Fentanyl Lollipops, Opium Gum, & Brown Sugar - The Opioid Crisis Megathread

[Cail]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-p...-idUSKCN1VH26I

Purdue Pharma to settle opioid lawsuit for $10-12 billion.

Purdue Pharma has filed for bankruptcy

[6souls]

Purdue Pharma has filed for bankruptcy

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/13/76068...s-to-themselve

Purdue Pharma owners have been accused of funneling ~$1B from the company into personal accounts via Swiss Banking accounts.

[Outlaw]

I'm sure they have already changed their identities and have picked out the various tropical paradises where they will live out the rest of their lives.

[TsingTao]

I will be absolutely shocked if they only funneled off $1B, and if it hasn't been going on for years. They [the Sacklers] aren't stupid, they had to know massive lawsuits were the end game of their opioid fuckery. I expect profits have been quietly skimmed and hidden for years to prepare for today.

[6souls]

I will be absolutely shocked if they only funneled off $1B, and if it hasn't been going on for years. They [the Sacklers] aren't stupid, they had to know massive lawsuits were the end game of their opioid fuckery. I expect profits have been quietly skimmed and hidden for years to prepare for today.

The $1B is all that has been proven through documentation. Supposedly there has been untold billions more that hasn't been traced.

[Cail]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inves...2d2_story.html

Health-care giant Johnson & Johnson announced Tuesday that it has reached a $20.4 million settlement with two Ohio counties on the eve of a huge federal trial to determine who is responsible for the nation’s opioid epidemic.


Johnson & Johnson would pay Cuyahoga and Summit counties $10 million in cash, reimburse $5 million in legal fees and direct $5.4 million to nonprofits for opioid-related programs in those communities.

[arus2001]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/21/busin...lea/index.html

Purdue Pharma pleads guilty to their contribution to the opioid crisis, will pay $8b and shut down.

[Athas]

Close and reopen under a new name I assume?

[arus2001]

That would be my guess. $8b seems like a pretty light punishment, too, but yay corporate personhood or something.

[NynJa]

Its in the article:

The company doesn't have $8 billion in cash available to pay the fines. So Purdue will be dissolved as part of the settlement, and its assets will be used to create a new "public benefit company" controlled by a trust or similar entity designed for the benefit of the American public. The Justice Department said it will function entirely in the public interest rather than to maximize profits. Its future earnings will go to paying the fines and penalties, which in turn will be used to combat the opioid crisis.
That new company will continue to produce painkillers such as OxyContin, as well as drugs to deal with opioid overdose. Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who announced the settlement, defended the plans for the new company to continue to sell that drug, saying there are legitimate uses for painkillers such as OxyContin.

[TsingTao]

The Justice Department also reached a separate $225 million civil settlement with the former owners of Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family.

A whole $225 million? That will almost cover the labor dollars spent digging through the paper trail to find the billions the Sacklers skimmed off Purdue over the years.

[archibaldcrane]

Its in the article:

Trump is seizing the means of production, based

[Qalbert]

https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1329101696421818372

[kuronosan]

Fuck. You.

[Nullibicity]

Dumb, wtf.