Justice Dept. and Prosecutors Are Said to Have Disagreed on OxyContin Case

[babylonsister]

Justice Dept. and Prosecutors Are Said to Have Disagreed on OxyContin Case

By BARRY MEIER
Published: July 31, 2007

Federal prosecutors may have differed with their superiors at the Justice Department over how aggressively to pursue fraud charges against the maker of the narcotic painkiller OxyContin, two lawyers who were briefed about the case say.

Those lawyers, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the case, said that higher-ups within the Justice Department appeared initially to favor a less aggressive approach to the case against OxyContin’s producer, Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn.

But by last fall, when plea negotiations involving the company and its executives ended, the prosecutors handling the case appeared to gain the upper hand in pushing for more serious charges, including ones against company executives, those lawyers said.

The plea agreements, under which Purdue Pharma and the three present and former executives agreed to pay $634.5 million to settle charges related to deceiving doctors about the abuse potential of OxyContin, will be the subject of a hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Because federal prosecutors did not recommend jail time for the executives involved, the Purdue Pharma plea deals have been criticized by some drug industry specialists as well as parents of young people who died in OxyContin-related overdoses.

In accepting the pleas this month, Judge James P. Jones of Federal District Court also expressed some displeasure at the lack of jail time but said that his hands were tied by the charges brought against the executives and the terms of the agreements.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/business/31oxy.html?ex=1343534400&en=a74dd1b13416c369&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[indepat]

1. The rule of law and equal justice under the law done been bushwhacked:

the politicization of the executive branch of government is ubiquitous.

[flashl]

2. This drives me nuts!

Especially, when reading reports that minorites are FIVE times more likely to be sentenced on drug charges. I recall reading stories about the impact of oxycontin on rural communities since 2000. Purdue Pharma had a twelve year drug run addicting thousands, earning Billions, suppressing generic sales, hiring the likes of Rudy Giuliani to protect them, and they got a slap on the wrist. But, somehow, we are suppose to look at stats recently reported about individuals imprisoned to measure the success of the 'war' on drugs. What a joke.