of thousands of others in this once-great country.
4
America's for-profit health care system is a perversion. It puts people with a drive for money and power in charge of the sacred care of our fellow human beings - and crowds out ethical people who would, in other countries, have risen to positions of responsibility to all of our benefit but woudln't make it in the corporate world.
People who rise in the ranks of a corporation are the ones who will "do what it takes" to improve the bottom line. These are not the kinds of people you want in charge of your health. They are actually the exact the opposite.
45
Why does it feel like I’m reading an almost apologist vibe in the comments? Unless I missed something this Family has essentially KNOWINGLY killed people for cash. Who cares how small a part they play or whether or not this solves the issue? Is there some rule that we are only allowed to prosecute one criminal when a collective commits a crime?
Try them all and strip away all their blood-soaked billions, let their greed be made an example of and the money go not only to the victims but also to investigative processes so we can find the rest of the culprits that will undoubtedly do their best to hide their tracks in light of this.
8
@Gamble It's not apologist, I think it's more recognition that there's a difference between deadly corporate greed (evil) and pain medication itself (dangerous when used for purposes it should have never been marketed for, but still essential for patients with no other options to treat lifelong disability).
2
The 2008 banksters, Trump, the Sacklers: We are a society which will not protect its own people from con men, thieves, traitors and drug pushers operating in flagrant sight under color of legitimacy. Not one of them in prison. And this in a democracy. Our fate, and faults, lie not with the gods, but with ourselves.
6
Let's get real here, the Sacklers were running a death factory and they knew they were running a death factory. The defenses raised on their behalf would sound very familiar in 1945.
10
A lot of consumption of opioids is not by a doctor's prescription. Those who are prescribed these drugs by a doctor often sell them on the street, as there is a lot of money to be made. So, they are often "marketed" for recreation and pleasure rather than for pain. There is no test doctors can do to verify a patient has pain or that it is severe enough to justify opioids. As a physician, I have personal experience with this. Someone somehow got hold of prescription pads with my name, etc., on the prescription sheets, and for the next 6 months multiple forged prescriptions were written in my name throughout Georgia and South Carolina. The most common "prescription" was 90 percocet and 90 methadone tablets. Pharmacies throughout the 2 states eventually learned that any opioid prescription in my name was a forgery. I was assigned a detective to my case and eventually 3 people ended up in prison. So, I no longer write opioid prescriptions at all - I tell patients to go to a pain clinic.
8
"The court filings detailed a multipronged approach used by the pharmaceutical industry at that time to reshape public perceptions..." The real story here goes far beyond 'the Sacklers'. Yes, they are ruthless exploiters who care only about making as much money as possible. But the real problem is how the public is left unprotected against the force of such greed. Time and time again we see how entire industries, from finance to education to health, prey upon unsuspecting citizens. This is what happens when money rules the political system; aggregate forces like 'big pharma' and 'wall street' buy influence in Washington, lobby for deregulation and other advantages. The problems that result should not be a mystery; it's what happens when a country as a whole buys into the idea that 'government is the problem' then systematically supports the dismantling of the very things that have been put in place to protect against this kind of thing.
13
When the FDA approves drugs, because of the very controlled nature of clinical trials, side effects are often not known. After the drug is made available to thousands, maybe millions, the FDA tracks the side effects and can pull the drug, and not infrequently, does.
Oxycontin is FDA-classified as a Schedule II drug, from the FDA "Schedule II drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. These drugs are also considered dangerous."
The FDA did its job; likely the problem lies with providers ill-educated on uses and abuses of Schedule II drugs. Dr Adrienne Fugh-Berman has been talking and publishing about this tragedy for years and has data to back up her observations. If providers are only trained in Schedule II drugs by representatives of te drug companies, they can easily misunderstand how dangerous they are.
This tragedy reminds me of the selling of thalidomide in the US to cure morning sickness that was blocked from FDA-approval by a single observant professional. My mother who was a physician working with limbless Australians told me stories in the 1960s and 1970s of fitting legs and arms on such children.
I am really glad AGS and senators are paying attention to these deaths. I live a quiet life, not terribly social, and yet I personally knew 3 young people who died in the opioid crisis and a mother who lost a daughter.
6
@Susanna J Dodgson This particular drug isn't covered on most insurance formularies anymore, so effectively it's already gone. But it's important not to go as far as "ban all the opioids," because it really isn't the same thing as thalidomide.
In my case, I have an incurable genetic autoimmune bladder disease, making it impossible to venture more than 5 minutes or so from a bathroom without pain medication. Because of opioid medication, I've gotten to spend 20 years leading my own quiet life - earning a Ph.D, teaching college, and raising my kid (who never would have existed without that FDA approval, because I never would have been able to leave the house long enough to meet my husband).
I'm speaking out now (pseudonymously) because my quiet life will be over, if government heeds the call to ban all opioid medication from the market. People like me used to spend their entire lives homebound or institutionalized.
6
At 82, my mother’s gall bladder was removed. The doctor prescribed a short course of OxyContin concluding before the follow up examination. I accompanied her to the appointment. On the way there she mentioned she would ask that the prescription be renewed. “I doubt the doctor will do that.” I said. “It’s a narcotic.” Nonetheless she did ask, very sweetly while batting her eyelashes, behavior I had never seen from her. The doctor couldn’t have said “no” more quickly and emphatically. Fortunately that ended her quest.
Addiction and addressing it are compound issues. Substance abuse prevention education is a must, at all ages and for current and prospective patients, their families/caregivers, physicians and other medical professionals, and the pharmaceutical companies. Oral explanation of the dangers when the drug is prescribed and dispensed should be required by the physician and the pharmacist, in addition to the literature that’s provided. Vigilance is required. Understanding addictive personalities is required. Being proactive is required. So is not being in denial when there is an inkling that one or one’s family member could be addicted or on the brink of being so.
I do not excuse this drug company and the family at all. Fighting this crisis however should not stop with these lawsuits.
5
While Rome burns, the Sacklers are busy building yet another city and those in elected positions are helping them do just that:
"Last year, Richard Sackler was awarded a patent for a version of buprenorphine, a drug that blocks opioid receptors, administered by mouth in a thin film. In March, the F.D.A. fast tracked the company’s application for an injectable drug for emergency treatment of overdoses."
11
It's great this scandal is finally being investigated (and shameful it took so long). But, today's capitalists can be very wily when they need to be, and the government is much less so. So I'm skeptical that the institutions we trust to protect us will be able to squelch this abusive behavior and extract compensation for the victims. Did you catch the news of the recent Oklahoma settlement? Victims got nothing, but Oklahoma got a $270 million center to study opioid addiction (think construction budgets, new jobs, etc.). The system is rigged against us. We must assume responsibility for our own protection. Our institutions aren't going to do it for us. And, capitalism has gotten too big to control.
20
There are legitimate reasons for this pain killer. If Doctors did not prescribe them or they did not work then they would not have been sold for long. This family is not responsible for flooding the market. When I am in pain and there is something to alleviate that pain, then I want access to this, whatever it is. How inhumane is it to give someone Aspirin or Tylenol when it just doesn't work? Of course these States need money and will try to get it anyway they can. Today it is opioids and tomorrow whatever comes next.
7
@Chris Anderson
Members of this family do absolutely carry responsibility here and you're right about one thing; if not this family it surely would have been another. Evil is a strong force in this world.
2
@Chris Anderson*** I agree with you ... if anyone is really to blame it's the Doctors and Hospitals that started giving this drug out for almost any discomfort. This drug works. And yes it's highly addictive. People receiving it should have been told in no uncertain terms .. watch it.
3
This is a simple shakedown.
All the facts regarding OxyContin's addictive characteristics were made public. The package inserts contained warnings and the FDA established regulations for the drug.
Trying to pin responsibility for a failure of patient self control, and a failure of prescribing physician oversight, is a cheap political stunt.
10
So, who "pushed" heroin and cocaine and its derivative, crack? I know that's different.
What if pharmaceuticals had "pushed' those drugs in black and brown communities? Do you think we would have had up-teem stories about a bunch of junkies? I doubt it. Questions of character, morality, and personal responsibility or the lack thereof would have been raised.
