Massachusetts AG: Family Behind Oxycontin Is Responsible For Opioid Epidemic

by | Jan 28, 2019 | Headline News | 45 comments

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    The Massachusetts attorney general has declared that the family behind the drug Oxycontin is responsible for the opioid epidemic ravaging the United States.  Purdue Pharma and eight members of the Sackler family who own the company, are being accused of personally starting the opioid crisis by deceptively selling Oxycontin.

    According to CBS News, MA attorney general, Maura Healey alleges the Sackler family hired “hundreds of workers to carry out their wishes.” Those wishes included pushing doctors to get “more patients on opioids, at higher doses, for longer, than ever before” all while paying “themselves billions of dollars.” In her lawsuit, Healey names eight members of the family that own Purdue Pharma, alleging they “micromanaged” a “deceptive sales campaign.” In the conclusion to the complaint, Healey said the Sackler family used the power at their disposal to engineer an opioid crisis.

    About 400,000 people died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The opioid epidemic is also being blamed for the drop in life expectancy in the United States that has been falling since its peak in 2014. On average, about 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.

    “They don’t want to accept blame for this. They blame doctors, they blame prescribers and worst of all, they blame patients,” Healey said. Purdue Pharma, on the other hand, called the accusations “a rush to vilify” the drugmaker. Healey also said that Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family are “one and the same.” There’s a lot in the lawsuit that’s still redacted, and lawyers for Purdue plan to argue on Friday that it should stay that way, reported CBS News.

    In a statement, Purdue Pharma said the lawsuit “distorts critical facts” and “cherry-picked from among tens of millions of emails and other business documents.” In one such alleged instance, then-president Richard Sackler devised what Healey describes as Sackler’s “solution to the overwhelming evidence of overdose and death,” writing in a confidential email, “we have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible. They are the culprits and the problem.”

    Massachusetts’ amended complaint irresponsibly and counterproductively casts every prescription of OxyContin as dangerous and illegitimate, substituting its lawyers’ sensational allegations for the expert scientific determinations of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and completely ignoring the millions of patients who are prescribed Purdue Pharma’s medicines for the management of their severe chronic pain.

    In a rush to vilify a single manufacturer whose medicines represent less than 2 percent of opioid pain prescriptions rather than doing the hard work of trying to solve a complex public health crisis, the complaint distorts critical facts and cynically conflates prescription opioid medications with illegal heroin and fentanyl, which are the leading cause of overdose deaths in Massachusetts. Throughout the complaint, the Commonwealth disregards basic facts about Purdue’s prescription opioid medications…”- Purdue Pharma to CBS News in a statement

    Massachusetts is one of 36 states now suing Purdue Pharma. The states are accusing the company of deception in downplaying the dangers of OxyContin. In a 2007 federal settlement, the company admitted to falsely selling the drug as “less addictive” than rival products and were therefore forced to pay $630 million in fines.

    Because of the highly addictive properties of opioids, CBD oil is fast becoming a replacement for expensive and dangerous drugs like Oxycontin.  Studies have found that CBD oil is effective for treating neuropathic pain, arthritis pain, anxiety, sleep disorders, and depression. “I’ve had some patients that have been able to get off some of those pain medications, which they hated taking,” said pharmacist Ira Katz. “It has no addictive properties and far less side effects than do a lot of the prescription pain medications.”

    And you get the added bonus of staying out of the increasing drama between government and Big Pharama regarding the blame game for the opioid epidemic.

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      45 Comments

      1. Is this family the evil white able-bodied Christians we all know are the devils minions?

        Get your spin on!

        • Ira Katz?

      2. This one guy whose life was saved by prescription pain meds. When I had cancer 25 years ago, the pain was so intense that I was contemplating suicide. My doctor finally gave me a prescription for pain, and it allowed me to endure until I had my operation.

        These government clowns lump ALL overdoses on prescription drugs, leaving out the real killer…street drugs laced with fentynal (spelling)?

        • Finally, someone speaking some sense about opioids. Oxycontin has it’s place. It is very effective with chronic, severe cancer pain, and other types of severe pain when short acting meds are not effective. To characterize all use of these medications as abuse, when the vast majority of it is used appropriately in appropriate situations, is just ignorant of the truth.

