The Opioid Crisis: A Sackler Family Affair
“In exchange for a $6 billion dollar payment from the Sacklers, the arrangement would block future opioid lawsuits targeting them.” The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a deal that would have limited future damages to the family behind the deadly opiate crisis. So this is a good time to refresh your understanding of just how damaging that family business has been. The latest show on the topic is a Netflix series starring Matthew Broderick and called PainKiller. And some great reads on this topic include: Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain (the definitive work on the Sacklers and an amazing history of how drug marketing started and thrives). John Temple’s American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic. And Eric Eyre’s Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic. Of course, all the content and lawsuits in the world don’t seem to be able to make a dent in the problem.
The Sacklers, dressed to impress in their fancy suits, are fucking high-class drug dealers. Treat them like any other dealer: charge, convict, and throw ’em behind bars.