Nobody pushed anything on anyone, people like the feeling of being high and abused a drug. Some folks need to stop lying about the choices they made and take responsiblity for choices. We've had a drug problem in this nation for decades.
What's new....
5
@Trina
More compassion from the land of Mike Pence. Shocking.
3
@Trina
You're right. I worked in media through the tail end of the crack epidemic. There was no sympathy for victims back then, even the babies of addicts, it was all about "zombified crack babies which will be stealing your VCR" and propaganda supporting the indefinite incarceration of anyone who discovered that the expensive coke that white guys on wall street were doing went further if you mixed in some baking soda.
Indeed this racism in the media is transcendent and I'm glad I left the biz when I was young and dumb.
4
@Trina
You are right that a certain percentage of "people like the feeling of being high..." They are addicts, with a disease. What is criminal is when other people, whether it be the Sacklers, pimps in LA, your local drug dealer, or the Contra (protected by the CIA) use deliberate and organized methods to develop, maintain and intensify the addiction. When the Reagan government needed money to sustain its support of the Nicaraguan Contras it creatively managed to turn a blind eye to the loads of crack cocaine that suddenly began to descend upon poor neighborhoods in the 1908's. Pushers are in the business for money and/or power.
As we stare down both barrells of this horrific crisis, the burgening use and numbers of deaths and ruined lives now attributed to opiod use, it is quite obvious so much of the 'opiod crisis' could have been prevented many, many years earlier if Rush Limbaugh's addiction to opioids and his doctor-shopping to obtain opioids as far back as April of 2006 had been handled differently.
And the kid gloves used during the exposure of Limbaugh's use and doctor shopping of opioids as early as 2006 was another clear example of how the advantaged are treated differently in our culture.
As early as 2006, 2006!!!!!!!, just imagine if this 'hair on fire moment' had resulted in a closer look at opiod use and the ease of it's addicive qualities once it had the attention of the medical community.
Just imagine if the brakes had been applied on prescribing opioids as a pain preventive medication how much of this crisis could, possibly would have been prevented if Limbaugh's addiction had been properly addressed.
11
@merc
Let's pay attention - close attention - to the evidence coming out in these case disclosures. It's there, was happening all along and is easy to see what happened.
2
@Maureen
You say it's 'easy' to see what happened. I don't believe anything in this mess can be called out as being 'easy'. Addiction has been around for centuries and is still flourishing, ergo, 'easy' is not how I would label a way to identify 'what happened'.
3
@merc
Avarice is easy to identify.
The Sackler family and other opioid makers, the over-prescribing doctors, the regulatory system that enabled them, and unregulated capitalism are all clearly at fault and have contributed to an astonishing number of deaths.
Part of the reason this was allowed to happen, though, is because addiction is still thought of as a weakness rather than a physiological condition. Only after so many people died (so many white people, I'm afraid) from addiction to the same drug, has there been a change in sentiment to blaming the drug instead of the person taking it.
Some drugs are just too addictive. But all addiction starts with a genetic predisposition (or epigenetic conditions). Addicts are not just weak people who should try harder. We need prevention of and treatment for addictions of all types in this country. Our medical system is behind the times in this area. Or perhaps it is just bought off.
28
The bent heroin spoon sculpture is a lovely bit of propaganda. I didn't know that the nefarious Sacklers were selling heroin to junkies or that, by implication, anyone who used legal opioids would end up dead by a heroin overdose, but there you have it. There's a sculpture proving it. GUILTY!
4
@Ed
Isn't it amazing how two people can look at the same object and draw completely different conclusions? The point is that the Sacklers are no better than the street corner heroin dealers; they were more than happy to acquire new users (addicts) to boost their bottom line, with the added wrinkle that these new "users" wouldn't recognize that they're on a downward slope to addiction - after all, it's a legal drug, legally supplied, is it not? They are indeed GUILTY, condemned by their actions, business practice and internal memoranda.
8
@Cariad
The great thing about propaganda is how its victims always fail to discover or acknowledge how they've been had. The Times is a master of the craft, as evidenced by most of the comments here. They pull the strings, and you dance.
1
Where is the FDA in this situation? This agency is supposed to be to final arbiter in deciding the safety of the many products. There are many drugs with a "black box warning". Is that warning system used for these highly addictive drugs? And how much independent gold standard double blind studies have been done on the these drugs? I have had four surgeries on one shoulder and always was give these drugs with no discussion from the physician of their addictive qualities. Where is the culpability of the medical community? There are many factors that have gone into the deadly addiction situation that has been created. Of course it is the unbelievable actions of the Sackler family that are the most egregious, but there has been an unfortunate confluence of factors to get us where we are today.
15
@Janet
Would like to have seen included in this article the amount of money spent to lobby congress and influence Government oversight and regulation over the past 20 years along with the marketing budget aimed at prescribers. This immoral network of special interests purchasing their will, needs to come to an end if any of us are to survive. This is only one of the most dramatic and egregious examples of the destruction it causes.
12
Why did my dentist prescribe 15 vicodin 10 years ago for a root canal? Pretty much any "ouchy" with a medical provider got you some type of script back then. Recently I've had dental work and injury that caused trip to ER and months of PT, not one offer or hint of pain relief beyond tylenol, aleve. What has changed? Were they pushed before?
So its plausible that companies like Purdue caused this epidemic. It's about time they, and others like them are held accountable. They endorsed giving highly addictive meds to people with low pain procedures, in my opinion.
15
@Momsaware
That ridiculous "pain scale" introduced twenty years ago: "What's your pain today on a scale of 1-10?"
What??
Pain is not a vital sign - it's a symptom!
That self diagnosis has probably caused more prescribing than sticks can shake at, truth be known. And what also happened in the late '90's coincidentally? That's right. Oxycontin arrived on the scene, Pied Piper massive scale behind-the-scenes marketing to doctors. This Pied Piper did exactly what the other one did. Took (and is still taking) our children away.
1
Not too long ago I tutored an inmate in a prison college program who had served 24 years for a robbery gone bad. My Latino student was not the shooter; he was an accomplice. Recently he was denied parole again for lying about his presence at the scene of the crime.
The Sacklers have been accomplices in 200,000 deaths and lied about it. Think any of them will serve time?
196
@Gretchen, but they will have to pay billions in fines.
That's justice for the 1%. UGH.
2
This article is very hard to stomach. The extent the Sacklers went to make money, money that represents the thousands who have died or will carry the addiction for their entire lives.
White collar crime? NO WAY! This is homicide by all those white collars and if law enforcement doesn’t handle it that way then these children have died in vain, and somewhere some white collar will work on other ways to game the system.
39
The Sacklers should be made to pay for treatment & restitution to each individual addicted. This is where our health system is - equity companies buying the rights to drugs & upping the price 1000%, Drug manufactures knowingly addicting folks, ony one insurance company in available in Georgia with a high deductible costing $1,400 per month for 1 individual! - this is just part of your republican health plan...
11
@JAF: the insurance offerings in Georgia with HIGH DEDUCTIBLES represents Obamacare and the ACA.
Obamacare and the ACA contained no -- zero nada zip -- cost controls on drugs (or doctor fees or hospital charges or ANYTHING).
It was Obama's opinion that people needed plastic insurance cards, not actual health CARE -- none of the ACA resulted in AFFORDABLE costs.
Nobody made the Democrat Obama from Democrat-run Chicago pick a formerly Republican health care plan that had ALREADY failed in Massachusetts where it ran up prices & costs 35% a year to the highest in the nation.
1
The story of a company both selling a horribly addictive drug and running addiction treatment centers was revealed in the ironic climax of Philip K Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly.” Even though I’ve ruined the ending, it’s worth a read. As Dick suggests, these amoral and rapacious corporations are as much a part of the American landscape as fast food and cigarettes.
8
Big Pharma lied; people died.
Big Picture
Big People, organized as: BIG — Tobacco, Oil, Auto, Banking, Agriculture, Chem, Gov't, Media, Sugar ... lied; people died.
Big Picture:
Lying is fundamental.
Deception and self-deception are fundamental, selected fitness apps for relationship interface.
