‘Catastrophic Injustice’: Judge OKs Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Plan Shielding Sacklers

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From Common Dreams: “In a bench rulingĀ delivered overĀ several hoursĀ on Wednesday, a U.S. judge approved a Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan widely criticized forĀ givingĀ the Sackler family immunity from civil lawsuits related to the company’s drug OxyContin and and profiteering that critics say escalated the nation’s opioid epidemic.

‘The deal grants “releases” from liability for harm caused by OxyContin and other opioids to the Sacklers, hundreds of their associates, as well as their remaining empire of companies and trusts,’ NPRĀ explained.

In a statement condemning the development, Rick Claypool, a research director for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen,Ā said that ‘allowing the billionaires at the root of the opioid crisis to walk free while thousands of its victims are in prison is a catastrophic injustice.’

‘Purdue Pharma is the reason the Sackler family are billionaires, and after today’s settlement they will remain billionaires,’ Claypool continued. ‘The greed of some Sacklers fueled an opioid epidemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans, gripped millions in the claws of addiction, devastated communities across the country, and cost over $2.5 trillion.’

The researcher noted that ‘meanwhile, on any given day, 450,000 incarcerated people are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes.'”

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3 COMMENTS

  1. No justice in America today. Upside down and backwards, America. Gosh, I painted that painting 16 years ago – after being unable to find a lawyer to sue doctors who committed easily recognized malpractice – and covered up their malpractice by prescribing a ‘safe pain killer’ (‘dirty opioid’) and ‘safe smoking cessation med’ (mind altering antidepressant), et al.

    And next to no doctor I dealt with, in America, for the past several decades was supposedly aware of the mind altering effects of the opioids or antidepressants. Thankfully the head of family medicine at the Cleveland Clinic had a brain in his head, understood what anticholinergic toxidrome was, and had me teach his students. Although he’s no longer at that hospital.

    But is there still any question that America has a “just us” legal system, not a “just” common law system today? Did I use those terms correctly? I’m still trying to understand the criminality of today’s US legal system.

    http://annavonreitz.com

    Nonetheless, ā€˜Catastrophic Injusticeā€™ is unacceptable. What happened to my family was recently silenced by a female writer, after she admitted I’d dealt with ‘extreme abuse of power.’ But what she seemingly didn’t understand is these are systemic problems in America today, ‘extreme abuse of’ almost all Americans, not just my family, so silencing me was unwise.

    We need a return to common decency and the rule of law in America today. We do not need a legal system that only protects the wealthy and criminal drug dealers, doctors, lawyers, pastors, bishops, government officials, bankers, and pedophiles. But that’s what America currently has.

    Pardon my disgust at the ā€˜Catastrophic Injusticeā€™ going on in America today.

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    • I’d imagine there’s been a lot of ‘free money’ generated from the opiod crisis by people who could easily predict its potential – and have now moved on.

      Theres now probably several more Pharmaceutical Scams in the pipeline – so nobody’s going to go too hard on the ‘creators’.

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  2. As is readily evident by the surge in opioid overdoes deaths despite the no longer in existence Purdue Pharma, et al, the “root of the opioid crisis” is not the Sackler family, and to demonize them only serves the insure the crisis continues unabated. The “root cause” is pain. Not just body pain, but mass psychological pain. Mass societal pain. Keep blaming a pill, and you insure increased deaths. Idiocy.

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