If proven, there must be some massive jail-time for the corrupt executives who contributed to the deadly opioid epidemic.
The Massachusetts Attorney General is alleging that the Sackler Family – who run Purdue Pharma – knew that Oxycontin was dangerous and causing opioid deaths, but kept pushing for more and more sales.
According to the lawsuit, the billionaires behind Purdue Pharma not only kept pushing the opioids, but actively tried to deceive doctors and patients about the danger.
At one point, during a ‘launch party’ for Oxycontin, a member of the Sackler family allegedly told people that the opioid would lead to “a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.”
Unfortunately, that greed appears to have led to tens of thousands of people being buried after overdose deaths instead.
(the lawsuit can be read here)
The scale of the alleged crime is so large, that it is being referred to as “a manmade disaster.”
And it gets even more sickening.
According to the lawsuit, as the Sacklers became aware of the horrific toll and danger of Oxycontin opioids, they devised a media strategy to pin the blame on the victims, demonizing them as “abusers.”
“The complaint alleges the Sackler family, which includes major donors to museums including the Smithsonian Institution, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Tate Modern in London, was long aware its drug was dangerous and addictive but pushed more sales anyway.
A memo among family members in 2008 warned of a “dangerous concentration of risk” for the family, the complaint says.
Years earlier, Richard Sackler wrote in an email that the company would have to “hammer on the abusers in every way possible,” describing them as “the culprits and the problem.”
The company even threatened to fire salespeople if they didn’t hit their sales quotas, and kept pushing for more and more sales – despite knowing the danger and being aware of the mounting death toll.
In response to the lawsuit, Purdue Pharma said they would “aggressively defend against these misleading allegations.”
If this is proven true, then there must be severe consequences.
The Sacklers would need to be stripped of their money, and massive jail sentences imposed on the guilty. A ‘corporate fine’ against Purdue Pharma wouldn’t be enough.
If someone deals some drugs, they can get in huge trouble. So shouldn’t selling a bunch of dangerous drugs out of a sense of sick greed while knowing that the drugs are dangerous come with a huge punishment as well?
Let’s hope justice is served.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