"Deception is a very deep feature of life. It occurs at all levels — from gene to cell to individual to group — and it seems, by any and all means, necessary." "When I say that deception occurs at all levels of life, I mean that viruses practice it, as do bacteria, plants, insects, and a wide range of other animals. It is everywhere. ... Deception infects all the fundamental relationships in life: parasite and host, predator and prey, plant and animal, male and female, neighbor and neighbor, parent and offspring, and even the relationship of an organism to itself." Robert Trivers — The Folly of Fools
Big Code (big = vast reach)
Deception and self-deception are apps derived from fundamental, selected relationship code for relationship interface. This fundamental code is conserved across myriad species. This base relationship code is: Fitness is > Truth.
"Fitness and truth are utterly different things."
“Organisms that see the truth go extinct when they compete against organisms that don’t see any of the truth at all ... and are just tuned to the fitness function.” Donald Hoffman
So just like you, I'm a liar too.
There's so much lying, the Ocean & Sky are dying.
5
@anthropocene2
Thanks for the quote by Donald Hoffman. It led me to an interesting interview with him in Quanta. I have reserved a copy of an earlier work of his from my local library. Also, thanks for the quote from Folly of Fools. It inspired me to also order that from the local library.
2
@Bill You're welcome; thanks for the thx.
The quotes from Dr. Hoffman comes from his dense and brilliant talk: The Death of Space Time... check youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oadgHhdgRkI
Another mind-stud that may interest you is Frank Vertosick, specifically, his also dense book: The Genius Within.
I interviewed Dr. Vertosick in 2006. We disagreed at the end of the interview. He said, humans aren't smart enough to be planetary stewards. I tried to counter. I was wrong.
2
So the bankers, lawyers and government officials who aided and abetted an economic crisis that destroyed the lives of millions and set the stage for a grotesque push of wealth to the top 1% get off scott free, but the owners of a drug company that sells opiods should be responsible for the deaths of drug addicts ? I'd rather see the bankers and government officials held responsible for the death and destruction they caused than a few greedy, but charitable, drug company owners. Drug addiction is tragic, but an addict has choices - treatment and recovery. What choices did those who were economically raped have as they lost their homes, livelihood, savings, careers, etc. ? Who did they sue when their loved ones committed suicide out of despair, humiliation and hopelessness ? Whose paying for their treatment for unresolved PTSD issues ? Opiods are necessary for many medical reasons. Its unfortunate that many illegally abuse them. But addicts will abuse anything they get a hold of.....if it isn't opiods, it will be something else. This has no correlation, in my opinion, to legitimate drug manufacturers whether they're greedy, conniving marketeers or not. Like anyone else who suffers from a disease, addicts need to be responsible for their own behavior and choices and treatment should be readily and easily available to them. Unfortunately, there's nothing available to help those who are still suffering from economic rape - they have no choice but to continue to suffer.
7
@LisaG
You’re saying, “If one person escapes punishment, all wrongdoers should escape it.”
@LisaG
Drug addicts really DON'T have choices. These drugs are designed to change brain chemistries; their brains are made to THINK their bodies need these drugs like their bodies need water to survive. Think about that. Think about that desperate suffering before you say drug addicts have choices again. Thank you for considering another viewpoint.
@LisaG: it was OBAMA and his AG Eric Holder who decided to hold the banksters and financial companies blameless -- make them whole -- give them 0% interest money to loan out at 29% -- and let them continue to give million dollar bonuses.
1
I don’t know. Maybe we should release healthcare from the market-driven economy. You think that might help? Seems worth a shot.
168
@Kat
Speaking of shot, the US military has been nationalized. Many at the top wouldn't have it any other way.
We do however have to plan public healthcare carefully. The greed which many here note is endemic in our country is not going away any time soon, and the greedy will not simply roll over; they'll seek a way to corrupt socialistic institutions too. I have come around to believing that public healthcare is a bullet that we need, but we must resist the temptation to suppose that bullet is magic.
To commenters playing the “whataboutism” game: yes, normalization of alcohol consumption is an egregious curse upon society. Yes,many profit from it -especially other corrupt enterprises including the NFL, big ad agencies, network execs & producers. So do celebrities with their own alcohol brands (what, movie star money isn’t enough-you need a side gig selling a dangerous, addictive product?). Responsibility for alcohol deaths lies in the hands of many all the way down the chain. Alcohol magnates should be held accountable for their malfeasance. So should other Big Pharma companies, corrupt politicians & oil/coal companies denying climate change. Catholic Church, NCAA, elite colleges- the list is long.
Don’t defend these horrid creatures who not only knowingly downplayed the dangers of their product but created another company to keep profits flowing are a particular brand of sick.The Sacklers used the medical community & exploited the trust that patients had in it. Thanks for publishing photos of these monsters. Their surgically altered faces should be public. I simply cannot understand how much money these folks need & why they need more, more, more. Greed is killing our nation’s soul. Obscene Wealth as a goal should NOT be normalized. But it will continue as long as white collar criminals face no real consequences. Public shaming of the vulgar rich should be what’s normal. If shame even matters anymore. Obviously not to those profiting from human misery. Comeuppance,NOW.
9
When I try to make opioids in my kitchen and sell them on the street or in the pharmacy, the police always shut me down, it just sucks and makes it hard to get rich in the pharmaceutical business.
Luckily for me, I just received a good inheritance, leased a 100,000 square foot FDA approved production facility, hired a few chemists, and signed contracts with all the big drug store chains to supply them with a new synthetic opioid.
This is all facetious, but also why the proverbial blood of all those who die of preventable drug overdose deaths is on the hands of the FDA and DEA.
One cannot just manufacture and distribute vast amounts of opioids without the licensing and endorsement by the government.
Try setting up a pharma plant without local, state, federal and even international governmental interests getting involved.
You or I cannot sell blueberry jam en masse without the FDA's approval, and if some weeds happen to grow in your yard, the DEA may actually swoop in with helicopters to put a stop to it (and you).
This is a problem manufactured by government that could be shut down today, and yet I'm sure Rhodes' and Purdue's production lines will be humming now and forever. When they declare bankruptcy, another company will be allowed to buy the OxyContin brand, recipe and production facilities (and it will be with government's support).
9
@mediapizza
The hands of the FDA? So you want the government to tell you what to put in your mouth and swallow? Good grief!
People are responsible for what they put in their mouths. I took oxycontin for six weeks while in the ICU during a health crisis many years ago, and I stopped once I left the hospital, never to ingest it again. The Sacklers had nothing to do with my decisions.
(Note: It could well be that opioid addiction is like alcoholism. Some people can stop after one glass of wine, while others, because of a genetic predisposition cannot. I surprised science has not investigated this... or perhaps they have?)
9
@Frank J Haydn
They have.
Your brain receptors were not susceptible.
Lucky you.
You escaped.
Many do not.
The research, available to the Sacklers, I'm sure the evidence will show, know this.
The depraved Sacklers bring nefarious new meaning to the phrase "cornering the market".
2
@Sara G.
On the other hand, depraved American addicts show no sign of easing up.
1
@Frank J Haydn: Wow, really? Using the cheap shot false equivalency of addicts vs. corrupt, greedy drug pushers? And worse, calling them "depraved" especially in light of what the Sacklers have been doing?
There are a plethora of reasons for addiction; many opioid addicts start using because their doctors - via the Sacklers - prescribed it to them. Your reply is without compassion and lacks nuanced understanding of the addiction issue, especially the role of the Sacklers.
1
Although I am torn between the obvious (and proven in court) guilt of Purdue pharma, I also realize that they are not the only cog in the wheel for the newer and bigger generation of opiate addicts who never were oxycontin users. Granted, exposure through prescription drugs may have represented a gateway for some, for others, looking for an escape from bleak economic prospects led them to the rabbit hole that is addiction. What of meth? What of highly addictive benzodiazepines like Xanax? I will never prescribe them.
Initiatives not mentioned in the article (I'm sure, for another article) to prevent multiple prescribers and patient's doctor shopping are opening up the PDMP database to all states (PDMP is a prescriber's database for controlled substances: allows the prescriber and pharmacist to see what/where/when/who for all controlled substances for a patient, including opiates, benzodiazepines, and treatment drugs like Suboxone.)
Also tying Chinese trade agreements to reduction and crackdown of Fentanyl production....
3
@S The Sacklers didn't make 13 BILLION DOLARS from just "some" patients. This is a disgrace on American soil and the terrible destruction of human life at the expense of overwhelming greed.
