Why I'm rejecting the Purdue Pharma settlement

[RainCaster]

Yes, this is in the WaPo, but I have a subscription, so I do not know if this will be hidden behind the paywall or not.

This was written by Maura Healey, the AG for Mass. My attorney general (Bob Ferguson, WA) is also rejecting the laughable settlement offer from the Sackler family. I'm hoping this will help other states to rethink settling.

Last week, Purdue and the Sacklers offered terms for settlement. Together with 24 of my fellow attorneys general, I said no. The main reason is simple: It doesn’t hold the company or its owners accountable.

Our case against Purdue and the Sacklers is based on years of investigation, sworn testimony, death certificates, prescription records and thousands of internal company documents that Purdue kept secret until we brought them to light. We uncovered a scheme designed to get more patients on opioids, at higher doses, for longer periods of time. That scheme put patients and families at risk so that the Sacklers could pocket billions of dollars. In recent months, the voices demanding accountability have grown. Twenty-five other states and hundreds of cities and counties have brought their own lawsuits against the Sacklers. At courthouses across the country, families have organized, bearing the photos and stories of lost loved ones.

The Sacklers would like us to believe that as part of the settlement they’re cutting a check for billions of dollars. They’re not. After ravaging communities across the country and making billions off OxyContin sales, their proposed settlement likely wouldn’t require the Sacklers to pay back a dime of the money they made from Oxycontin sales over the past few decades. Instead, they’re offering payments generated from future sales of OxyContin, as well as an estimated $3 billion from the sale of their company Mundipharma. It’s a ploy that’s offensive to families who have lost loved ones to this epidemic.

We have to ask ourselves, if we want real accountability for this wrongdoing, where should the money come from? Should it come from future sales of addictive and deadly drugs, as Purdue has proposed, or should it come from the Sacklers themselves?

[Docreed2003]

1. Purdue needs to be held accountable

I've mentioned this many times in other threads but I can vividly remember the "lunch and learn" talks we got from Purdue Reps when I was in Med school about how OxyContin was going to change pain management therapies and that, even at high doses, the medication was "non-addictive", or so they claimed. This would have occurred in 99-00 and even then we knew that smelled like total BS, mainly because OxyContin was selling for 10 buck a milligram per pill on the streets of Memphis at that time.

Screw them. They knew what they were pushing and they need to be held accountable.

[captain queeg]

2. My brother in law was an RN back then and he used to tell me

When you take opiates when you are in a lot of pain you respond differently and don’t get high. Even back then I didn’t think that sounded right. I remember when I got my wisdom teeth out and I was high as a kite. But he was parroting what he’d been told.