          What Purdue did was lie to doctors about oxycontin’s potential for addiction, telling them that it was less addictive than other opioids, when they knew that its addiction potential was greater. They also told doctors that it’s appropriate to prescribe oxycontin for post-op pain, which it most definitely is not. This resulted in doctors around the country prescribing oxycontin for short lived, relatively mild pain (like after surgery or fractures), resulting in 10K people becoming addicted to opioids.

          Prescribing oxycontin when short acting drugs no longer control serious pain is totally appropriate and effective. If, God forbid, you get cancer too… you’ll be grateful for oxycontin, if it’s the only thing that keeps your pain under control.

          BTW, the correct spelling is fentanyl (good guess though)… which is also a God send for people who are dying or have chronic pain. The manufacturer did not develop it to be scraped off of the patch and smoked, or crushed and mixed in with heroin. If people are going to be stupid… then they will die.

          I’m going to say it again… if the government cared about heroin addiction in this country they would shut down the CIA’s poppy fields and arrest every one of these corrupt agents that are bringing this @#$% into the country. Just because they are government officials doesn’t mean they get to break the law, even if they are given this assignment by the superiors to raise money for their black ops. The government is full of hypocrites. If I know about the CIA’s dirty deeds, our government officials absolutely do too. But, they idiotically blame the heroin epidemic on oxycontin, and the mass media runs with it to keep Americans looking everywhere but where the problem actually is.

      3. Street people were oftentimes able to identify the more-dangerous opiates and use them, knowingly, which is informed consent.

        What they don’t tell the reader is, while fentanyl and carfentanyl were in the news cycle, they were prepping sufentanyl. Either, you will have to forbid an entire useful class of drugs, or you’re going to be playing whack-a-mole, trying to litigate every new analog that comes out.

        • You’re right. They would have to ban all opiates, natural and synthetic. Scientists simply rearrange the molecules in the formulation and they have a new synthetic. This is what happens in the clandestine labs in China. As soon as the government bans one formulation, they switch to a new one.

          The same can be said for the synthetic bath salts and synthetic marijuana here. The DEA can’t keep up with all the new formulations in order outlaw them.

          They need to stop wasting money on the drug war. The government makes bank on both ends. The CIA runs the poppy fields and distribution networks on the front end and the local costumed clowns and Justus departments run the enforcement and prison on the back end.

          • They actually are effectively banned here in my town. One company owns the hospital and almost all of the doctor offices in town. They have ordered the doctors not to prescribe opioid medications to anyone.

            I am in constant pain, the doctors can’t prescribe pain medication, I can’t take NSAID pain medicine, and the other alternative is Tylenol which doesn’t work on me.

            My local drug store is now selling hemp oil. I think I’ll have to try it.

            • Never mind about the hemp oil. I thought it was the same thing, but it’s not.

            • Sounds like Rheumatoid Arthritis. Have you tried sumac berries? That has the HIGHEST level of antioxidants on the ORAC scale.

              Treat the disease, not the symptom.

              • ht tps://www.superfoodly.com/orac-value/sumac-bran-raw/
                There is also sumac bran which is a totally differnt plant.

                This is not medical advice.

                • Opiates and their lookalikes can be sourced in the free market.

                  vxxQS5LJi9w

              • ht tps://www.superfoodly.com/orac-value/sumac-bran-raw/
                Sumac bran is a differnt plant but has the most known antioxidants.

      4. “falsely selling the drug as ‘less addictive’”

        biological half-life?

        They’re telling you something, which might be objectively true, were it not for self-discipline.

      5. How stupid,
        Thats like holding Henry Ford responsible for automobile deaths,,,
        Democrats are the dumbest birds

      6. The FDA had to approve these dangerous drugs. The public are guinea pigs and anything goes that makes money. Look at the constant drug ads on tv and the possible outcomes mentioned, many of these claimed remedies are deadly. “We warn you these concoctions could lead to death.” The federal government backs big pharma to the hilt. Also backs GMO poisons in our food. Shyster government at its finest.

        • Yea,,, fed gov
          Buncha maroons
          They allow all this crap then want to fine me for my cat walking through my fields under the new food safety laws,,,
          They can blow me

      7. Is there Kennedy in there Blood.

      8. How about some personal responsibility? Oh I get it, that’s old fashioned and just annoying common sense.

        Well, when I have had horrible wounds and broken bones, I only very very briefly too pain meds, and refused any further.