3
@Sarah
People make the decision to ingest pills. Just like people make the decision to shoot guns and kill others.
@Frank J Haydn
At late stage addiction they really don't make those decisions. The (damaged) receptors in their brains are making the decisions - and usually they're not good ones.
1
In 2001, after breaking his leg in a bicycle accident, our only son, then 13 years old, was prescribed OxyContin. By time he was 15, he was addicted, and by 21 was dead from a heroin overdose after two rounds of rehab that nearly financially ruined us.
It is too late for our son, for the grandchildren we might have had, for the good he may have done in the world. These criminals, who through wealth, influence, and crass disregard for others turned a legal system of regulation into there own crime syndicate. They are a corporate drug cartel, sanctioned and protected by the United States government, and I hold our politicians just as responsible because without their complicity, this greatest of crimes would not be possible.
What justice can be offered to my family? What can possibly compensate us for the loss of our only child?
The court should take every penny, property, or thing of value owned by the Sacklers, dismantle every trust and asset, and use the money to set up a fund to compensate the victims of this state sanctioned crime. Treatment for the addicted, counseling for the affected, compensation for the living. The amassed fortune cannot be turned back over the politicians who enabled this crime.
1167
@Jeffrey Schantz
my heart goes out to you, your experience is the ultimate tragedy of OxyContin.
The Sackler Family is of course, the cause of this horror
BUT, why has the medical community embraced prescribing OxyContin like gum drops. To a 13 year old?
In 1966 I too broke my leg in three places after being hit by a car on my bicycle. I was in traction for months.
How many painkillers was I given?
ZERO
"you will have some pain for a while" was the entire "pain management protocol" of the hospital I was in.
NY Times community, please discuss....
97
I’m so terribly sorry for your loss.
47
@Jeffrey Schantz
And if they committed a crime they need to go to prison, just like poor people do.
91
Here is the most telling piece of this article: "The family’s statement said they were just acting as responsible board members..."
Corporate capitalism focuses solely on profit and dividends to shareholders. There is no societal responsibility, no community consciousness--only profit. Outside the boardroom, the Sacklers may be civic-minded and philanthropic people, but the tunnel-vision of the corporate mentality enabled them to rationalize the harm they knew they were doing.
81
Was Purdue public or private? If private, then they were doing this primarily to enrich themselves. Not for the masses of shareholders.
3
@Richard
Corporations were originally responsible to all stakeholders (the state that chartered them, the country, the community they operated in, their customers, employees, managers, and shareholders). Then they had an "investor revolution" (with most of he investments made by the mega rich) and now they are only responsible to shareholders. It is one of the world's biggest scams and most people have no idea that it happened.
11
I am sorry for your loss and pain. I too lost my 24 year old son, my only child, to a heroin overdose in 2017. He was supposed to start graduate school when his life began to unravel. His addiction began with opioids prescribed in the hospital for an injury. When pills became too expensive on the street, heroin was a cheaper alternative. He was a bright, happy and hopeful young man who wanted to make the world a better place. I am yet another member of the growing grieving family club due to the greed of the despicable Sackler family and Perdue Pharma. Hopefully they will be held accountable.
346
This is what happens when a country loses all sense of humanity.
America will be in permanent decline until it rejects the psychopathic greed that forms the foundation of its failing political system.
"In Greed We Trust" is a recipe for human failure.
351
@Socrates Always on target, and that greed of the Sackler family started my grandson on the road to cemetery.
11
@Socrates
The solution of our political system is the Constitution. Greed is eating away at that foundation, the walls and the roof.
Every America needs to study our Constitution aid follow it. Otherwise thieves will steal or country.
8
@Socrates. I had the same reaction. This tale is not merely about the Sackler family. This is about the decline of USA by the destructive forces of extreme capitalism.
27
What about the medical profession?
How did the best, most expensive doctors/hospitals in the entire planet fall for bogus "research"?
How come they were so easily manipulated by marketing campaigns?
What were the incentives of hospital administrators who put in place the "fifth vital sign" policies?
How did all of this happen?
Why are painkillers still so generously dispensed after the smallest, most routine surgery?
17
@Mrs.Chubb, I could not agree more. My daughter had double jaw surgery in 2015 and the cocktail of pain relievers prescribed to her was mind boggling. My pharmacist basically refused to fill it all saying it was dangerous for her to take that much. She was 16 at the time. He filled one of them and then after two days we started using ibuprofen to manage the pain along with heat and ice. Everyone in the treatment chain plays a role. I am so thankful our pharmacist was willing to speak up.
12
@Mrs.Chubb. In many cases Purdue sought out and encouraged the less scrupulous in the medical profession, leading to the creation of “ pill mill” practices where any patient could show up and for a fee, get a prescription. Some of these “patients “ would then turn around and sell individual OxyContin pills on the street at a mark-up.
2
And we are worried about drugs being ferried across our southern border. Change the labeling on one class of drugs and save countless lives and money.
11
Are these people for real? What kind of twisted, guilded universe do they live in? As I’m reading this I can’t help but have flashbacks to Trading Places, where the Dukes, Randolph and Mortimer, are trying to corner the orange juice market. That was funny. This is not.
10
Is lying to the public to further your own ends regardless of the consequences a criminal offence? I suppose not - look no further than your own President. As long as these are civil suits, for the Sacklers the worse that can happen is the business files for bankruptcy.
4
If this wasn't actually true i would think i was reading a conspiracy theory.
5
The complicity of the FDA in taking the lid off the approved uses of opioids should not be over looked.
11
@Grey That FDA approval had a real benefit, for people with rare diseases and no other options.
People like me (disabling bladder disease) used to live their entire lives homebound or institutionalized. Because of that FDA approval for non-cancer conditions, I got to spend 20 years earning a Ph.D., teaching college, and raising my kid.
Without that FDA approval, my family wouldn't exist. I never would have been able to leave the bathroom long enough to meet my husband.
There is a line to be drawn, but it's not between cancer and non-cancer. Long-acting opioid medication should be reserved for lifelong conditions that fail to respond to any other therapy.
FDA went wrong by allowing marketing of controlled substances. But they gave me a chance at life, and gave my son a chance to exist.
2
This is a terrible tragedy, & illustrates the abuse of the public's trust towards the health care system & our political leaders... all of whom have been beholding to the almighty dollar.
One can only hope that this is a (big) step closer to demonstrating that the broad arena of health care (insurance, pharma, chain hospitals) needs to be further regulated - the good health of our country needs to have a higher priority than the all mighty dollar.
These health care industries are based on creating a greater need & profiting as much as the market will tolerate to fill it.
3
I an on the front lines trying to help real people whose lives have been destroyed. I have no sympathy for the Sackler's but none of my hundreds of patients took OxyContin because they could not afford it. But the attitude they portray, that the only goal of the private health care and health insurance industry is to make its owners rich, is everywhere. The only concern the industry has about addiction is how to make money off the opiate crisis. One dose of Vivitrol or Sublocade costs $1500 while more oxycodone is only $2.
What addicts, and all Americans, need first is a primary care doctor that knows them and cares about them as individuals. Medicare for all is at least a first step.
106
@Dan Woodard MD
What you also need are primary care docs who know enough about pain management and the use of opioids to prescribe these appropriately.
There will always be unethical docs who care only about money and probably too few are called to account for their actions. However, there are far more docs who didn't know what they were doing and went ahead and prescribed OxyContin anyway.
2
Similar to manufacturing alcohol and having AA forums at the same time. Or running casinos and operating gamblers anonymous simultaneously.
4
It a appears the Wall will be ineffective with drug abuse since a systematic problem (a root cause, if you will) is a family of American citizens on the inside. If I was a Sackler, I would want a wall built too as a deflection and cover-up to the greed.
8
I wish I hadn't been eating my breakfast while I was reading this, because I almost threw up. After the lawsuits cause the Sacklers to go broke and live in tents far away from any other human beings they can harm, they should be given Oxycontin on a regular basis, to the point of addiction. If that sounds cruel, how about if they just get put in a prison along with Dennis Muilenburg, Dr. Baselga at Sloan Kettering, the entire Trump family, Felicity Huffman, Paula Deen, and the head of the FAA. The list of these vulgarities just keeps growing. When are we going to realize that rampant capitalism enables the worst of us, the people who actually should be at the bottom, to rise to the top and feed off everyone else?
