OxyContin and Opiod Addiction

Members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, and the company itself, agreed to pay up to $7.4 billion in a new settlement to lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller.  The deal replaces a previous settlement deal that was rejected last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Under the new proposal, like the previous one, members of the Sackler family would give up ownership of Purdue.  In West Virginia, the epicenter of the opioid crisis, Attorney General JB McCuskey agreed to the deal but had harsh words for the company and its owners. “While West Virginians’ lives were being destroyed by opioid addiction, the Sacklers were cashing in every time someone got hooked — getting rich with no regard to the toll their drugs were taking on people, families and our communities,”. A Michigan woman in recovery for 17 years, said she became addicted to opioids after receiving a prescription for OxyContin to deal with a back injury 23 years ago. She praised the deal. “Everything in my life is shaped by a company that put profits over human lives,” she said. The deal, which still needs to be approved, will provide funds to support addiction treatment, prevention and recovery programs. The new settlement could bring to a close a chapter in a long legal saga over the toll of an opioid crisis that some experts assert began after OxyContin hit the market in 1996.  Since then, opioids have been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the U.S. The deadliest stretch has been since 2020, when illicit fentanyl has been found as a factor in more than 70,000 deaths annually. While the settlement will not bring the family financial ruin (they are worth billions), members of the Sackler family have been cast as villains and have seen their name removed from art galleries and universities around the world because of their role in the privately-held company.  They’ve continued to deny claims of any wrongdoing. It's good to see that, at least occasionally, there are consequences for putting greed and power over compassion and care for our fellow Americans. 

Here's the kink: Purdue Pharma, Sackler family members reach new opioid settlement | AP News