perdue phma
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see sackler opioid</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">capt bak 819</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">too many relate nodes?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">legal suppression 2 whiteshoe, jd vance, rudy
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/jd-vance-2657891320/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/jd-vance-2657891320/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">an 8 22</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no twt</div><div style=""><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Vance, the billionaire-backed U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio, has routinely positioned himself as an anti-opioid China-hawk, promising to rein in Big Pharma and bring jobs back to the U.S. But in recent weeks it has been revealed that Vance, a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> Trump-backed author</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">, worked for a white shoe law firm that represented multiple Chinese companies and lobbied for Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Vance then hired an </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">American Enterprise Institute (AEI)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> resident who cited Purdue-funded studies to downplay the role overprescribing painkillers plays in the opioid crisis as the addiction specialist to Ohio's Appalachian region for his nonprofit, "Our Ohio Renewal."</span></b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">The apparent contradiction, first <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/05/05/the-book-j-d-vance-doesnt-want-you-to-read-00030287" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a> by Politico, stems from a "<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1z9kiq1nomwkzy9/AADCS4aNQ1cjAQuyAnKy0Jvea/JD%20VANCE%20VULNERABILITY%20ANALYSIS%20--%2005172021.pdf?dl=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">vulnerability analysis</a>" posted online by <b>Protect Ohio Values (POV), the Super PAC through which Vance has raised millions of dollars for his Senate campaign</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Because campaign finance law bars any candidates from communicating with their associated Super PACs, POV appears to have posted a trove of polling data, strategic documents, and opposition research on a <a href="https://medium.com/@protectohiovaluesforms" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">low-profile Medium account</a> for Vance to reference, detailing potential weak spots in his competitors' campaigns as well as his own.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Vance's vulnerability analysis reveals that the lawyer-turned-author, who founded a non-profit dedicated to curbing the opioid epidemic, had at one point worked for law firm S<b>idley Austin LLP in Washington, D.C. During Vance's time there, the firm's lobbying arm was working on behalf of Purdue Pharma, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/health/purdue-opioids-criminal-charges.html#::text=In%20addition%20to%20the%20company,damages%20to%20the%20United%20States." target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">pleaded guilty</a> in 2020 to criminal charges and faced penalties of roughly $8.3 billion</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. During that same time, Sidley Austin also reportedly represented "a Chinese real estate company" and lobbied Alibaba Group, a massive Chinese e-commerce platform. But as a Senate candidate, Vance has repeatedly called for the U.S. to sever its economic ties with the country, calling globalization a "<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/06/04/jd_vance_end_the_globalization_gravy_train_for_china.html" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">gravy train</a>" for China.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"On one side you have people who want to go back to the America Last foreign policy, the weak on China trade policies," as Vance said in a recent Fox News interview. "And on the other side you have me, supported by President Trump, trying to bring back our manufacturing jobs from China."</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Associated Press (AP) then </span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-entertainment-health-175153d8a80d93b2c9c6654a6a730de9" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> this week that Vance's charity suffered a major conflict of interest when it recruited an AEI resident who never disclosed Perdue's financial contributions to AEI while favorably citing Perdue-funded studies to argue that prescription painkillers played a significant role in the region's drastic uptick in opioid addiction. According to the AP, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://www.aei.org/profile/sally-satel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Dr. Sally Satel</a> "occasionally shared drafts of the pieces with <b>Purdue officials in advance.</b>" And as ProPublica reported in the past, <b>AEI <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-purdue-pharma-media-playbook-how-it-planted-the-opioid-anti-story" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">received</a> financial support from Purdue totaling $800,000.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Vance's past work may prove a problem with other areas besides Big Pharma. He was with <b>Sidley Austin while the firm <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/us/in-brief-to-justices-former-military-officials-support-same-sex-marriage.html" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">filed</a> an amicus brief in support of gay marriage back in 2015, while the Supreme Court was ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges</b>. Since then, Vance has taken countless swipes at the LGBTQ+ community. AIn 2020, Vance <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/j-d-vance-blasts-conservative-legal-movement-after-supreme-court-rules-for-gay-and-transgender-rights-in-workplace" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">excoriated</a> the "conservative legal movement" after Supreme Court ruled that gay and trans workers cannot be fired for their gender identity or sexual orientation.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><b>"The conservative legal movement has accomplished two things: libertarian political economy (enforced by judges) and betrayal of social conservatives and traditionalists," he wrote at the time in a since-deleted tweet.