53
I am no fan of big pharma, but blaming the Sacklers for the rise in opioid addiction is absurd. And most of the drugs abused are black market heroin and fentanyl, not the prescription variety.
Look at where the addiction rate is highest, and it's in the regions with the worst unemployment and underemployment. Like Kentucky, home to Mitch McConnell, our esteemed leader of the Senate. That should tell you something.
If you whack down the heroin/fentanyl mole, the methamphetamine mole will pop back up. Whack down both at once, and people will turn back to alcohol, that old standby. Choose your addiction crisis, until you are ready to address the underlying social illness.
26
@Duane McPherson
I agree that blaming the entire opioid crisis on the Sackler faily may not be the right thing to do. But it is also naive to think that none of the addicts who today use the illegal versions of opioids did not start on Oxicontin.
We know for a fact that a large percentage did exactly that. It was advertised as the new non addictive drug that would heal all pain. There has been investigative pieces in the US press for years about the Sackler family and their money hungry appetite for more. What is difficult to understand is how they can live with themselves, and how America still let their name be associated with anything good.
We can only hope that justice finally gets this family in prison where they all seem to belong. Their wealth needs to be expropriated and shared equally for treatment of addiction. Oxicontin needs to be stopped or eased out. And the Sackler name removed from every public place in the land and wherever it appears.
3
@Petrash I think his point is that people who are in emotional pain and are biologically predisposed to addiction will always find a new substance. That's why true recovery involves totally abstinence, not just avoiding the original drug of choice.
@RE
Unfortunately many people are not so fortunate that they can live drug free and still be able to meet the day. Mental illness is as real of a disease as physical illnesses. And indeed mental health issues very often have root causes in physical ailments. Although most often unknown. There is a time and a place for most medication, but the risk of addiction should be researched by the FDA before medications are let loose on the medical establishment and with it the public.
True recovery is not always possible. I have
worked for years with mental illness and I've seen it close up with friends and family and know that being drug free is ideal, but very seldom possible.
The Sacklers knew all along.
They even built it into their business plan.
This gives new meaning to the term “pain management”.
8
I knew both from medical training and observation of streams of Unsavory "patients" frequenting an unethical provider in a rural area in which I practiced that opioids were both addictive and dangerous. Even so, there still remains a small set of patients for whom these drugs are of critical importance.
The Sackler family is morally repugnant for profiting from both illness and weakness in human beings especially since their products carry an immediate risk of death in overdose.
But how much different are the Sacklers from Martin Shkreli who cornered the market on the niche generic drug Daraprim and then raised its price 56 fold? Or the current corporations like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk who have priced various forms of insulin beyond the reach of the patients needing this lifesaving drug? Or Mylan Pharmaceuticals raising the price of the EpiPen to stratospheric heights?
And what of the insurance companies who rig networks, copays and deductibles to guarantee higher and higher earnings for shareholders and obscene CEO salaries and benefits?
The perversion common to all these people and companies is a business model making more money by making health care less accessible, more expensive and ultimately more lethal.
Immiserating the Sacklers, while emotionally satisfying, only cuts the head off of one snake in a nest of vipers.
229
@Douglas McNeill
If you have a nest of vipers, you cut the heads off one at a time, after they get fair trials of course.
This Trumpian notion that "everyone does it," so no one should be prosecuted is institutionalizing corruption and turning the USA into a banana republic
8
@Douglas McNeill Joe Manchin’s daughter is the CEO of Mylan and she didn’t have much of a conscience when jacking up the price of EpiPens. The hypocrisy is unbelievable given the letter he sent to Purdue.
“Last week, three Democratic senators from states hit hard by the opioid epidemic, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, sent a letter to Purdue, insisting that it make a more formal commitment not to make money from the treatments.
“Indeed,” they wrote, “it is a maxim of the common law in this country that no one should be allowed to profit from his own wrongdoing.””
1
People need legitimate ways of controlling pain and they should have access to painkillers. That they get addicted could be their lack of self control, just like with other vices. If Oxycontin becomes unavailable they'll find a legal or illegal substitute. You would have to hold the suppliers whether they are big pharma or alcohol or cigarette producers partly responsible for addictions, but a lot of the blame for abuse falls on the users. This does not excuse the misrepresentation and criminal activity of the Sacklers. They need to go to jail and put out of business for knowingly participating in pushing their habit forming drug which was supposed to be non habit forming.
37
@Phil M other countries do not prescribe oxy-products like they do in the US. Are Americans less tolerant of pain or wimps? My friend with a Phd in finance was taking oxycontin after her surgery around the clock because of the label said, "take every 4-6 hours." I explained to her that it is NOT an antibiotic and if she could handle pain with play acetaminophen would be better and also resolve her GI issue. The neuroscience behind opioids is well known, there is no ceiling to cap the feeling that is why people get addicted, self-control is no match.
37
@Yolanda Perez
Yes, Americans are less tolerant of pain and many other things. We also provide less oversight of big pharma than in other countries. Our level of happiness compared to other western countries is much lower. So depression and escape could have something to do with wanting to get high on anything. It's complicated.
22
@Phil M No- this has nothing to do with self control. There are so many factors that affect how people deal with pain, how they become dependent, and what resources they have at their disposal to safely discontinue. It does NOT help to look to those who use the drugs the are erroneously prescribed to them.
24
NOTE: not a single article ever mentions how Purdue is being treated. Where are the SWAT teams kicking in doors ruining property and why why why isn't Purdue being prosecuted under the RICO Act? And finally why won't mainstream news sources EVER cover that aspect? It's can be plainly seen that Purdue like our banks will get away with it. Meanwhile their victims rot in our crimes against humanity jails or go broke paying lawyers because somehow the victims have become criminals for the sole purpose of helping a prosecutor with his/her political career. Are our prosecutors waiting for more evidence? How much more can they want? What the other real tragedy is that Purdue is going to get a small fine that our irresponsible media will pretend is huge and will make a difference.
10
This comment deserves a gold badge but the NYT doesn’t appreciate when commenters remark on the complicity of the corporate media.
A well researched and informative article, but the reporters should have considered one more source: Rush Limbaugh.
On the leading edge of opioid addiction since 2001.
5
I am 89 years old and neither a doctor nor a pharmacist, just an ordinary layperson. I have known since early in adult life that all opium derivatives or molecular copies thereof can be habituating and/or addicting. How can that be startling front-page news in 2019?
13
Because doctors were paid to push it.
2
@Penseur
Much like a Bird that just got drunk eating alcoholic berries . Addictive and fun but is then exceedingly Vulnerable to all its
Predators
Study American history and it’s the same old story. An industry pays off politicians, exploits beyond measure a place or a population, then leaves it to the public sector to clean up the mess. It happens right before our eyes. We need, we deserve, a government that protects people over industry. Will we ever get there?
9
Amazing we have politicians who decry the use of cannabis by many to help alleviate their ailments, a substance that by many accounts is non-addictive and impossible to overdose on yet, head to the trough of big corporate pharmacy largess and fail to address the real addiction problem-legal heroin, so to speak.
Thankfully I have eschewed any opiate pain relief and relied on that cursed marijuana products.
8
I am an admitted drug-user and drug-lover. I have enjoyed drugs on and off throughout my life. But I always knew when it was time to stop. Recently I endured a major 4-hour surgery that was quite painful and required two 30-count prescriptions for oxycodone. I was well aware of my proclivity towards drugs and the rampant addiction to Oxycodone we hear about so often today. I took the two full courses of medication and by the end of my third week I was done. The pain at that point was minimal and tolerable. I had to decide, do I ask my doctor for another prescription? The answer was obvious- no, I was done with it. And that’s how I ended my recent course of oxycodone. It wasn’t hard. Personal responsibility.
5
@Martin X I shall nominate you for sainthood.
3
@Martin X. Good for you. However, you had the luxury of knowledge which many of us prescribed OxyContin 22 years ago, did not. In the early 90’s with chronic pain NO ONE told us how addictive it was.
If you willingly take Oxy in these times when you aren’t in chronic pain, you pretty much are responsible for digging your own grave.