        Adopt a stiff upper lip and develop some backbone. Unless you have cancer and intractable pain, then grow a pair.

        • Medical researchers did a study on back pain. They looked at patients who had a variety of vertebra issues and with spinal discs that were bulging (herniation) or ruptured. Both sets had impinging on the spinal nerves.

          Half of the patients complained of back pain, the other half did NOT. The latter half were well aware of their back issues but managed the pain without medication.

          Figure it out.

          • I have been told that I have some mildly degenerative issues with one of my lower back lumbars. Occasionally, and thankfully not all that frequently – I will do something that will aggravate this condition and as anyone who has ever had back pain problems – there is no equal to how effectively back pain can neutralize your ability to do ANYTHING.

            So far, I have been able to avoid surgery (which could make the problem worse), and I’ve gotten over these occasional flare ups by using lots of heat, sometimes ice packs, and just by taking it easy for a week or so. I have also learned to be extra careful when exercising – cutting out those exercises (crunches, sit-ups, etc) that can cause flare ups and induce stress on those lower back muscles. I am also very careful about bending over to lift heavy objects – which is easy to mitigate with a $30 dollar portable dolly from your local hardware store.

            It all boils down to the famous line from Clint Eastwood in one of his Dirty Harry movies: “A man has to know his limitations.”

            • Typically it’s L1 or L2. The spinal disks bulges and rubs against the nerve. And if you have a belly, that counterweight puts terrible pressure yanking against the natural curve so creating an artificial tension.

              Docs hate giving cortisone as yeah, temporarily it helps reduce the inflammation, but then harms the nerve.

              I have never met a single soul who had vertebrae fused who was satisfied. Surgery can be a laminectomy to take a hunk out to reduce rubbing on the nerve but weakens structural integrity.

              Did you try a TENS unit? Those are cheap and help a lot of people. Originally orthopods experimented with electronics for bone stim to accelerate bone growth. Now TENS are used for pain management.

              Lots of folks end up sciatica so if that is the case, those triangular pillows help so impingimg on the nerve is reduced. A plain old small pillow between the legs and sleeping on one side tends to reduce nerve pinching between the vertebra.

              • With dehydration in older folks, the spinal disks frequently are the first places that are underhydrated. That means if you aren’t drinking good water, it shrinks and cause more abrasive rubbing. The disk is a fluid filled spacer. So if that shrinks, you get bone on bone rubbing. You should drink water based on heat and low humidty so obviously wintertime is very very dry. Pinch the loose skin on the back of your hand and if it doesn’t immediately smooth out, you are dehydrated.

            • Naproxen was the standard with back inflammation but you can’t take it long term. You can take two as a “loading dose” to quickly get the drug into.blood circulation, then just one as directed.

              A lot of people like “moist heat” and alternate with ice packs. You take a sock and fill it with kitty litter which is typically clay. Or you can use rice. Then briefly microwave it. It then radiates moist heat and that seeps into the inflammed area. The ice reduces inflammation and mildly deadens pain.

      9. This story will be forgotten in 48 hours.

      10. The key words are use and abuse. The difference is weather or not you die or it helps. The Chinese that came over to work on the railroad brought opium and had opium dens. Shits been around forever it just depends on the person. Not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic. ..use /abuse

      11. The weakest link in this chain is mercantilism, or the middleman.

        It’s a respiratory depressant and cumulative poison, though I am not suggesting any mattress tag warnings.

        Allow the consumer to work this out, for himself, say, at point-of-sale, over the counter.

        Let that vendor, with the insatiable greed of a hungry ghost, with his own addiction, engage with any kind of clientèle he wants, irrespective of their self-discipline.

        I think that the false dichotomy or the paradox are just a failure of logic. All problems have a way of taking care of themselves.

      12. Acupressure massage is a deep massage using acupuncture points on the body without the needles. It has been used in China for thousands of years to reduce pain.

        Leaving dead teeth in the body which have no blood supply due to a root canal causes liquid gangrene which in turn causes many painful conditions including arthritis, alzheimers, Cancer,heart attack. So common is heart attack caused by dead teeth that jaw pain is considered a symptom of a heart attack, but without acknowledging that the jaw pain is an indication of the actual root cause of heart attack.

