'Scum of the earth': Drug victims face Purdue Pharma owners

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

NEW YORK (AP) — Angry, defiant and sometimes tearful, more than two dozen Americans whose lives were upended by the opioid crisis finally had their long-awaited chance Thursday to confront in court some members of the family they blame for fueling it.

They were unsparing as they unleashed decades of frustration and sorrow on members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma over the course of a three-hour virtual hearing.

One woman played a recording from when she called 911 to get help for her overdosing son, then called one of the Sacklers the “scum of the earth.” Several displayed pictures of loved ones who died too soon because of their addictions. Many spoke about forgiveness, with some trying to find it — and others definitely not.

“I hope that every single victim’s face haunts your every waking moment and your sleeping ones, too,” said Ryan Hampton, of Las Vegas, who has been in recovery for seven years after an addiction that began with an OxyContin prescription to treat knee pain led to overdoses and periods of homelessness.

https://apnews.com/article/opioid-crisis-victims-purdue-pharma-settlement-8bd28d490d6b12b4cf93b4c1ff90cf41

[ck4829]

1. A fitting description

[Chainfire]

2. In the US, kill one man and you may face the death penalty

Kill thousands and become a billionaire.

[Akoto]

3. I don't know how to react to this, if I'm completely honest.

Last edited Fri Mar 11, 2022, 06:41 PM - Edit history (7)

I am legally disabled and a chronic pain patient. Three of the six medications used to treat my condition cause dependency, one of them is an (admittedly much weaker than OxyContin) opioid.

There was no cure for my diagnosis. Pain is effectively the disease, and prescription painkillers are part of controlling the symptoms. I have been blessed to have a long line of professors begin and carry on my care at the university level, and then another local expert who handles it today.

I felt very safe with those professionals, and they were honest with me about the addiction factor. Their stance, which is true in my own case, is that dependency is needing to take the *same* properly prescribed amount daily or else you'll suffer withdrawals. This is true of many non-painkilling medications. People with legitimate chronic pain have long shown in medicine to rarely experience any sort of euphoria or "high" from their medications, just pain relief.

Addiction is different in that the patient is predisposed to craving more of the opioid or other habit-forming substance than is prescribed, and they take it beyond their physician's allowances. That's the key line one crosses to cease being dependent and instead become an addict. They, unlike those who are dependent and for reasons more complex than I can adequately explain, have something in them which is more receptive to getting high off of medications most with chronic pain do not. This is to no fault of their own, it's the brain chemistry or the genes, but I get to responsibility below.

Do I doubt that Purdue sold OxyContin like no tomorrow? Nope, not for a minute. I've spent a lot of years in doctors' offices and seen the pharmaceutical reps arrive to talk with doctors, wheeling a luggage case of documents and (probably) samples behind them.

However, I also know that what happens with me and dependency versus addiction is also partly my responsibility. It's my job to ensure that I take only what is prescribed. If I find that things have taken a wrong turn, it's my job to get help from my physician. If I fail to do that and I develop an all out addiction, part of the fault would (again, my opinion only) rest with me.

All I can say in conclusion is that opioids have saved me from committing suicide in my teens, and I am now 37 and still here. I've taken an opioid for that entire stretch of years and am in good health, never having felt the need to take more than was instructed. It's a bad pain day today, but it would be a whole lot worse if not for the help of these treatments. I hope this isn't used as further justification to witch hunt pain management medications and make things harder for patients with chronic, legitimate needs.

EDITS: I had some further thoughts and expanded with more information concerning those.

[redstatebluegirl]

4. Thank you for this.

I am a chronic pain patient as well. There has to be some personal responsibility. I have a nephew who got hooked on Oxy Contin, and when that was not available moved on to street drugs and alcohol. I doubt the availablity of Oxy Contin was the reason for his addiction. I know this is not a popular view. I have watched this young man ruin his entire family with his addiction. We have all tried everything, love, rehab (3 times), letting him hit bottom, nothing works. My sister and BIL have mortaged their retirement to try and get him cleaned up.

I feel for any family going through this, but I have used a lesser pain medication for a long time, I take it as prescribed, I never go over the prescribed dosage and I understand what happens if I do.

I truly believe some people have a predisposition to addiction. In my family's case it was my nephew and my uncle.

Taking pain medication from those who truly need it in order to stop an addictive personality from abusing the drugs seems unfair to me. Did the pharma companies abuse the sale of these drugs, I don't doubt it, but my life would be unbearable without them when I need them.

[Akoto]

6. You're quite welcome, and I agree with everything you said.

In fact, I further expanded my original post to share more of what the professors and other doctors who've treated me over the years have shared. I take an active interest in my care and have been grateful to learn what they want to convey for my own safety.

It has unfortunately been my observation that when these big lawsuits happen, companies which marketed and profited from their medications in abusive ways are rightly punished, but so are the 'good' patients by extension. The punishment often doesn't stop at payments to families, who (I hate to say) sometimes must accept that their addicted or deceased relative had some measure of responsibility to seek care. As I'm sure you'd agree, you know you're a dependent when you feel the effects of forgetting to take your medications. There's no way an addict doesn't realize they're addicted, because that goes far beyond what dependents deal with.

What doesn't stop, as I mentioned above, is that these cases are often catalysts for the pursuit of new laws which make physicians fearful to prescribe pain medications when they are completely justified. The majority of patients with chronic pain do not become addicts. The DEA nevertheless cracks down and people suffer as a result, sometimes taking their own lives because they can't bear the uncontrolled pain.

I don't begrudge the families who drive these suits their right to justice against the pharma company. However, as a patient, I do find that the freedom of care my physicians felt they could give has vanished over the years as said huge legal cases extend into witch hunts by lawmakers. That's why I post my honest thoughts, unpopular though they may be. Some people really do need opioids as a point of survival (do not underestimate the power of pain as a primary disease), even extended release forms in severe cases.

[Grammy23]

5. Maybe if they invested as much into researching addictions,

as they do on drugs that cause addictions, we’d get somewhere. We know just enough to know that addictions happen in the brain. We all have them. Some of us love our coffee or our Coca Cola. Some enjoy beer or wine and some are enslaved by it. Most of us will not know before we try a substance if it’ll be a problem stopping it.

The pharmaceuticals who know about the addictive properties of their products are no different than the tobacco companies who hid the fact that cigarettes were harmful and had addictive chemicals in them. They owe it to their clients to work as hard on figuring out addictions and solving the problem as they do on developing the drugs in the first place.

No one wants patients who need pain meds for chronic conditions to suffer. But neither do we want people who get addicted to have their lives destroyed. There has to be a better way.