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since the beginning of his campaign, numerous critics have also called out Vance's funding as problematic. Vance has repeatedly blasted Big Tech, claiming that the industry systematically censors conservative voices. <b>But the Republican's chief benefactor is Peter Thiel,</b> a prominent tech billionaire responsible for co-founding PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, through which he was one of the first investors in Facebook.</span></p></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/07/07/purdue-pharma-bankrupt-donations/">https://theintercept.com/2020/07/07/purdue-pharma-bankrupt-donations/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Last <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"> SEPTEMBER,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy after several cities sued the company for its role in creating the opioid crisis<b>. By going bankrupt, it was able to get all litigation stayed; family members of the over</b></span><b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/index.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">500,000</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">victims of the opioid crisis are now just creditors in the bankruptcy. The Sackler family — including Jonathan Sackler, a co-owner of Purdue who</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><a href="https://apnews.com/a450f3c387ee7f91ec007c6dd1b4abe7" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">died</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">Monday — made off with over</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/health/sacklers-purdue-payments-opioids-.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">$10 billion</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">in company funds.</span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">
</span></font></div><div><div data-reactid="216" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Meanwhile, in December, the Democratic Attorneys General Association accepted $25,000 in donations from the company, according to data collected by Political MoneyLine. Several members of the Association are leading the litigation against Purdue. The Republican Attorneys General Association received $60,000 in October.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In January, the Democratic Governors Association, headed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, accepted $50,000 from Purdue Pharma, as did the Republican Governors Association, headed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Those donations come as states,</b></font></span></p></div><div class="NewsletterEmbed-container" data-reactid="217" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px -20px 20px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; width: auto; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><div class="Newsletter-shortcode Newsletter-shortcode-layout-full" data-reactid="218" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: fit-content; display: flex; margin-right: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font><a href="https://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/khn-opioid-tax-proponents-pin-hopes-on-november-elections.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">n<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">cluding</span></font></a></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </font></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">New Jersey, California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Tennessee, and Vermont, are <b>considering excise taxes on prescription opioids</b> — which would be approved and implemented by governors</span>.</font></span></div></div><div data-reactid="227" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" /></div><div class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo" data-reactid="228" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); padding: 20px 0px 10px; margin: 7px 40px 20px 0px; float: left; width: 400px;"><a class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/" data-reactid="229" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; flex-direction: row;" /><div class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-thumbnail" data-reactid="230" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-right: 20px; position: relative; z-index: 1;"><a class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/" data-reactid="229" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; flex-direction: row;" /><a class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/" data-reactid="229" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; flex-direction: row;" /><a class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/" data-reactid="229" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; flex-direction: row;" /><a class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/" data-reactid="229" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; flex-direction: row;" /><a class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/" data-reactid="229" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; flex-direction: row;" /><a class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/" data-reactid="229" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; flex-direction: row;" /><a class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/" data-reactid="229" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; flex-direction: row;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a></div><div class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-text" data-reactid="232" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h6 class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-eyebrow" data-reactid="233" kern="kern" padding-bottom="padding-bottom" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; font-kerning: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Related</font></h6><h4 class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-title" data-reactid="234" kern="kern" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; font-kerning: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Purdue Pharma Hired PR Firm That Rebranded BP After Deepwater Horizon Spill</font></h4></div></div><div data-reactid="235" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While <b>Purdue is not publicly traded and as a result does not have to disclose risk factors to investors, close <a href="https://www.hda.org/news/2015-03-10-hdma-recognizes-seid-with-dma-for-leadership?