There is absolutely no difference between El Chapo & this family , they are both criminal organization profiting from products highly addictive , both are generous with their money to charity , both are paying regulators to make possible to distribute their products , the only difference is that one is an American family that will not go to jail , only because the law and the powerful lawyers will make sure that doesn't happened , we will know pretty what is our justice system.
11
If a foreign power was killing c. 900 Americans every week, responsible people would be debating whether to use nuclear weapons.
IF the allegations are true, then each and every culpable member of this family deserves aggressive criminal prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment for life, without possibility of parole, in America’s harshest prison. And all assets must be seized and redistributed to help repair the unfathomable damage they have caused. Anything less would be a mockery of justice.
8
@Citizen K
Believing the propaganda? Alcohol and cigarettes kill far more each week - where is your outrage for them?
1
This level of indifference to the suffering of others is unsettling at best, and arguably criminal. The 'common good' has never seemed so close to complete dissolution.
It feels like almost everyone you meet has people they care about that have struggled with, or succumb to, addicition. The fact that there was a diligent effort to destroy lives for personal gain, "hammer the abusers," perfectly describes the state of the moral compass of the United States as a whole. By hook or by crook, seek more....
If there ever was a more clear reason to drive money out of legislative(regulatory) influence, this is it.
6
While this may feel morally gratifying, there's a serious "slippery slope" issue here. Unfortunately, the intensity of one's moral position tends to blind one to the consequences of one's actions.
2
What exactly is the slippery slope here?
2
I would like to recommend Sam Quinones excellent book, Dreamland. It describes the perversion of scientific research that allowed Purdue Pharma to promote OxyContin as non-addictive. It describes in detail the callousness of Purdue Pharma in their drug distribution strategies. Further, it describes how over- prescribing OxyContin led to the influx of black tar heroin in the US. It’s a stunning book that provides a well researched backdrop to the current crisis.
7
@Spike in Virginia
Yes, I highly recommend this book as well! Many questions that people are asking in the comments are answered in the book.
1
@E I recommend "Dreamland" as well. It is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. It opens the door to a true understanding of how this began, what it has become, and why.
News stories about Oxycontin give the impression the drug came into being late in the 20th century when in fact the generic form of the drug, oxycodone, has been around for at least 50 years. In its earlier stages it was prescribed under the brand names Percodan and Percocet. But it's the same stuff. At the end of the day all Sackler really did was fine tune the delivery system with time-release capsules.
5
@Allen Lewis
Percodan and Percocet have indeed been around for years — at a single dosage, 5 mg oxycodone. In later years 10 and 15 milligram pills were also manufactured. OxyContin is available now at dosages up to 80 milligrams. And up until a few years ago there was a 160 milligram— that is not a misprint or typing error on my part — dosage pills.
Astonishing that such a dosage was approved by the FDA. It was removed from the market after people started dying. This pill had the equivalent of 36 (!) of the ‘Percs’ that I remember from my youth .....
2
Technically, any hospital that displayed those "happy" and "unhappy" face rating scales to measure pain is partially culpable. Ditto for the doctors who tried to reduce that pain. And what of the patients who were helped by this medication?
It's not quite as clear cut as people want to believe. It seems obvious that one's personal animus towards drug manufacturers could easily cloud one's judgment.
7
@AACNY
No every doctor who prescribed these opioids in not technically culpable.
2
@AACNY
The Sacklers bear the greatest blame for their cynical promotion of their billionaire-making nightmare drug. To try and diminish their guilt diminishes the lives that were extinguished in such a grotesque and painful manner. This is no time for Whataboutism.
3
OxyCodin was promoted to doctors as non addictive. My question is how did Purdue and the Sacklers get away with that for so long or even make the initial claim? I assume a percent of physicians were giving it as end of life pain medication but the rest? The negatives must have been seen fairly early on.
34
@poslug . The entire Sackler family's history of making billions from marketing pharmaceuticals should be investigated, not just its role in OxyContin.
13
@Edwina Simmons
Edwina Percocet contains oxycodone rather than hydrocodone. Your point, though, remains valid.
6
@poslug Quinones reports in "Dreamland" that it began with a misreading of an article in a medical journal when a doctor wrote that his research proved that, in a medical setting, opioids were not addictive so long as the patient was in pain. Reportedly, once the pain was lessened or alleviated, the desire for the drug would disappear. The part about "a medical setting" was somehow overlooked, and the drugs were immediately advertised as non-addictive. I had personal experience with this in 2001. Suffering from a case of widespread shingles followed by post-herpetic neuralgia with crippling pain, my doctor prescribed opioids over an extended period. When I expressed fear that I would become addicted, he replied, "No, you won't become addicted so long as you're in pain." (I was lucky and escaped addiction.)
17
This is where libertarianism fails. We need more regulation not less. The idea that the market will regulate itself ignores the pain and death that occurs before that happens. Government should have been there, stopping this before it happened.
477
@Donald Hullerman Yes indeed the government should have been there.
However, when the politicians, many career, that sit in the Congress of the United States, are beholden in some manner to big businesses it is best for those politicians to not bite the hand that feeds them.
Then, in more recent times we have a "president" who is bent on deregulation which will result in the consumer being exposed to laissez faire marketing strategies.
61
@Donald Hullerman This is ALSO where regulation fails. OxyContin was approved by the FDA, remember?
4
@Donald Hullerman They were there. They not only helped start this madness, but they approve all imports of raw opiates. Ask yourself why it’s illegal to grow poppies for opiate manufacture in our country, why must it be imported. Who profits off that?
8
I wonder what the ramifications could be for this case. Prescription medicines often present a variety of unwanted side effects, some worse than what they're treating in the first place. The pharmaceutical corporations know this. After sending their well dressed minions to doctors' offices to push their latest goods, will these corporations eventually be held accountable for the ramifications of what some of these chemicals do to people?
17
@Mickey
There are plenty of individual cases that support the use of these drugs. People who live with chronic pain and rely on measured opioid usage are only now starting to tell their stories.
As automation and outsourcing eliminate employment opportunities for the least educated among us, predatory pharma is there to provide a deadly palliative for kids whose lives lack hope of a brighter future.
Heroin is readily available for those who, once hooked, can no longer afford store bought drugs.
The CDC reports that there are 13 million Americans abusing opioids and heroin with the largest group being those aged 18-25 years. These numbers are rapidly rising.
Gen Z - those aged 4 to 24 number 74 million in the US. This generation is on the verge of being literally decimated by drug abuse.
Sure, lock up the Sacklers. Take their money and spend it fighting opioid abuse. But we need to do so much more.
93
We can blame Purdue all we want but they weren't the only opiate manufacturer or even the largest. There is something deep in our nation's contemporary cultural fabric that seems to want to avoid all pain in life. Pain was deemed a Fifth Vital Sign by health care regulators and CMS which runs Medicare (complete junk in retrospect). Doctors were dinged on patient satisfaction surveys if patient's pain were not fully controlled. Administrators in the 1990s and early 2000s decided that pain was something to be avoided at all costs and that doctors were not empathetic enough toward their patients' pain.
Everyone shared blamed in this epidemic, to the very core of our nation's culture. Blaming it all on one scapegoat in Purdue is too too easy.
108
@Jonathan
I don't believe anyone is blaming it exclusively on the Sacklers, just as no one blames Bonnie and Clyde exclusively for the phenomenon of bank robbery. But their conduct in pursuit of money was certainly a prime mover, in fact "thee" prime mover, in the epidemic, and they deserve severe punishment for that behavior.
18
Jonathan, I disagree.
While the promotion of pharmaceuticals is complex (I know from personal experience: I worked in pharmaceutical advertising for a couple decades), the buck starts and stops with the manufacturer, who orchestrates the marketing and sets it in motion.
14
@Jonathan we can and should treat pain in the acute setting of hospitals. It’s when stupid prescribers dole out never ending supplies on discharge and by general practitioners who are not pain management specialists. Doctors themselves through their greed were just as complicit.
3
Wow, just Wow.
5
Yet another grim example of greed destroying lives.
42
@Beach dog
Exactly, and if the rest of the elite 1% were examined as thoroughly, there would be dozens more.
