(UnitedVoice.com) – The opioid crisis has ravaged America where tens of thousands of people have died from drug overdoses as a result of their addictions. It has cost the country billions upon billions of dollars and destroyed families. Recently, 15 states made a deal with one of the companies responsible for the devastation.
The states reached an agreement with Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin. The deal is the first step in a possible $4.5-billion deal. The settlement also stipulates that the states will drop their opposition to the pharma company’s bankruptcy restructuring as long as it agrees to release millions of records. The documents include emails, depositions, and letters dating back 20 years. The Sackler family, the owners of the company, will also be on the hook for $50 million.
Critics say the settlement is not enough and that the company isn’t taking any real accountability.
Readers of Empire of Pain and anyone else who has followed the Sackler story & wondered how it was going to end:
This is the end.👇
It was always going to end this way — truth but not justice, some $ but not enough, no real accountability to speak of. https://t.co/MMWnQbY11W
— Patrick Radden Keefe (@praddenkeefe) July 8, 2021
The states involved in the lawsuit are New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Colorado, Illinois, Idaho, Maine, Iowa, New Jersey, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
According to the New York Times, if Judge Robert Drain agrees to the settlement, the company and family would be shielded from any further action. The Attorneys General for New York, Massachusetts, and Minnesota pointed out that the Slacker family has never apologized for the crisis.
Copyright 2021, UnitedVoice.com
