Tag Archives: Purdue Pharma

Families Rally for Opioid Accountability as Supreme Court Hears Purdue Case

“I don’t want their money,” one woman who lost a son to the opioid crisis said of the Sackler family. “I want them in prison.”

By Julia Conley. Published 12-4-2023 by Common Dreams

Family members who lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic rallied at the U.S. Supreme Court on December 4, 2023 to oppose a bankruptcy deal that would allow Purdue Pharma to avoid liability for the deaths of millions of people from opioid use disorder. 
(Photo: @aneripattani /Twitter)

At the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, families whose loved ones are among the tens of thousands of Americans who have died of opioid use disorder each year over the past two decades rallied to push the nine justices to reject a proposed bankruptcy plan that would give the former owners of Purdue Pharma legal immunity—with many joining the U.S. Justice Department in arguing that the company should not be released from accountability for the opioid epidemic.

Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in 2019, as the number of Americans killed by opioids hit 50,000 and the OxyContin manufacturer faced thousands of lawsuits alleging its aggressive marketing of the addictive painkiller had fueled the rising death toll.

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Big Pharma Exposed for Knowingly Causing Opioid Epidemic, Ushering in a Heroin Nightmare

By Claire Bernish. Published 5-6-2016 by The Free Thought Project

Photo: Iowa DPS

Photo: Iowa DPS

Big Pharma created the legal opiate addiction epidemic and its outgrowth, rampant heroin abuse, because pharmaceutical corporations’ own addiction to profit arguably trumps any concern it may have had for patients. Though the accusation may seem harsh, the evidence has never been more apparent thanks to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times — which presents a scathing condemnation of the company behind the notorious painkiller, OxyContin.

Two decades ago, Purdue Pharma began marketing OxyContin — a chemical cousin to heroin — with the claim its 12-hour “smooth and sustained” dosing would revolutionize the treatment of pain. However, the claim is not only problematic in that its duration is often hours less than promised — leading patients to experience symptoms of withdrawal — but Purdue knew that before the painkiller ever hit the market. Continue reading

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