Group of more than 500 cities, counties and tribes accuses family of helping to create ‘worst drug crisis’ in US history
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| Photographer Nan Goldin leads a protest out of the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, New York, against its funding by the Sackler family, the owners of Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue. Photograph: Yana Paskova/The Guardian |
A group made up of more than 500 cities, counties and Native American tribes across the United States has filed a massive lawsuit accusing members of the Sacklerfamily, who own the maker of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, of helping to create “the worst drug crisis in American history”.
The lawsuit
represents communities in 26 states and eight tribes and accuses Sackler family
members of knowingly breaking laws in order to enrich themselves to the tune of
billions of dollars, while hundreds of thousands of Americans died.
“Eight
people in a single family made the choices that caused much of the opioid
epidemic,” the lawsuit, filed earlier this week in federal court in the
southern district of New York, states.
The same
eight members of the family had recently been added to a small number of
lawsuits that are underway against a string of opioid-makers, including the Connecticut-based
pharmaceutical company the Sacklers wholly own, Purdue Pharma, but they have
not been sued as individuals on anything like this scale before.
“This
nation is facing an unprecedented opioid addiction epidemic that was initiated
and perpetuated by the Sackler defendants for their own financial gain, to the
detriment of each of the plaintiffs and their residents. The ‘Sackler
defendants’ include Richard Sackler, Beverly Sackler, David Sackler, Ilene
Sackler Lefcourt, Jonathan Sackler, Kathe Sackler, Mortimer DA Sackler, and
Theresa Sackler,” this week’s lawsuit states.
The eight
are the most high-profile members of a family which has long been known for
prolific philanthropy to famous arts and education institutions, including the
Metropolitan and Guggenheim museums in New York, which have faced fierce recent protests against the taking of Sackler money. Other institutions include
Columbia, Yale, MIT, Tufts and other US universities, and, in the UK, the
Victoria & Albert Museum, the Serpentine Gallery, Glasgow University and
other recipients.
Earlier
this week Britain’s National Portrait Gallery decided not to take up the offer
of a £1m Sackler family grant and, in the US, Columbia University and the
University of Washington, which have both received Sackler donations in the
past, have announced they are not now accepting gifts from the family.
Court
documents accuse the eight family members of purposely playing down the dangers
of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, which is more potent than heroin or
morphine. They are accused of deceiving doctors and patients and directing
sales and marketing techniques that drove huge over-prescribing and ever
stronger doses for many patients who should never have been prescribed the
pills in the first place.
“The
defendants’ actions caused and continue to cause the public health
epidemic…caused deaths, serious injuries, and a severe disruption to public
peace, order and safety, it is ongoing and it is producing permanent and
long-lasting damage,” the court documents allege.
Many of the
allegations have already been made public in a lawsuit naming the same eight
family members in Massachusetts, and are contained in court documents in the
multi-district litigation taking place in a federal court in Cleveland, Ohio,
which has been brought against Purdue and other companies, though no members of
the Sackler family individually, by more than 1,200 cities and counties.
The family
and Purdue deny wrongdoing.
“This
complaint is part of a continuing effort by contingency-fee counsel to single
out Purdue, blame it for the entire opioid crisis in the United States, and try
the case in the court of public opinion rather than the justice system,’’
Robert Josephson, a Purdue spokesman, said in an emailed statement to the Bloomberg
news agency.
“These
baseless allegations place blame where it does not belong for a complex public
health crisis, and we deny them,’’ the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler families
said in a statement. They also noted OxyContin sales “represented a tiny
portion of the opioid market”.
The lawsuit
filed in New York on 18 March is extraordinary because it focuses almost
entirely on the individual Sacklers.
Richard and
Jonathan Sackler are sons of the late Raymond Sackler, one of the founding
brothers of Purdue. Beverly is Raymond’s widow and David his grandson.
Ilene,
Kathe and Mortimer David Alfons are children of the late Mortimer Sackler,
another of the founding brothers of Purdue, and Theresa is his widow.
The only
other defendants named in the lawsuit are the family trust connected to Raymond
Sackler’s branch of the family and Rhodes Pharmaceuticals, a company owned by
the Sacklers that produces generic opioid painkillers.
Other cases
focus mostly on Purdue and other well known pharmaceutical giants involved in
opioid production, such as Johnson & Johnson and Allergan.
The lawsuit
in the southern district of New York has been brought by city and county
authorities across America, including, for example, 42 counties and cities in
Alabama, 31 counties in California, 21 cities and counties in Florida, 28
counties in Illinois, 51 cities and counties in Kentucky, more than 100 towns
and cities in Massachusetts and dozens of cities and counties in other states
including Wisconsin, Virginia, Utah, Tennessee, Missouri, New Hampshire, New
Mexico, Indiana and Michigan.
Among the
eight Native American tribes suing the Sacklers are parts of the Cherokee, the
Chippewa and the Sioux, the Oneida Nation and the Blackfeet.
Drug overdoses now kill more than 72,000 people in the US a year, according to
government figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and
49,000 of those are caused by opioids.
Purdue’s business has attracted a wave of lawsuits alleging deception about the safety
of OxyContin, which the company had admitted misbranding in a 2007 criminal case.
Purdue has
not ruled out filing for bankruptcy, which would cause a hiatus in the civil
cases brought against it, but also indicates it could be short of the kind of
funds that would be needed for a massive settlement or a fine at trial in the
cases against it, to compensate communities for the cost of the crisis.
But a
victory in the latest lawsuit against the Sacklers would give the plaintiffs
access to the Sacklers’ personal fortune.
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".... Let me tell you what else is in the field. Two things: These are going to be things that exist now in the field and they are upcoming potentials. The reason I give you these potentials is so if they happen, just like the handshake, you might believe a little more in this process.
There will come a time when Big Pharma will fall over because of a growing higher consciousness of the public. [Applause in the audience] There is a consciousness growing here that begins to have a new respect for each other, so that abuse of women will no longer be tolerated. Things that never happened before will begin happening, like bishops and cardinals resigning. [All 34 bishops in the Catholic Church resigned May 2018 after the new wild card pope called them on their reaction to child abuse for years by their colleagues.] All the things my partner brought today [in the seminar] are actually happening now. Why should some of these drug companies fail? Because there will be a strong reaction from your general public when they realize there are companies that have policies that would keep a Human sick or let him die for money. [Applause in the audience] It would be unconscionable, and the potential grows stronger daily that it's going to happen. The trigger? It's coming. When it does, that industry will be in trouble. Not all pharma is this way, dear ones - understand this - but the ones who are will fall. ..."
There will come a time when Big Pharma will fall over because of a growing higher consciousness of the public. [Applause in the audience] There is a consciousness growing here that begins to have a new respect for each other, so that abuse of women will no longer be tolerated. Things that never happened before will begin happening, like bishops and cardinals resigning. [All 34 bishops in the Catholic Church resigned May 2018 after the new wild card pope called them on their reaction to child abuse for years by their colleagues.] All the things my partner brought today [in the seminar] are actually happening now. Why should some of these drug companies fail? Because there will be a strong reaction from your general public when they realize there are companies that have policies that would keep a Human sick or let him die for money. [Applause in the audience] It would be unconscionable, and the potential grows stronger daily that it's going to happen. The trigger? It's coming. When it does, that industry will be in trouble. Not all pharma is this way, dear ones - understand this - but the ones who are will fall. ..."
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Dallas Texas, Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
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