2
The Sackler family is no different than El Chapo. They belong in jail and their fortune should be used to help people off drugs as well as a national monitoring program of dispensed drugs that flags stores with high volumes - everyone knows where the high volumes are- why don’t they do something to stop it?
298
@Deirdre Do you really think any one of them will ever see jail time? Oklahoma just let them off the hook.
3
@Deirdre
they absolutely belong behind bars. but they are rich and white, not poor and brown or black.
17
Everyone of us is entitled to an attorney but I wd like to know the names of the attorneys/the law firms representing these people. All the donations to museums and cultural institutions cannot and will not erase the tragedy and devastation these members of the Sackler family have unleashed across our nation. And to know that they likely knew the addictive potential of this stuff and still kept pursuing and promoting it makes me absolutely disgusted. And I cannot even begin to imagine how the families of those who lost loved ones to this addiction might feel this morning after reading this. Time to name the attorneys, publicists and all others who are enabling this group of thugs and goons (& all the donations to museums & perfectly coiffed hair are not going to change that these people are thugs and goons).
& Vogue, “rose in the desert” and now this? Really Ms. Wintour...
52
Compare Pablo Escobar and Richard Sackler. On Wikipedia, Pablo is a “Colombian Drug Lord” and Richard is an “American Businessman”.
Apparently, it all comes down to a label.
633
@Kristen: Let us in the pursuit of fairness and justice be careful, at the same time, not to deny the need for pain-relief -- for example post-operative -- for those for whom it is indicated. I can recall being denied quarter-grain codeine plus aspirin following surgery by overzealous nurses. It was only when I called my surgeon and had him pull rank that I was afforded the pain relief that I needed. Not everyone is in imminent danger of becoming an addict, and many of those cannot obtain relief from Tylenol. I was more than happy to give up the codeine when I could.
11
@Kristen
No wonder so many Americans think a pathological fraudster is a great business man.
Once upon a time, your word was your bond, and we had myths about Washington not being able to tell a lie, and Lincoln walking miles to return a penny. Now greed is god, and anyone that doesn't lie for money is a "loser."
Get your moral compass back America. Hint: you can't find it in a book. It comes from your own conscience and your own heart.
25
@Kristen Right on the mark, thank you
5
I am not convinced. What about rum and whiskey distillers? Are they responsible for alchoholism? Or tobacco growers responsible for lung cancer? What is the relationship between the procduct and the vice?
11
@Anon
Rum and whiskey, and tobacco are not prescribed by medical professionals as far as I know.
43
@Anon so correct. Plus what about all the informed/educated Dr's that write the prescriptions? The FDA approved the drug--why not sue them?
8
@Anon To answer your question, they are all responsible at some level because their products are addictive, some more than others, and they know it. The cumulative death toll and suffering is huge. The interesting thing about the Sacklers is that they have been so ruthless about exploiting the severe addictive properties of their drug in order to sell more of it.
29
This is what happens when we all start worshipping money, and revere those who have more of it.
The Sacklers have an addiction themselves: greed.
520
@Richard Waugaman
Absolutely, and how much money is enough?
13
@Carol F
When the greed addiction is out of control, apparently no amount of money is ever enough. There's always somebody else who has more, and that feels absolutely intolerable.
20
@Carol F, for some, Billions are not enough?
2
During the first round of litigation a decade ago, the three top officers of Purdue (CEO, General Counsel and Medical Director) took the fall. They resigned in disgrace and paid significant fines, as is appropriate. (I am familiar with the circumstances of one of them: he still lives a very comfortable life.)
Did the fact that the family remained untouched embolden them? Did they feel immune from the crisis they caused? Do they care?
78
Maybe some prison time is in order?
4
@Cousy
Pharmaceutical executives in general don't care. They rarely have to "take the fall". Instead, the company - if caught in too many headlines about the number of deaths and their outrageous behavior (similar to what the Sacklers have done here) - pays a large fine and goes on to business as usual. Said executives go on to become members of presidential administration cablinets, governors of states, presidents of universities. Done and done.
1
Good Lord! What hath greed wrought?
I can see why museums, charities, and the like are back away from the Sacklers as fast as they can.
13
One can only hope our legal system is up to the task of punishing this avaricious family so devoid of any sense, even the tiniest shred, of morality. They no doubt believe throwing a few crumbs at some big name museums makes it all OK. They need to be treated as the criminals they are.
18
Some people are above the law.
Some “democracies” are glorified get-rich-quick schemes under a rigid caste system.
@John Binkley
Wait.
Are you taking about the Sacklers or our current Republican administration in Washington?
1
Enjoy your money Sackler family.
My grandson's addiction started with OxyContin. It ended in a cemetery.
Your a wonderful giving family, giving a death sentence to thousands that is.
376
@Don Siracusa
I am so so sorry for your loss of your precious grandson. 😢
15
Do you think they care? If they cared they would not have done it in the first place.
4
How do the Sacklers sleep at night? Does the family lack a collective conscience?
Someday they will be eternally confronted with the poor souls of all their victims.
1
seventh largest opioid sellers. What about the other six? What is their story and culpability?
175
@Kate
Here's one making news today.
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/01/707958698/insys-therapeutics-pushed-opioid-with-bribes-and-lies-prosecutors-say
There's no end to the horrors some do to make money, even when they don't need it.
It's a deadlier disease than cancer.... for them and for society.
27
The Sacklers are typical of Trump's one percenters: their value system is all about making money and incidentally stepping on the faces of the little people who pay the taxes. By offering addictive controlled substances to the hapless sufferers, they reckon with the captive nature of their market with total complacency. Soon the Sacklers and their ilk will realize that the rule of law in America remains far more powerful than the chains of opioid addiction that they have assiduously forged...
9
Asbestos, tobacco, and now opiods.
It's obvious the Sackler family cares only about its own wealth.
The family is like The Family in "The Godfather."
When the latter family decides to flood poor parts of cities with addictive drugs, one of the family members says, "They're animals anyway. Let them lose their souls."
Let me alter that quote slightly to apply it to the Sackler family:
"They're animals anyway. Let them lose all their money."
12
@scrim1 It's not the same as asbestos and tobacco, because asbestos and tobacco don't treat any known medical condition.
There are conditions (often rare) where this category of medication is the last-resort difference between normal life and total disability. I know because I've had one my whole adult life.
I will say I'd be totally fine with this family losing all their money, though.
1
At every single turn, the Sacklers sought to deceive and profit from their false claims. They have irreparably destroyed countless lives, and for that, this should go beyond monetary damages and involve jail time.
As a society, we can not continue to let the powerful and greedy dictate the terms of our survival.
764
@Suzanne Moniz
This will be wildly unpopular, but the Sacklers were within their legal rights to protect themselves legally. To impugn them for this is irrational.
3
@AACNY - Hitler was within his legal rights when he sent millions of Jews to their death, I don't think your argument holds up.
The actions of the Sacklers were morally reprehensible and skirted laws to perpetrate a massive and deadly fraud which afforded them grotesque profits.
To not impugn them for this is irrational.
53
@Suzanne Moniz - How about every other industry that produces a good someone can abuse? The nanny state prevails. Personal responsibility and common sense need to play a part in this as well.
3
The hype around this issue is bordering on hysteria. Will we next see stories about the Bronfman or Busch family's role in the alcoholism crisis, since both families were obviously aware of the risks of alcoholism as they continued to push and profit from the sale of their respective alcohol brands?
At least there is a legitimate therapeutic role for Oxycontin and unlike Seagram's 7 or Budweiser, a supposedly well-educated professional has to actually prescribe it to you. No amount of Sackler family scheming could create a direct-to-consumer purchasing of Schedule II narcotics.
This has become a literal witch hunt that ignores any doctor culpability, a terrible combination of Calvinistic moralism and hate-the-rich, with actual consequences to people who use these drugs responsibly and therapeutically.
12
@Mobocracy
A friend of mine who is recently retired and was a palliative care physician told me that it wasn't the drug itself but the number of pills in the prescription that helped create the problem. When 8 or so pills in the couple of days after a minor surgery could alleviate the pain, a physician was often encouraged and "incentivized" by the drug company to instead prescribe a 30 count refillable course. From reading the article one can see how the pressure to the physician was applied. All in all a sad situation for thousands of people, and most who overdosed started with a legitimate prescription for a drug that effectively relieved pain.
