CARTELS ON WALL STREET –
August 5, 2022 – Painkiller producers such as Purdue Pharma — the maker of OxyContin (oxycodone) — are one major source of the opioid and overdose epidemics. These companies knowingly and deliberately lied about the addictive nature of their painkillers. The doctors who prescribed the companies’ drugs received kickbacks and rewards for their ability to push the most painkillers. (“Purdue Pharma guilty in opioid deaths,” Workers World, Oct. 26, 2020)
Chain pharmacies should have tracked overprescriptions and reported suspicious or excessive prescriptions to authorities to investigate. This did not happen. Instead, as Attorney General Formella said, the pharmacies acted as “the last link” in the opioid supply chain.
New Hampshire isn’t the only state to file lawsuits against pharmacies. Two counties in the state of Ohio have previously launched lawsuits against Walgreens, Walmart and CVS. Those lawsuits were successful, though another legal proceeding will determine what damages will have to be paid.
CVS, Walgreens and Walmart rejected the decision, claiming that it wasn’t “their fault.” Given results of other opioid lawsuits, it is a possibility that the three pharmaceutical giants and their owners will get off for their crimes against the proletariat.
For example, the Sackler family — owners of Purdue Pharma and founders of Mundipharma — was given immunity in their New York bankruptcy trial, despite the fact that overprescription of OxyContin was to their economic advantage.
Activists — including former opioid addicts — protested granting immunity to the Sacklers and their agents. The Department of Justice and several other state attorneys general protested the decision, saying that people who were harmed by the overprescription of OxyContin and other opioid painkillers had the right to sue the people responsible for their suffering.
