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Doctor Gets 4 Years in Prison for Insys Opioid Kickbacks

fortune.com

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Re: Doctor Gets 4 Years in Prison for Insys Opioid Kickbacks

#7
post #6

How many years would a street dealer have gotten? 40 years?

That just means we should treat low level criminals humanely. Four years is plenty.

The thing where decade plus sentences are fairly common is unique in the first world: only in America. It’s barbaric and embarrassing.

The science is pretty unambiguous—a high likelihood of being caught and punished is a better deterrent than a low-probability but larger punishment.

So I don’t want to see this doctor get a 40-year sentence. I’d rather see lots of doctors who accepted gifts from opioid manufacturers get one-year sentences. Most important is that the pharma executives go to jail, too.

Criminal justice should never be about retribution. In this case, the purpose is to keep future patients safe.

Re: Doctor Gets 4 Years in Prison for Insys Opioid Kickbacks

#8
post #5

Will Trump support the execution of this man and other legal drug dealers like him as well?

This is getting down voted but I don't think that's fair, it's not off topic. Trump said yesterday he's in favor of the death penalty for drug dealers because they are responsible for the death of others. It's a fair question to ask if there should be a distinction between street dealers and these doctors and executives.

Re: Doctor Gets 4 Years in Prison for Insys Opioid Kickbacks

#9
post #6

How many years would a street dealer have gotten? 40 years?

Not really comparable. The street dealer is not likely to get 40 years, although many may have gotten it (Assuming that a street dealer doesn't have 400 kilos of coke in his stash house. If he does, he's no street dealer)

Also the doc loses his license and every single penny he has, between lawyers, years without being able to make a penny, and court fines. When you make a certain amount of money the trend is to live up to it: mortgages, fancy cars, club memberships, schools for kids and so on. When the money stops coming in, guess what happens?

Re: Doctor Gets 4 Years in Prison for Insys Opioid Kickbacks

#10
FYI, there is a new episode on american greed which pretty much shows how these type of operations worked. Insys basically gave the kickbacks by having the doctors give "speeches" but it turns out no speeches were given and the doctors got the checks anyways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2WBKkyFpRo

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