Charge them with mass murder.
200,000 deaths and counting. These murderers have ruined a generation of children and the fall out to their families and the state of our nation has yet to be tallied.
Treat them as the mass murderers that they are
10
I was surprised at the way my heart soared when I saw the photo of a guy in a suit in handcuffs.
12
Mr. Doud is a small and symbolic fish compared to the Sacklers. C'mon, government - hit up the big fish as well. And, while you're at it, end the egrigious advertising of prescription drugs. No more "Ask your doctor".
11
Too bad Rush Limbaugh's conviction for 'doctor-shopping' in 2003, he got his hnads on 2,000 opiod-based OxyContin pills from four different doctors during a six month period, didn't become a hair-on-fire-moment.
Limbaugh's 'getting off easy' will always cause me to wonder how many hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of families could have been spared their loss of a loved one if only we'd stop coddling rich, white people.
Minorities get 'sent up' for way less, always have and always will. And I hate it.
16
The government has to go after opioid/ OxyContin makers, distributors and the entire supply chain. That includes Drs. , pharmacies & Street dealers, period. Opioids kill people daily and have killed hundreds of thousands of people. Killing is a crime. There’s no need to intellectualize the fact that the Sacklers are criminals
6
They are pushers, plain and simple. They worked to create a demand for their product, so they could profit from addicted
people. So what if they’re corporations? Still just drug kingpins.
If it was crack cocaine like the 80’s, we’d be falling all over ourselves to arrest them and throw away the key. Why should this be different?
7
@Jean Fellows Our Supreme Court has indicated that corporations are individuals. As such, is it not then appropriate to send the corporations to Texas and have them sentenced to the death penalty?
10
The statement that prescription opioids have “taken” 10,000 lives/year. Average, over 20 years is used by the author and the CDC without context, and, is therefore a shock number without meaning.
*What was the number and rate of death in previous years?
*What percentage/numbers came from illegal pharmacy sales or “writing doctors”?
*How many suicides? Homicides? Accidents?
*How many cases involved: addicts? Self-medicators with real pain problems? Self-medicators suffering opioid-inappropriate conditions, depression or anxiety? “Recreational” users (looking for a high, rather than escape from pain, and, of those, who obtained their medication legally or illegally?
When did wide-scale testing begin on non-basement-level socio-economic-status deaths (deaths involving white mid/upper class folks where many coroners were, 2 decades ago, willing to cover up drug-involved/suicide deaths “for the families”)?
Without an answer to the last question, we don’t even know if we have a new “crisis”, or one newly reported - for the same reasons the number of reported sex crimes increases annually, with no reason to believe the number of sexual assaults has changed.
What has changed is the attitude towards people like me - injured on the job 20 years ago, surgery and non-drug pain therapy failed, who are being told they don’t or shouldn’t need pain relief because others use the same drugs illegally or because the work ethic says we should ignore our pain and get on with things.
Please stop.
3
It’s about time. What took do long? The fact that the criminals are not black but white?
7
After reading some of there other comments and scanning the article I suspect Rochester is not a publicly held company. From reading the story it doesn't mention whether Doud had an equity ownership of it as well.
I suspect that he does but even though 1.5 million dollars is chicken feed to those in corporate America. Even though I was a stockbroker for 25 years I know little about private companies that produce and distribute products in America.
As I recall there used to be a public company called Cardinal and Merck was lauded in the 80's for buying something called Medco but I think they got the temporary boost and spun it off. With as much money to be made as basically being the middle man between the producer and the ultimate seller
I guess Doud at 65 figured this was his ticket to the big league.
And if he didn't get on the gravy train someone else would and they would not be in the top 10. I admonish the FDA and CDC for not catching wind pf this crisis much earlier. Sometimes when Federal and State governments are overwhelmed in the 2008-15 period of financial chicanery they lose focus on other matters equally important.
Physical and mental health of its citizens must be considered a priority and include input from the medical community, hospitals and insurance in order to get through this crisis. I would hope that by shining the light on these alleged scoundrels it will bring some meaningful reform to this situation. BB
3
Am I the only one thinking that a non-prosecution agreement to settle a criminal case against RDC arising out of a failure to adhere to a previous good conduct settlement of a civil case, is bizarre. Forget the 20 million dollars. No fine will ever deter further illegal behavior by this company or any other. Money is the sea they all swim in: make it, lose it, it's all the same. The only hope for real change is criminal prosecution of CEOs and other very high-level executives, and the threat of years behind bars. Otherwise we're playing on their home field. Even if we win, we lose.