        The Sacklers are not alone. There are many guilty parties in a genocidal conspiracy.

        Read Eustace Mullins book “Death By Injection”.

        .

      13. As usual, libtards blame everybody but the people misusing the drug.

      14. I really get tired of this crap;
        “Studies have found that CBD oil is effective for treating neuropathic pain, arthritis pain, anxiety, sleep disorders, and depression.” list your sources!!!!
        Some anecdotal information is good, but everyone is better served if they get facts and data.

      15. In TCM, hemp seeds are harmful, if germinated.

        Most everyone is looking for some timestamp or benchmark, at which point, eternal vigilance can be relaxed, and they can surrender their agency.

      16. Red flag here:

        Purdue Pharma said the lawsuit “distorts critical facts” and “cherry-picked from among tens of millions of emails and other business documents.”

        BUT

        There’s a lot in the lawsuit that’s still redacted, and lawyers for Purdue plan to argue on Friday that it should stay that way, reported CBS News.

        ?

        Anybody who doesn’t make the connection that big pharma is part of the plan for ‘de-population’ – under Agenda 21, 30, NWO, ad nauseum – has their eyes wide shut. Or just dang stupid.

      17. Sounds like Rheumatoid Arthritis. Have you tried sumac berries? That has the HIGHEST level of antioxidants on the ORAC scale.

        Treat the disease, not the symptom.

      18. The most painful cancer is panacreatic as it causes fat in your body to get assaulted by disgestive enzymes which turns them sorta into soap. It’s a horrifying death and intractable pain. Bone cancer is similarly extremely painful.

        Otherwise rheumatoid arthritis is terribly painful.

        In studies on pain management, researchers found that as the length of time increased with patients’ suffering pain, the ability to discriminate and accurately assess pain levels was abbreviated. In other words, the pain was so constant that instead of a scale from 1 to 10, the patient started thinking 1 to 4. That pain sensation being so abbreviated makes the sensation of pain worse than it actually is.

      19. Persistent sedation has many side effects. It depresses the respratory system and heart rate. So the patient gets poor gas exchange of carbon dioxide out and adequate oxygen in. The lowered heart rate means inadequately perfusing every tissue with nutrients and removal of cellular waste is diminished. The immune system is severely compromised.

        In spite of the pain, if it’s an injury, you want to strength the supportive tissues like the scaffolding of the skeleton and enhance the limber quality of the ligaments and stretch and enhance the muscles. But sedation directly reduces the desire to exercise. Plus it HURTS…so the patient avoids it as much as possible.

        If it’s an injury, physical therapy and occupational therapy is what limited tools you have to facilitate recovery.

        • Businesses create goods and services to sell and seperate your wealth from you.

          Name a business that doesn’t do that.

          A quack negliigent uncaring physician could prescribe an addictive drug to patients and they be hopelessly trapped and would be breaking the Hippocratic Oath.

          Have some personal responsibility. No drug cures you. Drugs enhance the immune system or supportive interconnective systems or mute pain. Drugs routinely treat symptoms not causes because we are not clever enough to figure out how to make a drug that BOTH cures and motivates patients to adopt personal responsibility.

          Patients routinely fail to take drugs as directed so of course they won’t work. It’s nuts.

          Patients get depressed and won’t exercise and eat garbage. No drug can remediate that self-sabotage.

      20. Is a prostitute making you intentionally addicted to her?

        How about porn companies? Is it their fault or is it your fault you watch it?

        How about bakers? Are they intentionally making addictive desserts or do you have weak will and have become a glutton?

        How about casino operators and racetrack owners?

        How about Wall Street?

        How about female empower magazines?

        How about the manufacturers of sports cars?

        How about perfume makers? Nail salons? Expensive boutique retail clothing shops? Shoemakers?

        How about butchers? How about restaurants?

        Get a grip and be more disciplined.

      21. WzsgSGH_1A4
        Staghorn sumac is ubiquitous, free, has many uses, and is a power antioxidant and hence anti-inflammatory.

        Double check that it does not interact with your medicines and is safe for you based on if you are pregnant or not.