&p=1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">allies</a> of Purdue, including the Healthcare Distribution Alliance and the lobbying group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, have vocally opposed the taxes.</b>Fellow pharmaceutical companies <a href="https://mallinckrodt.gcs-web.com/static-files/1252745e-320c-4090-b92f-b3cc14b6bc3f" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Mallinckrodt</a> and Endo International have raised concerns that the taxes could materially affect their bottom line in SEC disclosures. To date just five states — New York, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Maine, and Delaware — have <a href="https://mallinckrodt.gcs-web.com/static-files/1252745e-320c-4090-b92f-b3cc14b6bc3f" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">implemented</a> an opioid tax or fee.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Purdue was much more generous with the Republican Attorneys General Association prior to the bankruptcy, donating $125,000 to the organization in the 2018 election cycle. Purdue also donated over $500,000 to RAGA in 2016, when the organization spent <a href="https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/morrisey-re-elected-west-virginia-attorney-general/article_b18b3e6c-0c25-56c5-864c-5d416e4ee2b2.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">$6.4 million</a> to reelect former <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/opioid-settlements-figure-in-west-virginia-attorney-general-race" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">pharmaceutical lobbyist</a> Patrick Morrissey, among others, as attorney general of West Virginia</b>. DAGA, on the other hand, has received a total of $235,000 from Purdue Pharma since October 2014 — and $155,000 from PhRMA while Purdue was a member.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Despite the contributions, only two Democratic attorneys general have broken ranks with the common front against Purdue and the Sackler family:</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Nessel has said that she believes the proposed settlement is the quickest way to get money to fight the bankruptcy. In doing so, Balderas and Nessel implicitly support the stay on litigation that has prevented victims from getting heard in court. DAGA spent over $500,000 in outside money in 2018 to ensure Nessel’s victory.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Michigan Attorney General Nessel’s decision to support the proposed settlement as part of the Purdue bankruptcy was based on a number of factors, including bringing as much money into our state as possible as quickly as possible,” said Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokesperson for Nessel. “To imply that any contribution to DAGA had an impact on her decision is not only untrue, but it ignores the complexities of this matter, the myriad of stakeholders participating, and the ongoing work that is being done to maximize the value of the settlement for claimants.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>DAGA, which is set up to elect Democratic attorneys general, said that it does not use pharmaceutical contributions for campaign-related expenses. The DGA and RGA did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did Purdue Pharma.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“It certainly appears that Purdue Pharma is playing the game to try to influence litigatio</b>n,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen. “Certainly this is a good way of doing it, giving money to the governors and the attorneys general association. … [Purdue is] not doing it for partisan purposes, they seem to be doing it to influence the litigation that they are involved in.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">RAGA and DAGA, Holman said, are “organizations in which AGs have one-on-one contact not only with themselves but with any donors that give the group money. It’s a very close knit network and that’s why it makes it easy to influence the decision of AGs.</span>”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Outside of Nessel and Balderas, Democratic attorneys general are united on a common approach: seeking a more just settlement and ensuring that litigation against Purdue and the Sacklers can continue. No state attorney general or prosecutor has filed criminal charges against the Sacklers for their role in the opioid crisis.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Informed of the campaign contributions, OxyJustice — a group founded by artist Nan Goldin, who has attracted notoriety for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/24/sackler-money-tate-modern-art-nan-goldin-oxycontin" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">organizing protests</a> that demand <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/arts/design/met-museum-sackler-opioids.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">art institutions return donations</a> from the Sackler — connected the donations to a settlement that recovery advocates feel is woefully inadequate. “We are alarmed, but not surprised, to learn of Purdue’s pervasive influence,” the group told The Intercept in a statement. “As we fight for transparency and accountability in Purdue’s bankruptcy, we demand that the government reject blood money—whether from campaign contributions or settlement offers. In court, the most important voices are being drowned out—those of the people harmed.”</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-company-that-makes-oxycontin-could-become-a-public-trust-heres-what-that-would-mean/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"> company that makes OxyContin could become a ‘public trust’ – here’s what that would mean</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-company-that-makes-oxycontin-could-become-a-public-trust-heres-what-that-would-mean/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;">