13
It’s about time. Pharmaceutical companies have been literally getting away with murder and finally something is being done. Just about everyone in this country knows someone who overdosed on pain pills or heroin. The countless thousands of innocent citizens who got hooked on pain pills for years while the drug companies made a fortune.
4
Hopefully the next step in our efforts to end the opioid epidemic will be to develop rational treatment plans for opioid addicts rather than threatening them with prison. The war on drugs is both a sham and a failure. Let's learn from Portugal's successful approach to reducing drug addiction.
2
At first, I thought yeah typical America; citizens becoming hopelessly addicted and dying and someone’s got to pay. Then I read on. What a disgusting act of betrayal, theses drug companies were making millions legally, and it still wasn’t enough. The cost to the American public is simply too high, send these opportunistic bloodsuckers to jail FOR LIFE.
2
Silly..scapegoating distributors...it will do nothing in terms of demand for opiates. People choose to abuse drugs. What about personal responsibility? No credible evidence that opioids are any more or less addictive than caffeine or nicotine, or whatever your drug of choice...too bad articles like this shut down thinking.....on to the next epidemic...prosecutors should target chocolate makers...can't stop myself....
@Edward LOL @ your comment that "people choose to abuse drugs." Don't even know where to start with educating you on that. Nevertheless, crimes of omission are a thing when you have a duty to act. Opioids are a Schedule II drug, meaning they are regulated differently from chocolate & caffeine. If you have issues with how addicting chocolate is, maybe lobby your congressperson, and let the rest of us in the comments know that goes....
3
All you have to do is sent one to prison.
1
What about Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family? Are they going to get away with their crimes just by paying fines?
6
The real criminals are the doctors that run pill mills and over prescribe medications.
4
No, the real criminals are the patients that lie to the doctors to get narcotics, and then use them to get high, and then want to blame anyone but themselves.
It happens all the time, patients lying. But if I say no, I get a bad google review. If I say yes, then it’s somehow my fault for alleviating pain.
In real life, it’s all on the patients.
I say this also as a patient myself for 9 surgeries, having used narcotics correctly each time without difficulty, following my own doctors’ orders.
Sorry to burst your false victim narrative.
4
@Doctor Clearly James said "doctors that run pill mills," not "all doctors." If you don't run a pill mill, then James' comment has nothing to do with you.
2
@Doctor
Please, spare me. You have to be ready for drug seeking patients. Doctors are supposed to be the responsible adults who make tough decisions.
1
Overdue but good news. Clawbacks of obscene exec compensation should be part of this. Go get the big three.
3
Addiction is on the addicted. No one takes the medication and shoves it down the person's throat. We do not make people accountable for their decisions and when we don't the problems get worse.
My son was addicted to drugs and would use any means necessary to get them. Whether prescriptions or illegal on the streets, he would get them. He can sit down and tell you exactly what to tell a doctor to get the prescriptions he needed. However, after they started publishing (for doctors) what drugs a person has gotten and when they got them, doctors were better able to find and weed out the addicts. To blame the companies and the doctors for someone's stupidity is just wrong. Many people need these prescriptions to have any kind of normal life. To punish these people or the doctors will take these life saving medications away from those that need them.
4
Corporations make huge donations to Buy the politicians with outrageous campaign contributions then the Courts gets stacked. When we as citizens expect the right thing to happen do we now send the corporations who decimated our country with the opioids to prison? The politicians are going to have to decide whether it is big money or sending big money people to prison like everyone else and grow a spine.
2
Great start. Let's keep locking up these sociopath criminal drug lords. We should also ban all TV and media advertising of pharmaceuticals. Europe doesn't allow it. We should make pharmaceutical lobbying illegal. We should end pharmaceutical rep visits to doctors and hospitals. Let doctors figure out the best medicine without financial incentive.
4
Those who continue to profit from maintaining opioid abuse should be punished. We have pharmaceutical companies who fail to provide pertinent information on the drugs they distribute, doctors who exploit addicted patients, and those who sell illegal drugs. These are all forms of drug dealers who should be charged as such.
1
He "knew" they were being used and sold illicitly. What's that about? What did he know and how did he know it?
I still put the blame squarely on the abuser. I know its not popular to blame the victim, but lets face it, they were ABUSING the drug. Any drug can kill you if abused! All drugs have that potential, but not all drug make you feel the way opiates do while they are killing you. Opiates are as safe as any other drug when used under proper supervision and monitoring. Prescription opiates have to be used correctly, but these days no one wants to listen to the warnings coming from the doctors or pharmacists. No one wants to keep naloxone on hand. Insurance carriers will gladly pay for opiates then deny payment for naloxone, now that is criminal as far as I'm concerned. Everyone involved wants to do the safe, correct thing, but "Big Insura" stands in the way. We need to step back, take emotion out of the equation and look at this problem logically.