12
@Mobocracy
I am going to repeat what I said in earlier response.
Alcohol is marketed as a recreational consumable. People choose to use it at their own risk. The downside of abuse is well known.
People who are prescribed opioids by doctors who they trust, for the treatment of pain are not taking the drugs for recreation or pleasure. They have limited choices for chronic pain relief in order to function as productive human beings. The deceptive practices that the Sackler family engage in to market and distribute their highly addictive drugs has led to the destruction of countless innocent lives and families. The Sacklers deserve to lose everything they have gained through the suffering they have caused.
Comparing them to distilleries or breweries is a false equivalency.
42
@Mobocracy But as has been mentioned many times, we have no evidence that Seagram's or Budweiser actually raised the alcohol content of their products like Perdu raised the dosage of Oxycontin, or that Seagram's and Budweiser are now making money off of recovery the way the Sackler's are. And neither alcohol nor tobacco can be prescribed by a doctor. So I don't think it's an exact analogy.
6
The picture accompanying this article provokes an image that I think is apropos to what this family has done. The building, resembling a prison and the chain-linked fence where we are unable to see the razor wire at the top. Unfortunately, none of these people will see the inside of a prison. They will pay tens of billions of dollars (from their hundreds of billions of dollars) to the states as each of those states's AG drops the criminal charges in a quid pro quo for the much needed cash to treat the effects of the opioid crisis in their respective states. They will receive a stern lecture by the criminal justice system as they walk away with their remaining billions of dollars to live a life of obscene luxury while having to suffer the indignity of having their name removed from some art museum. Sadly, we have seen this scenario played out repeatedly. Just switch out the Sacker name and Purdue for any of the other dozens of corrupt CEO's and company board members of companies that have behaved criminally. Practically all walked. See the example of the banks and the bankers that perpetrated a massive fraud and not only walked unscathed, they walked WITH their bonuses. Meanwhile, some guy in America, selling loosies in front of a bodega is having his life choked out by the same criminal justice system for breaking the law. If you don't think there are two criminal justice systems in this country just watch what happens in this case. It will confirm what we all already know.
277
@FXQ, yes you hit the nail on the head. Justice for the 1% is a fine and justice for 99% is jail.
7
@FXQ Massive fines AND prison sentences need to be handed out to the despicable Sacklers for multiple counts of fraud and manslaughter.
2
The Sackler family's actions once again demonstrate the amorality of unregulated capitalism. The ONLY concern for them is how to make more money. Their company knowingly creates a highly addictive product, and then sees an additional profit opportunity "treating" that addiction. It's evil dressed in fine clothes, congratulating itself at philanthropic galas.
Every member of the Sackler family who was involved in these decisions should be required to do community service in opioid addiction treatment centers for the rest of their lives.
102
These pain meds are critical for patients and it seems that those who abuse the drugs now control the market.
While this family may be held responsible for some of their company's poor choices, so should those who abuse the drugs.
These painkillers alleviate pain for most of us at one point or another - and are a godsend when they are used properly.
Where is the real problem? Who do we blame? And who pays the price?
All of us. We are all responsible. For the choices we make, including an American culture that we've created where corporate profit making is wanton, and personal instant gratification and victim-hood is highly reinforced.
7
@HopeReality check just tip of iceberg of poisons killing people. Look tabbaco is still killing people an making millions sick dont even smoke. Not even concidered a food tabbaco but it is ingested by millions. People have choice here we can vote out stupid or we can blame those who let this continue t o happen. Our society needs to educate our children not just dangers but dangers from us who fail to protect them.
1
@Hope "company's poor choices". Knowingly killing thousands and making life hell for millions is a "poor choice"?
"Pain relief to an 18 year old boy who suffers from a sports injury." I think we all fear a child or relative gets addicted to this stuff and their life is over in a flash. This family has purposely and knowingly let parents bury thousands of young children. It is time for some punishment to end the cycle.They will not lose all of their money. But they should be shamed into forfeiture through the Courts.
4
In two procedures, I declined an addictive pain killer and antibiotic. The surgeons were astounded.
Facts. Implant in Brookline, Massachusetts. Hand surgery at UVM in Burlington. Each practitioner is well trained and ethical.
The implant to replace a failed root canal in Brookline was successful without antibiotic, using a mix of Tylenol and Advil.
The hand surgery went off well in the same manner.
Asked why, I cited antibiotic misuse and my own Microbiome. I mentioned mild pain meds and ice that would deal with discomfort.
My surgeons were surprised. Neither surgeon evidenced a willingness alter course. Patients ask for systemic antibiotic and Percocet or OxyContin. Our surgeons are risk adverse. It is easier to oblige than to fight with the patient.
I will provide the names of each surgeon to The New York Times. I will ask each to discuss my case with appropriate release. I will go on the record.
An email to this affect will be sent to each reporter.
Habitual misuse of drugs... for systemic infection and intense pain... is industry wide... and habitual.
Criminalising makes sense at some point, however our best are trained to use antibiotic and massive pain meds to address systemic infection and acute discomfort. I see no criminal intent whatsoever, no mens rea. Education must come first.
Medicine, patients, society and journalism alike must be re-educated to the facts. Pain meds are dangerous and may make pain worse.
Antibiotic misuse will sicken.
10
@S B Lewis. Pain was deemed a Fifth Vital Sign by health care regulators and CMS which runs Medicare. Doctors were dinged on patient satisfaction surveys if patient's pain were not fully controlled. If you want to blame someone, blame the administrators who in the 1990s and early 2000s decided that pain was something to be avoided at all costs and that doctors were not empathetic enough towards patient's pain.
16
Pain was declared the fifth vital sign due to AstroTurf citizen/patient groups organized by pharmaceutical companies like Purdue
8
@S B Lewis
Recently started the implant process. Oral surgeon insisted on pain treatment using Tylenol/Motrin. I was skeptical, but he assured me it would have the same effect as an opioid. It was even better because it wasn't as short lived and didn't have the unpleasant mind effects.
7
4 years ago, after breaking a jaw subsequent to an op that eliminated a lot of bone, I was put on oxy. Wonderful stuff -- it made ridiculous pain easily bearable. Stopped after 4 days when the pain subsided to tolerable levels. Never felt a pinch of addiction! Kept the remainder of the prescription for the next episode of pain. Bless Purdue and the people who created oxy. Why should I suffer in the future when lowlifes can not control themselves. If not oxy they will resort to something else.
18
@gd Considering that the Sacklers' companies distributed surprising amounts of prescription painkillers amid a rising epidemic of abuse that has killed hundreds of thousands of people nationwide, while knowingly engaging in fraud and deception to cover the problem and their role in it, is a major issue which you fail to understand.
When I met a nephew who I had not seen in years recently, he told me of more than a few of his high school classmates having died from these drugs. I was appalled and now I know now how this could so easily happen.
Where I now live, doctors generally prescribe very little of these drugs simply because they know the dangers of addiction and are not pressed to do so.
24
@gd
Oh wow! Could this possible be part of a PR campaign on behalf of the Sacklers?
20
@gd
There is an argument to be made for these pain meds. It's a compelling one. It just hasn't broken through yet.
1
A class action law suit needs to happen that will provide help and compensation to victims and their families. This company promoted this pain medication as being less addictive and heavily promoted it to the medical community.
84
@Kuhlsue
While I understand this sentiment, I doubt this will be successful as a class action, which law is highly structured and compels all kinds of evidence to the contrary so to speak.
2
@Kuhlsue - Any type of class action will provide ‘help and compensation’ mainly to the trial lawyers running the late night infomercials. The mass tort bar sees Purdue Pharma as the deepest of pockets and the opioid addiction crisis as a way to cash in.
2
@Kuhlsue, We did this with Big Tobacco. Governments and lawyers made millions, and no one was made whole. I don't disagree with you, but criminal penalties must be brought forth and applied strongly if we are ever going to make real changes. Seeing every member of the Sackler family stripped of their ill gotten gains, along with long jail terms for those who made these horrid decisions, is the only way to start from here. Heck Bernie Madoff only stole money, and he won't ever have a free day for the rest of his life. The Sacklers killed thousands of people and destroyed many more lives. So far, they have only paid $270 million in penalties. Bernie would have laughed at that for a penalty.
1