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Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

arstechnica.com

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Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#11

Post by dogman144 »

BaronVonSteuben wrote: post #9

I know everybody loves to hate on the Sacklers, but my life was dramatically better when I had access to opioids. Because of the "crisis" it has gotten really difficult to get them, even for people who need them. There are days when it's difficult to do much more than lie in bed in agony, but nobody beyond a small community of other pain sufferers seems to care. I'm at least grateful for the few good years I did get…

Why aren't you a candidate for legal thc? I'm genuinely interested as it comes up a lot as the new solution for former legitimate opioid users.

Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#12

Post by sbelskie »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #7

The Sacklers engaged in unethical behavior to get people hooked on something that made them money. Easy opioid prescriptions created thousands of (mostly) functional addicts who were getting their fix in a high-quality control form via their doctor on a monthly basis. That's bad but that's not an opioid "crisis". You don't get a crisis because of a few evil billionaires. More things have to go wrong. What really turn…

I’d challenge this timeline. The crisis was widely announced and understood before the crackdowns you mention. I don’t at all deny the negative effects that came from crackdowns. As you say they shifted a prescription drug crisis to one that more and more is a heroin and fentanyl crisis, but the crisis existed before, at least in the popular imagination and discourse.

Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#13

Post by BaronVonSteuben »

dogman144 wrote: post #11
BaronVonSteuben wrote: post #9

I know everybody loves to hate on the Sacklers, but my life was dramatically better when I had access to opioids. Because of the "crisis" it has gotten really difficult to get them, even for people who need them. There are days when it's difficult to do much more than lie in bed in agony, but nobody beyond a small community of other pain sufferers seems to care. I'm at least grateful for the few good years I did get…

Why aren't you a candidate for legal thc? I'm genuinely interested as it comes up a lot as the new solution for former legitimate opioid users.

I have used it extensively over the years but it doesn't work all that well for me and comes with really bad side effects (like making me super tired, which makes it really hard to work), making me insatiably hungry, etc. I've tried all kinds of different combos and it's a nice tool for the toolbox, but it's by no means a replacement for me.

I might also add I don't enjoy being high at all. I really prefer to have a clear head, especially during the day while I'm working. I've tried strains that are supposed to be good for that but they don't really work on the pain.

Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#14

Post by kennywinker »

BaronVonSteuben wrote: post #9

I know everybody loves to hate on the Sacklers, but my life was dramatically better when I had access to opioids. Because of the "crisis" it has gotten really difficult to get them, even for people who need them. There are days when it's difficult to do much more than lie in bed in agony, but nobody beyond a small community of other pain sufferers seems to care. I'm at least grateful for the few good years I did get…

I hear what you're saying, but it feels like you should be placing your blame on the sacklers too - if they hadn't pushed opioids on people who didn't need them, fueling the crisis, then there would not have been this backlash you describe.

Like, we shouldn't be mad at opioids, we should be mad at drug pushing profiteers.

Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#16

Post by ars »

ineedasername wrote: post #2

In their defense, they really wanted make a ton of money, really didn't want to pay a huge fine. So, you know, it all kind of worked out. For them.

What happened to all that money they made? I find it hard to believe they can spend that much money.

Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#17

Post by rubyfan »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #7

The Sacklers engaged in unethical behavior to get people hooked on something that made them money. Easy opioid prescriptions created thousands of (mostly) functional addicts who were getting their fix in a high-quality control form via their doctor on a monthly basis. That's bad but that's not an opioid "crisis". You don't get a crisis because of a few evil billionaires. More things have to go wrong. What really turn…

So since the market created functional drug addicts that’s ok and the government caused the problem by trying to stop the market from creating drug addiction?

Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#18

Post by BaronVonSteuben »

kennywinker wrote: post #14
BaronVonSteuben wrote: post #9

I know everybody loves to hate on the Sacklers, but my life was dramatically better when I had access to opioids. Because of the "crisis" it has gotten really difficult to get them, even for people who need them. There are days when it's difficult to do much more than lie in bed in agony, but nobody beyond a small community of other pain sufferers seems to care. I'm at least grateful for the few good years I did get…

I hear what you're saying, but it feels like you should be placing your blame on the sacklers too - if they hadn't pushed opioids on people who didn't need them, fueling the crisis, then there would not have been this backlash you describe. Like, we shouldn't be mad at opioids, we should be mad at drug pushing profiteers.

That's a reasonable point, although if they hadn't helped make doctors more comfortable with using them, then I may not have ever gotten them in the first place as they would be stingy with them like they are now. Hard to know where I would have landed.

Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#19

Post by wombatmobile »

Dupont made more than $30 billion profit selling Teflon for almost 50 years, polluting the environment by dumping untreated toxic waste from the manufacturing process into virgin West Virginia landscapes the whole time.

In February 2017, DuPont settled over 3,550 lawsuits for $671 million.

Dark Waters Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvAOuhyunhY

Re: Sacklers–who made $11B off opioid crisis–to pay $225M in damages

#20

Post by javajosh »

psychanarch wrote: post #15

Unfortunately, unjust settlements like this are common place in our country, and after the outrage cycle dies down, this will be forgotten like the others. Nothing changes. What can we possibly do?

Start by reforming the justice system. It is badly broken at all levels. It's slow speed, incredibly expensive interactions, and hard-to-understand system of laws need a big time upgrade. We need relatively simple laws that ordinary folks can understand, and a much faster time-to-judgement. It is really the complexity and cost of the system that leads to so many of these unjust outcomes, because hardly any actors in the system actually want to present their case and hear a verdict out of a judges mouth, because to get there takes years and millions of dollars.
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