</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-company-that-makes-oxycontin-could-become-a-public-trust-heres-what-that-would-mean/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/davidherzberg/" title="Posts by David Herzberg" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Herzberg</a><span style="text-align: right;">,</span><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-conversation/" title="Posts by The Conversation" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Conversation</a></font></font></h3></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-bp-deepwater-pr/</font></a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">prerez lee f</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><div data-reactid="230" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">PURDUE PHARMA,</span> the pharmaceutical firm that manufactures OxyContin and allegedly helped fuel widespread addiction to painkillers, has turned to some of the same corporate spin doctors hired by BP after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The relationship was revealed in a legal document disclosed on September 15 when Purdue filed for bankruptcy protection. The filing, designed to settle thousands of lawsuits over its role in the opioid epidemic, revealed creditors seeking payments from the Connecticut-based pharmaceutical giant.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bankruptcy documents have offered a window into corporate dark money in recent years. Coal company filings, reported on by The Intercept, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/08/25/coal-giant-bankruptcy-reveals-secret-ties-republican-dark-money-groups/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">have revealed ties</a> to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/05/16/coal-industry-climate-change-denial-cloud-peak-energy/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">nonprofits and operatives</a> who have harassed climate scientists and spread doubt about climate change. In the case of Purdue, bankruptcy filings show the company has worked with Purple Strategies and Dezenhall Resources, two controversial crisis communications firms. The drugmaker owes the firms almost $300,000, according to a list of creditors the company included in its Chapter 11 <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6421375-Purdue-Pharma-bankruptcy-filing.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">bankruptcy petition</a>.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Josephine Martin, a spokesperson for Purdue Pharma, declined to comment.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Purple Strategies was hired by BP shortly after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The oil spill — the worst in U.S. history — killed 11 crew members and released nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, over the course of 87 days. In the following months, Purple Strategies carefully tracked public opinion and crafted strategies to limit the fallout for the company from the disaster. At one point, BP was spending an estimated <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Broadcast/bp-buys-search-engine-phrases-redirecting-users/story?id=10835618&page=3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">$10,000 per day</a> to dominate Google search results with positive content. One staffer at Purple Strategies allegedly <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chemrisk-bp-and-purple-st_b_4095131" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">falsely introduced</a> himself to a reporter as working with ChemRisk, a scientific consulting firm that published questionable research downplaying health risks from the spill.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dezenhall Resources helped oil giant ExxonMobil <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170521152257/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2006-04-16/the-pit-bull-of-public-relations" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">launch a variety of attacks</a> on its critics at Greenpeace in the early 2000s. The public relations department at one point reportedly staged a counterprotest to an environmental rally on Capitol Hill, complete with demonstrators carrying signs that read “Capitalism Rocks” and “Stop Global Whining.” Dezenhall later <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2006/04/07/exposing-exxons-pit-bull/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">allegedly</a> helped create a nonprofit that lobbed accusations of financial impropriety at Greenpeace, efforts that led to an IRS audit of the environmental advocacy group.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Washington, D.C.-based company was <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2006/04/07/exposing-exxons-pit-bull/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">retained</a> by <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2009/07/michael-jacksons-dc-story-024518" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Michael Jackson’s legal team</a> before child molestation allegations against the singer went public, as well as by attorneys representing Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron chief executive who served 12 years in prison for one of the most brazen cases of financial fraud in U.S. history.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">DURING THE PAST DECADE,</span> Purdue Pharma has attempted to shape the political and regulatory environment through <a href="https://publicintegrity.org/state-politics/pro-painkiller-echo-chamber-shaped-policy-amid-drug-epidemic/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">undisclosed payments</a> to patient advocacy groups, legal nonprofits, and lobbying organizations.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, as the Obama administration worked to develop national prescribing standards that discouraged the use of addictive opioid painkillers, Purdue used third-party groups to undermine the effort. As <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/12/23/oxycontin-cdc-politics/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">The Intercept reported</a>, several Purdue-funded groups, including the Pain Care Forum and Power of Pain Foundation, mobilized opposition to the proposed guidelines.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Purdue also took steps to shield its owners, the Sackler family, from facing personal liability. The company previously <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/02/23/purdue-pharma-oxycontin-opioid-crisis/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">donated to the Washington Legal Foundation</a>, a conservative litigation group, as part of an effort to weaken a legal standard used to prosecute corporate executives when their products cause widespread public health problems.