@Brenda
Talk to the 200,000 families of folks who have died due to the Sackler Epidemic and have lost loved ones over the last two decades. Tell them to 'take emotion out of the equation" and let me know how it goes.
2
Criminal charges, handcuffed "perp" walks, and serious prison time for these acts and many others: tax evasion, bribing officials, perjury, etc. etc.
The boardrooms would be half empty and the prisons would be an interesting place...
Fines, no matter how high, just get passed to the shareholders, but true punishments.
Kudos to prosecutors willing to do the hard work to make these kinds of cases and to make them stick!
If this is an appropriate way to deal with street drug dealers, it is certainly appropriate for the suppliers.
2
Deferred prosecution and a fine. Just the cost of doing business. They’ll be back doing the same thing once no one is watching.
At least a couple executives may go to jail (probably not). Nice to see them in handcuffs though. Would have been nice to see some bankers in cuffs during the financial crises.
1
" The company had admitted in the civil case that it had for years failed to report thousands of suspicious opioid orders from pharmacies, many of which flouted order limits and catered to doctors who ran pill mills."
Have all those Doctors who ran Pill Mills gone to jail ?
If not, Why is America allowing these Drug Dealers to kill so many people by their criminal acts and doing so without bringing them to trial?
6
What they and other companies have done is twofold. They helped to create a crisis and that crisis has led to a government crackdown that can and will hurt people who truly need the opioids for pain relief. All of these companies ought to be heavily fined and their executives jailed. If drug addicts are jailed for trying to get the drugs they need to survive the executives who created the conditions for that need should share in that punishment.
Drugs are a two edged deal. We've learned that with antibiotics. It's a shame we didn't learn it with painkillers. As always the ones who will suffer the most are those who need the drugs and those who became addicted and had their lives ruined. I do hope the money from the fines goes to helping the victims.
4/23/2019 7:05pm
8
Drug companies are happy to pay those fines, which are peanuts compared to what they
make with the sales of opioids. They just turn around and start selling. They need to be charged with manslaughter or wrongful deaths.
25
CEOs of drug companies who break the law spreading addiction and suffering should be prosecuted just as drug pushers are, do the crime, spend the time. Show us that the judicial system is fair for us all.
16
Most Excellent! It is passed time all pharmaceutical companies learned they are Not exempt from the law and must pay the price for their actions.
6
About time! Better late than never. I also hope that this action will be followed by many similar ones, as the RDC is only one of several organizations that engaged in such activities. I wonder if the DEA will now also move against the "Big Three" distributors.
7
"“We made mistakes,” I wonder if that excuse works for Mexican drug cartels, biker gangs or street dealers. And if they get to keep on dealing after admitting guilt.
16
Don’t forget the Sackler family and their personal push to expand Purdue’s market share for their opioid drugs regardless of the human body count. Pierce the corporate veil!
19
Its never the abusers fault, The one actually putting the pills in their own mouth.
@KWH. The story is a lot more complex than your comment suggests. Yes, some who eventually became addicted used oxy and similar pills to get high. However, there are also many who got hooked by taking these pills as prescribed for pain, and then found themselves hooked, i.e. getting dopesick when trying to stop taking them. The activities of the RDC contributed to the addiction crisis by making a mockery of laws that attempt to better monitor prescribing practices and catch pill mills. That is why they are now, finally, under indictment.
9
@KWH
Doctors usually mean well, but when they prescribe a drug they seldom warn patients of the possible side effects. They leave it to the patient to read the printed sheets that the pharmacist delivers with the drug.
How do I know this? Personal experience.
3
“We made mistakes,” No, you committed crimes. Knowingly. BTW, where's a Sackler in all of this? Eh? Ain't it about time to nail a Sackler--or two or ten? Or do they have too much M-O-N-E-Y??
36
People like him never, ever do the time they deserve to do.
12
I don't know what to think about this. RDC gets charged but Purdue Pharma does not?
8
Still....the largest contributor to the crisis is 'illicit fentanyl'.
3
It was a customs and border patrol agent that singled me out for prosecution, to defend the sole proprietorship of profiteering in the sales of E.D. drugs, for Eli Lilly, and Pfizer. Although there was a federal courthouse 9 miles away from my home, they charged me in the Houston TX jurisdiction. Unable to fight the case so far from home, I pled to have the case brought home. When the U.S. government wants to make a criminal out of you, they will spend any amount to do so. Now divorced, broke, and homeless, this felon is struggling to survive. Why? The U.S. government needed to make an example out of me for importing a heart medication I needed for my angina, the original intent of treatment for the drugs before they were re-marketed for erectile dysfunction.