        I take zero medicines. I have zero health problems. If I lift too much weight or do something stupid in the yard, I might a couple of times a year take a naproxen. That is it.

        And that is after quite a bit of exercise when I was younger. There were times I exercised 2-4 hours a day besides wrestling and rock climbing. I always thought running was terribly boring unless a pretty sweet lady was running along side me.

        • Running is essential to develop when young,but those crazy people who keep doing it seriously just whale the tar outta their knees. They look sick when the cross the finish line. They have back problems and shin splints and all kinds of food injuries like stress fractures.

          Then I see people who have no business on the treadmill, just pounding on it while overweight. Gosh just use the eliptical instead.

          • foot injuries

      22. Mark,
        This is only a small part of the story. The outrageous part of the story is that in 2001 Purdue paid JACHO (The Joint Commission) a “grant” to “improve pain outcomes for patients”. JACHO then allowed Purdue to develop and implement that program, meaning they allowed Purdue reps to go into hospitals as representatives of JAHCO and “educate” (sell) doctors on their product. This does not absolve Purdue of lying to doctors about the addictive nature of oxycontin, but JACHO was found guilty by Congress as being responsible for the prescription drug abuse epidemic as well. JACHO needs to be included in this lawsuit as well.

        The story doesn’t end there, because in 2009 Sanofi (who has the largest market share of flu vaccines in the US) paid JACHO a “grant” (bribe) to “improve health care worker compliance with flu vaccination”. JACHO stressed that Sanofi had no part in developing or implementing this program, but what difference does this make? When someone hires a hitman to kill they are both guilty of murder.

        JACHO is corrupt and needs to be held accountable, which they won’t be… Congress investigated them several times for conflict of interest and nothing was done. They still get to tell hospitals what to do, and their reputation has not been tarnished at all, despite their roll in what people believe (because they are told by the media) sparked off a massive opioid epidemic.

        Which leads me to the real reason for the opioid epidemic: the CIA’s farming program in Afghanistan.

      23. Nothing will happen to this family. Nothing. Their name is Sackler. They are Jewish.

        • …ewski?

      24. Half of all pain in patients could likely be treated very effectively by very intimate massage coupled with actual-intercourse.Stressed out people feel depressed and isolated and so are very cognizant of their pain which lowers the threshold they can withstand.

        That is common sense. A patient with back injuries requires an understanding partner and daily massage. That can improve your marriage.You likely have to modify the methods of intimacy though so the act itself doesn’t cause pain.

        Never ignore the healthy benefit of a nutritious satisfying meal to de-stress. It shoukd be loaded with diverse antioxidents to reduce free radicals that are negatively affecting inflammation.

        • Load up on inexpensive green tea which is an anti-inflammatory and vastly improves mental clarity. Add quite a bit of FRESH ginger root as long as there are no contraindication. That is a very potent anti-inflammatory. Do what is inexpensive first to promote well being.

          A major component of pain management is de-stressing and rewiring the brain that has been too used to daily pain.You get brain fog and it makes you more aware of pain. You need a fresh healthy positive outlook.

          Eat a handful of thawed frozen blueberries as that is the least expensive way to eat them and these are extremely healthy low cal antioxidents. If you like them sweet, add a little agave syrup. That agave is where tequila comes from. Agave has a low gycemic index.

          And honestly, if you have old errors you made that you feel guilty about ie sins, then talk to your pastor and pray together. Let that crap go. I don’t see anything in the Bible about dwelling on old sins. You pray for forgiveness and YAHWEH says that as far as the east is from the west, the sin is removed. Only Lucifer wants to keep hammering you and accusing you of old sins.

      25. ht tps://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/back-pain-what-you-can-expect-from-steroid-injections

        If you have persistant back pain, you may discuss getting a cortisone shot. Typically they will send you to a doc who specializes in this. Most people get genuine temporary relief which then allows them to do some exercise. They do not want to make it routine as it can cause damage, but is generally safe.

        So maybe once every year or two you can ask for that. It can dramatically lower your pain so you can taper down on pain meds.

        Professional athletes who have to keep doing heavy physical labor will often use an annual cortisone shot in joint areas. You generally have to agree to do exercise as a condition of getting one so that you strengthen the region because docs are reticent about administering them.

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