</font></font></p></div><div data-reactid="240" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Purple Strategies has become a go-to firm for corporations seeking public relations and crisis communications consulting, <a href="https://www.purplestrategies.com/job-receptionist/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">working</a> with Fortune 500 companies like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. The company has also worked with trade associations and nonprofits like <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/former-democratic-strategists-now-boost-gop/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America</a>, or PhRMA, which lobbies for drugmakers; <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/362087641/201713199349313856/IRS990" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">America’s Health Insurance Plans</a>, the nation’s top health insurance lobby; the <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/530045720/201533169349304028/IRS990" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. Chamber of Commerce</a>; liberal think tank <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/300126510/201710389349300716/IRS990" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Center for American Progress</a>; and <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/272429741/201743219349300524/IRS990" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Center Forward</a>, a conservative Democratic nonprofit <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/05/11/health-care-lobbyists-luxury-retreat/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">led mostly by lobbyists</a>.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The firm employs high-profile Democratic and Republican campaign operatives. Alex Castellanos, a veteran GOP strategist and founding partner at Purple Strategies, has continued to serve as a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6419186-National-Media-Inc-Annual-Report-0419.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">vice president</a> at National Media Inc., a Republican ad-buying company that shares offices with the bipartisan consulting firm. Mark Squier, another founding partner at Purple Strategies, previously served as a senior strategist to Howard Dean’s presidential campaign and advised the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Media affiliates have worked with the <a href="https://www.thetrace.org/2018/12/trump-nra-campaign-coordination/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">National Rifle Association</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/11/pro-trump-dark-money-group-tax-return/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">America First Policies</a>, a dark-money organization created to build support for President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. America First Policies <a href="https://splinternews.com/how-big-pharma-invests-in-the-status-quo-1830492012" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">received</a> $2.5 million in 2017 from PhRMA, which <a href="https://www.phrma.org/about/members" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">lists</a> Purdue on its membership page.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This story was reported in partnership between MapLight and The Intercept.</font></span></font></p></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></p></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/watch-richard-sackler-deny-his-familys-role-in-the-opioid-crisis/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/watch-richard-sackler-deny-his-familys-role-in-the-opioid-crisis/</font></a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> no vid</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Watch Richard Sackler deny his family’s role in the opioid crisis</b></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Armstrong / ProPublica August 27, 2019</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This story is a collaboration between ProPublica, STAT and ABC News.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Four years ago this week, Dr. Richard Sackler sat in a conference room at a law office in a Louisville, Kentucky, office park. Lawyers for the Kentucky attorney general’s office were taking his deposition as part of the state’s lawsuit alleging that the family business, Purdue Pharma, illegally marketed the opioid painkiller OxyContin by understating its addictive properties.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sackler, who has been at various times Purdue’s president and co-chairman of its board, testified for more than eight hours. The lawyers asked him about his role at the company, what decisions he was involved in and whether he believes Purdue played any part in the opioid crisis that has resulted in more than 200,000 overdose deaths related to prescription drugs since 1999.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Despite hundreds of lawsuits against Purdue stretching back well over a decade, that August 2015 deposition, which was recorded on video, is believed to be the first time any member of the Sackler family was questioned under oath about their role in the marketing of OxyContin.</b></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Four months after the deposition, Purdue agreed to pay Kentucky $24 million to settle the case. </b>The company fought a legal battle for more than three years to keep the deposition secret. After the news organization STAT won a court decision in 2016 ordering its release, Purdue appealed all the way to the Kentucky Supreme Court. The court declined on Wednesday to hear the case, letting STAT’s lower court victory stand....</font></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">3/19</font></font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(241, 242, 243);"><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 17px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33; border-width: 3px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgba(121, 131, 140, 0.2);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/29/headlines/ny_sues_sackler_family_purdue_other_drug_cos_for_profiting_from_opioid_crisis" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">NY Sues Sackler Family, Purdue & Other Drug Cos. for Profiting from Opioid Crisis</font></a></font></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top; text-align: start; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New York state announced a sweeping lawsuit against members of the Sackler family, the owner of Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, the highly addictive drug at the center of the opioid epidemic. New York Attorney General Letitia James accused the Sacklers of masterminding a scheme that “literally profited off of … suffering and death.” This is Letitia James speaking at a press conference Thursday.