Letter to the Editor: Sacklers owe more than a large fine for damage their opioid crisis caused

Now that the Johnson & Johnson corporation has been found guilty of violating Oklahoma law and made to pay $537 million in a judge’s ruling, news has been leaked to the national press that Purdue Pharma and its owner, the Sackler family, are negotiating a settlement deal against a class-action suit brought against the drug maker by other states. In the proposal, the Sacklers will pay a $3 billion fine and relinquish control of the company to court-appointed trustees.

It would be a shame if the family members were allowed to pay off their crimes like we do the cable bill and just walk away from the opioid crisis they helped to create and that cost the lives of so many innocent Americans. Medical experts have estimated 200,000 lives were lost to the opioid epidemic, almost the population size of Providence, R.I.

The details of any deal must include the family members taking personal responsibility for their actions. It is estimated the family grossed $4.3 billion from the sale and distribution of OxyContin. These crimes are about more than money. When it comes to finding justice, money is not a substitute for all the death and human misery the opioid epidemic caused.

Company emails that the Justice Department confiscated reveal that the Sacklers knew early on that OxyContin was being widely abused but did nothing to stop it. Not once, in any report or court filing, did Purdue Pharma ever stop its painkillers from being delivered to the pill mills around the country, even as the opioid epidemic spun out of control. As a result, billions of dangerous drugs poured into our local pharmacies.

Through sheer greed and determination, the Sacklers turned their father’s pharmaceutical business into a shameful drug dealing enterprise, no different than El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. This proposed deal allows the Sacklers to ride off into the sunset free as birds. They can salvage whatever moneys are left from the profits and live their remaining years comfortably, a terrible ending that sets a bad precedent for other drug companies who might take similar actions in the future.

I agree the book on the opioid crisis isn’t written solely on portraying Purdue Parma and the Sackers as scapegoats, but they were the pioneers who showed two dozen other drug makers the path to aggressively promoting and pushing opioids on a vulnerable public. The company racked in billions and helped to start the largest medical crisis in modern U.S. history.

During the Johnson & Johnson trial, evidence was shown in court that company executives copied the business plan laid out by Purdue Pharma to sell and promote its own opioid drugs, Duragestic and Nucynta. By acting irresponsibly, Johnson & Johnson permanently tarnished its corporate brand. Most Americans grew up taking J&J products faithfully and medical professionals around the world trusted the company’s reputation when recommending treatments to patients for a plethora of ailments. The Oklahoma ruling has sadly changed all that

Armando Abarca

Somerset