To read about how the government is now going after a wholesaler instead of the pharmaceutical company itself, will give everyone the general concept of how imbedded the pharmaceutical companies are with our government, and the politicians who are in their employment.
7
' TIMOTHY ROSS ESTABROOK ' Google that name, and discover for yourself that the agent who built the case against me spent $78,000.00 of taxpayer money to buy ready to dispense pharmaceutical drugs from China, in order to criminalize me for prosecution, as I blindly drop shipped the packages to the agent as a favor to the Chinese student who helped me secure my heart medication.. I have to repay that money to the pharmaceutical companies involved, I had never commited a crime in my life other than this offense.
There is no justice involved.
1
This is a great example of unbridled greed. When the love of money overrides the knowledge that your actions may be killing people, there has to be laws, monitoring, and very painful consequences. Most businessmen (women) would never purposely harm another person, but for the few, that are willing to put profit ahead of the lives of others (like falsifying mine safety reports) the must be severe criminal penalties.
Fines do not deter criminal activity, because it is the stockholders that take the hit, since the execs have already banked their bonuses!
5
It would be nice to see these same criminals charged for vaccine deaths & faulty products. NYTimes PLEASE do some investigative reporting in this arena. People all over the world are being vaccine injured. People with allergies, like myself, are making informed decisions based on the ingredients & being ostracized for making these decisions.
2
@A. Kindly provide a source for your claim of people all over the world being vaccine injured. Preferably one which uses validated, confirmed cases. Thanks!
1
@A
You vaccine deniers, will they "do time" for the next epidemic they cause???
1
@A Research the use of mercury aka thermiosol as a preservative in vaccines. It is the mercury that causes injury to humans. Other countries (Sweden for one) for a time made illegal the vaccine for whooping cough based on infant deaths and the risk of the vaccines. Since that time in the 80's, newer vaccines have been developed without the preservative of mercury. Check with you doctor with any vaccine to find out what the preservative is in the vaccine. The fear of vaccines didn't just materialize out of no where - there is a basis for it.
"We made mistakes". What a joke. These companies knew exactly what they were doing it and doing it for the money. Period. It's time to throw some people into prison for involuntary manslaughter and send a loud message. People say we need "responsibility" amongst doctors and pharmacists. But people are willing to overlook a lot for millions of dollars a year. Suspension of licenses and disbarment from trades. Jail time speaks very loudly. Some careers need to be ruined, CEOs need to go to jail. In todays America fear of prison is a better choice than fines for enforcement.
11
I'd like to see the more accurate fatality number which would include heroin and fentanyl deaths of people who's addictions originated with prescription opioids. Number would be much higher.
7
This is why Mitergy, LLC, which has finally identified a Parkinson's therapeutic, will not have a CEO who is strictly dependent on quarterly reports. That and their golden parachute. So sad.
1
It seems a double standard, and a very bad precedent, for RDC to avoid severe consequences yet again for their criminal behavior.
RDC didn't make mistakes! Other drug organizations like them are brought down with guns blazing and with life sentences in super-max prisons. There are many of more of these companies still out there; is this the justice they'll face for contributing to 200,000 deaths? To paraphrase: some people kill you with a six gun; some with a fountain pen.
4
Even with more than 200,000 dead, the obvious priority of government is to be “business friendly“. Many rot in jail for far less while the master puppeteers continue to reap huge profits.
Maybe this time we’ll elect a leader who will once and for all engineer campaign finance reform to end the stranglehold of special interest on our government.
15
Are you kidding me? A deferred prosecution? As a criminal defense attorney - I have kids doing 25 years in federal custody for 10 grams of coke. This Rich Man's Privilege is wrong.
34
Had the DoJ employed the same determination and tactics to Big Tobacco, the asbestos industry, Monsanto, and the NRA, millions of lives would have been saved. And we would not have to do it today.
7
Good news for the moment but the big three distributors referenced in the article, Cardinal Health, Mckesson and AmerisourceBergen need to be given the same treatment. I am looking forward to seeing their top executives in handcuffs.
And then there is Perdue Pharma and the evil Sacker family. This is a good first step but all of these companies need to be treated like the drug kingpins they are.