</font></font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 30px; border-left: 3px solid rgb(241, 242, 243); vertical-align: top; text-align: start; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top; margin-bottom: 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top;">Attorney General Letitia James</strong>: “And as Purdue sold more and more opioids, the Sackler family transferred more and more and more wealth to their personal accounts. And as the lawsuits have piled up against the Sackler family and Purdue for their roles in this crisis, they continue to move funds into trusts and, yes, offshore accounts.”</font></font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top; text-align: start; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family are facing multiple lawsuits. A group of over 500 cities, counties and Native American tribes filed a lawsuit against the Sacklers last week, accusing them of lying about the dangers of OxyContin and deceitful marketing of the drug. The New York suit names five other opioid manufacturers, including Johnson & Johnson and Israeli company Teva.</font></font></p></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Demonstrators inside New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum staged a “die in” and dropped thousands of paper slips designed to look like of OxyContin prescriptions Saturday night to protest the facility’s ties to the billionaire Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma and has been accused of deliberately fueling the opioid epidemic for profit.</font></font></p><div class="p1_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Education facilities at the Guggenheim, including a theater and an exhibition gallery, are housed inside the 8,200-square-foot Sackler Center for Arts Education, identified by the museum as ‘a gift of the Mortimer D. Sackler Family,'” the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times </em><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/arts/protesters-guggenheim-sackler.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reported</a>.</font></font></p><div class="p2_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The cloud of white slips, created by a group founded by the photographer Nan Goldin, was a response to a recently disclosed statement by Richard Sackler, the son of a Purdue founder, who said years ago that OxyContin’s launch would be ‘followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition,'” the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Times </em>continued.</font></font></p><div class="p3_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Videos of the striking demonstration quickly spread on social media:</font></font></p></div><div style=""><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/made-in-america-how-big-pharma-and-our-health-care-industry-conspired-to-forge-a-national-epidemic/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/made-in-america-how-big-pharma-and-our-health-care-industry-conspired-to-forge-a-national-epidemic/</a></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></p></div><div style=""><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/richard-sackler-purdue-pharma-opioid-crisis">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/richard-sackler-purdue-pharma-opioid-crisis</a></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Friday, the <u>Financial Times</u><em> </em><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a3a53ae8-b1e3-11e8-8d14-6f049d06439c" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> that billionaire pharmaceutical tycoon Richard Sackler has secured a <a href="https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=98,61,628.PN.&OS=PN/98,61,628&RS=PN/98,61,628" style="text-decoration-line: none;">patent</a> for a new drug to treat opioid addiction.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The drug, a reformulation of buprenorphine, is essentially just a milder opioid that can blunt the symptoms of withdrawal while a person is being weaned off — competing variants of which are already generating nearly $900 million in U.S. sales.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sackler's family also happens to own Purdue Pharma, the company that first developed OxyContin — a powerful narcotic painkiller that has been <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain" style="text-decoration-line: none;">blamed</a> for spurring the epidemic of opioid addiction that has decimated communities all across America.</font></font></p><div style="margin-bottom: 20px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In other words, Sackler made millions off of sales of a drug that caused a massive public health crisis — and now he stands to make millions more by selling the public a solution.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Purdue, one of several drug companies that made a decades-long push for liberal prescription of opioids, is currently facing a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-opioids-litigation/u-s-state-lawsuits-against-purdue-pharma-over-opioid-epidemic-mount-idUSKCN1IG2WU" style="text-decoration-line: none;">mountain of lawsuits</a>. Prosecutors in several states <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-strategy-suing-opioid-maker-blamed-addiction-crisis-target-family-n883091" style="text-decoration-line: none;">allege</a> Purdue was aware of the risk of addiction and overdose, but deceived doctors and patients and downplayed the risks to increase their sales — a charge the company denies. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey directly names several members of the Sackler family as defendants.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The National Institute of Drug Abuse <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none;">estimates</a> that up to 12 percent of patients prescribed an opioid develop an abuse disorder, and as many as 6 percent eventually switch to heroin. More than <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/images/data/OpioidDeathsByTypeUS.PNG" style="text-decoration-line: none;">115 people a day</a> are now killed by opioid overdoses.</b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rural areas have been <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3935688/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">especially impacted</a>, with an astonishing <a href="https://www.usda.gov/topics/opioids" style="text-decoration-line: none;">74 percent of farmers</a> reporting they or someone they know is suffering from opioid addiction.</b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While increased availability of addiction treatment is a good thing, it is not a solution to the epidemic. Opioids remain a necessary tool to treat severe pain from surgery, cancer, and other serious conditions, but they must be used judiciously, and alternative therapies must be made available — particularly in lower-income rural areas where people are at higher risk.