OxyContin 10-19-2017

19, October 2017                                OxyContin

Who Profits from the Opioid Crisis? An in-depth investigation by Esquire Magazine reveals the ultra-secretive Sackler family, owners of the company that invented OxyContin, downplayed the risks to generate huge profits. More than 200,000 people have died from prescription drugs since OxyContin was released in 1996. The ultra-secret Sackler Family is making billions from OxyContin.

Compounding the crisis, Congress undermined efforts to restrict the flow of pain pills that have led to tens of thousands of deaths. The Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis has said, “America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks.

The drug industry lobbied heavily to win passage of a bill that weakens the DEA’s ability to control opioids, contributing $1.5 million to its 23 congressional co-sponsors virtually gutting the Controlled Substances Act.

The Sackler family, like so many other oligarchs, gained social acceptance, becoming huge art collectors. 

They gained a foothold in the medical advertising business aggressively marketing antibiotics, followed by Valium and later, the blockbuster OxyContin. This gave the Sacklers the largest fortune in pharmaceutical history. Unknown to most doctors and pharmacies, OxyContin is basically morphine without the “terminal illness” stigma.

The three largest distributors are Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen. They control probably 85 or 90 percent and are literally sending people to their early graves. Pain clinics have become ubiquitous much like neighborhood pharmacies. The new professionals are drug dealers in lab coats.