10
I would appreciate it if articles like this included the worth of the company, or the amount that the company made over the years in which misconduct or criminal activity took place, in order to get an idea of how hefty the fine really is. Fines that sound like huge sums of money to regular people are but a drop in a bucket and the cost of doing business for corporations. Please give us some sense of what the real amount means. It would help people like me understand if the fine is indeed punishment, or the wink, shrug and business as usual "justice" that has taken the place of justice in this country.
5
Now go after the manufacturers of pill making machines for the home grown distributors, which are made primarily in China. Available in Walgreens ,Amazon for a few hundred dollars. What are they there for. If legitimate, license them.
What would happen if even a few of these big wheelers and dealers were actually charged and imprisoned like common street drug dealers? Or how about a homicide conviction? Why does an expensive suit make them any different from street drug dealers?
34
This company has already promised to do something and broken it’s promise. Let’s ignore that and enter into another agreement with them. Of course they have to pay a fine and allow themselves to be monitored because they actually can’t be trusted to follow the law unless monitored. And what about the big three players who apparently devised systems to get around the rules. That means they knew what they were required to do and decided not to do to it. For them, a “signal” is appropriate. We are deeply committed to the rule of law and we will take steps to coax companies to obey the law and if they don’t we will shake our finger at them.
4
Once again the company gets away with the crime. A fine is a small slap on the wrist. Sure, two executives are being prosecuted, or so it appears. But, if the government really wanted to send a message they would hold the company criminally liable, thus driving it out of business. Instead, they keep going. If it was small company this would be the end of it. The banking world is full of corrupt enterprises that go on to thieve another day, like Wells Fargo and HSBC. These company connections assure they never held to account. The same thing is true in the pharmaceutical business.
23
Are prescribing doctors responsible, too? Or, were they tricked by the distributors?
2
Are they really attacking the problem, or are they looking for a payday from an easy mark?
And what about the millions who have benefited greatly from the availability of highly effective pain relief?
10
@Dave C They are looking for a payday from an easy mark.
3
I blame the doctors and patients who collectively engaged in reckless behavior more so than I blame the pharmaceutical companies who were simply seeking profit.
The nanny state/regulators will ALWAYS be one step behind the tragedy. What we need is personal responsibility - doctors, patients, nurses, educations, hospital administrators - not a few fall guys to make an example of corporate greed gone wrong.
1
@Johnny but there were checks and balances on the pharmacies giving drugs for doctors and the distributer brazenly assisted in hiding instances where doctors were breaking those rules. This is literally the only step in the process the government can watch because individual perception data is protected by HIPPA.
20
@Johnny
Are you saying that doctors are not permitted to seek profit?
Just asking. I don't see the difference between doctors seeking profit and drug companies seeking profit.
What about people who privately resell their meds? Is it OK for them to seek profit?
How about bootleg cigarettes? Unregistered firearms to convicted felons? Defective merchandise that can kill the purchaser or a member of their family? Mobsters selling protection? It is ever NOT OK to be seeking profit? Where do you draw the line?
Personally, I don't think profit is a good reason to hurt people. Clearly, you disagree. I am not a libertarian.
4
I think they also need to go after the price gouging in the drug industry for making lifesaving medications too expensive for the people that need them, therefore they are killing people with diabetes, seizures disorders and many other illnesses.
23
If I recall correctly, there's a town in West Virginia that has a population of about 400. Over the years over 9 million opioid pills were delivered to that small village. Hmmm. Everybody there must REALLY have been in serious pain -- or maybe something fishy was going on.
42
GOOD. They don't care about the consequences of their involvement. Just the bottom line.
17
About time.
28
Oh Holy Day. Too many lives have been lost because of greed.
19
it's about time! Hopefully this doesn't stop here
17
I first saw the control that drug companies had upon those whom they feign to help years ago when working as a young hospital RN. There has always been and continues to be an insidious cooperation between these companies and too many hospitals and physicians. Let us not fool ourselves: Drug companies are the lords and masters of a seriously flawed health care system. Has anyone among us not seen on TV the marketing of cure-all medicines? Has anyone not listened to the adverse side effects re said drugs? In too many cases, they cause more problems than those which they contend to help. Don't get me wrong, We need medicines to treat, heal, and cure. But there is no room for corruption and greed in this equation.
53
@Kathy Lollock, you are so right. We need effective medicines but we don’t need to pay double what the rest of the world pays because of greed and light regulation. And the constant misleading advertising has made television basically unwatchable.
17
@Kathy Lollock, I'm not at all sure why advertising is allowed for drugs when it requires a medical professional to prescribe. Something is wrong when these companies spend such effort on marketing. Why not spend that on developing new drugs and educating medical professionals in the right uses.
30
@SWLibrarian Corporation have free speech rights. Corporation are people too.
4