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></p></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/exclusive-senators-are-demanding-information-about-giulianis-opioid-lobbying/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/exclusive-senators-are-demanding-information-about-giulianis-opioid-lobbying/</a></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">many docs</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">More than a decade ago, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma approached Rudy Giuliani, then fresh off a stint as the lauded mayor of New York City, asking for help: The little-known pharmaceutical company needed a trusted lawyer to help fight growing public relations and legal battles. It was 2002,</span> and <b>Purdue was facing its first lawsuits accusing the company of underplaying the addictive effects of its signature drug</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">By the time Purdue sought Giuliani’s guidance, he was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/us/politics/28oxycontin.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">reportedly</a> helping raise money for a museum dedicated to the Drug Enforcement Administration and his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, was consulting the Justice Department on reorganizing its major drug investigations.</span></font></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Recent developments cast a new light on the arrangement: Today, Giuliani serves as President Donald Trump’s lawyer, and Purdue Pharma is largely <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">viewed</a> as responsible for helping <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/12/a-brief-blood-boiling-history-of-the-opioid-epidemic/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">sow the seeds</a> of the current overdose epidemic, which killed roughly <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/overdoses-2017-record-high/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">72,000 Americans</a> last year. Purdue employed Giuliani Partners for years, clad with its founder’s shiny post-9/11 reputation and political connections. When a federal investigation in the mid-2000s threatened company executives with the<b> prospect of felonies and jail time</b>, the firm helped Purdue’s top brass get off with misdemeanor “misbranding” <a href="http://www.vawd.uscourts.gov/OPINIONS/JONES/107CR00029.PDF" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">convictions</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">community service</a> in 2007.<b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span>Purdue Pharma’s parent company, Purdue Frederick, pleaded <a href="http://www.vawd.uscourts.gov/OPINIONS/JONES/107CR00029.PDF" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">guilty</a> to a misbranding felony that cost it $600 million, but Giuliani helped strike a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/22/rudy-giuliani-opioid-epidemic-oxycontin-purdue-pharma" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">deal</a> that enabled Purdue Pharma to continue selling its blockbuster painkiller OxyContin.</b> “Among Mr. Giuliani’s missions was the job of convincing public officials that <b>they could trust Purdue because they could trust him</b>,” as the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/us/politics/28oxycontin.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">put it</a> that year. </span></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Wednesday, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent letters to the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration requesting information on the respective agencies’ contact with Giuliani Partners. The letters, shared with <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Mother Jones</em>, draw heavily on a recent <b><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">investigation</a> </b>finding that federal prosecutors knew about OxyContin’s widespread abuse and originally recommended that Purdue executives be charged with felonies, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.<b> But top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration pushed back—deciding instead to settle the case in 2007 rather than take it to trial. </b>The letters also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/us/politics/28oxycontin.html" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">cite</a> <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/05/oxycontin-purdue-pharma-federal-investigation-dopesick-excerpt-219158" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">investigations</a> suggesting that <b>Giuliani used his political connections to influence the relatively lenient outcome of the federal suit,</b> <b>as well as the lax approach the Drug Enforcement Administration took in curbing misuse of the drug. </b></font></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to asking for documentation of communications between the federal agencies and Giuliani Partners, the letters ask pointed questions about Giuliani himself, such as “What steps were taken to ensure that Giuliani’s other relationships with DOJ and its components did not improperly influence plea negotiations?”</font></font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent years, dozens of states and municipalities have filed lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors including Purdue, alleging that the overdose epidemic has caused a strain on public resources. Last week, Trump <a href="http://major%20lawsuit/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">asked</a> Attorney General Jeff Sessions to bring a separate, “major lawsuit” against opioid companies. </font></span></font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;">“Given that Mr. Giuliani has emerged as one of the President’s closest advisors, it’s important that we determine whether his past work on behalf of Purdue, a company that misled prescribers and patients alike about the addictive nature of its drug OxyContin, will influence this administration’s actions in terms of holding Purdue accountable for the devastating impact of its aggressive marketing of this drug,” wrote Ricki Eshman,</span><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> Hassan’s press secretary.</span></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read the full letters below:...</font></font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></p></div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aug 2016</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/prescription-drug-money-fuels-morrisey-campaign/article_c0fc197b-862e-5306-8724-61b9b7852ee8.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/prescription-drug-money-fuels-morrisey-campaign/article_c0fc197b-862e-5306-8724-61b9b7852ee8.html</a></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prescription drug money fuels Morrisey campaign</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Eric EyreDavid Gutman Aug 6, 2016 (0)</div><div>
</div><div><b>West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s re-election campaign is benefiting from money — both directly and indirectly — from lawyers and companies that have profited from the state’s prescription drug epidemic.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Prescription drug wholesalers being sued by Morrisey’s office for their role in fueling the state’s ongoing opioid problem have indirectly funded a portion of Morrisey’s re-election efforts.</div><div>
</div><div>Since 2014, McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health, both defendants in state lawsuits overseen by Morrisey, have donated a total of $50,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association, which has spent more money than any other organization in West Virginia to re-elect Morrisey.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">What’s more, at least two lawyers representing drug distributors in the lawsuits have contributed directly to Morrisey’s campaign.</span></div><div>
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</div><div><b>Morrisey also has taken campaign contributions from OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Morrisey is the only candidate in West Virginia, at any level of office, from House of Delegates, to Congress, through the governor’s race, to receive money from Purdue Pharma’s political action committee, which gave him the maximum allowable $1,000 in his uncontested primary election.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He is the only West Virginia candidate to receive money ($1,000) from Mallinckrodt, an Irish pharmaceutical company that produces several opioid products.</span></div><div>
</div><div>On the campaign trail, Morrisey has repeatedly touted his office’s “aggressive” fight against prescription drug abuse, and he has introduced initiatives that he says will significantly curb the number of opioids in West Virginia.</div><div>
</div><div>Morrisey campaign spokeswoman Kayla Berube said Morrisey holds the office and his campaign to the “highest of ethical standards.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>“He has a policy that prohibits intentional solicitation and acceptance of contributions from companies the office is suing,” Berube said.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Del. Don Perdue said Morrisey, a former lobbyist for the prescription drug industry, has “put his office up for sale.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>“Any argument that suggests these type of contributions are innocuous or have no effect defies logic,” said Perdue, a Wayne County Democrat and retired pharmacist.<b> “Coupled with his strong personal ties to the drug industry and the legal gymnastics he has performed to slow down the litigation regarding the distribution of narcotics, it defies belief.”</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While Purdue Pharma isn’t a defendant in the state’s lawsuits against drug wholesalers, the complaints allege the distributors shipped an excessive number of oxycodone pills (often sold under Purdue’s OxyContin brand name) to rogue pharmacies in West Virginia. The companies distribute more than 40 million oxycodone pills to West Virginia every year.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Thirty-five lawyers — whose Washington, D.C.-based law firms either lobby for Purdue Pharma or represent the drug giant in OxyContin-related lawsuits across the nation — have given Morrisey’s re-election campaign a combined $23,550 in the primary election cycle alone.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Purdue Pharma, whose drug is held more responsible than any other for the nation’s opioid epidemic, gave $290,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association since 2014, IRS records show.</b></div><div>
</div><div>“We contribute to those who share our commitment in combating prescription drug abuse,” said Bob Josephson, communications director for Purdue Pharma.</div><div>
</div><div><b>During the same time period, Cardinal Health, the nation’s second largest prescription drug distributor, gave more than $34,000, and McKesson, the largest wholesaler, pitched in $16,000.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Morrisey inherited lawsuits against Cardinal Health and a dozen other distributors from his predecessor, Darrell McGraw. In January, <b>Morrisey filed suit against McKesson after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s aides prodded him to do so for more than a year.</b></span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">RAGA also received donations totaling nearly $37,000 from two law firms — Foley & Lardner and Clark Hill PLC — that are representing other prescription drug distributors Morrisey’s office is suing.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Republican Attorneys General Association, through an affiliated political action committee, has already spent nearly $640,000 in West Virginia this year to help re-elect Morrisey. That’s more than Morrisey and his Democratic opponent, Delegate Doug Reynolds, combined have spent on their campaigns so far.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That PAC, Mountaineers Are Always Free PAC, was founded in May and is funded exclusively by RAGA.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Scott Will, RAGA’s executive director and chairman of Mountaineers Are Always Free, was Morrisey’s campaign manager in 2012.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">RAGA has also received major donations from such drug industry titans as Pfizer ($150,000), Eli Lilly ($76,000), GlaxoSmithKline ($50,000) and PhRMA ($50,000), the leading industry trade organization, representing nearly 60 pharmaceutical companies.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The donations from drug companies and their law firms are a veritable drop in the bucket for RAGA, which has raised more than $15 million this election cycle. The organization’s major donors include conservative heavyweights such as Koch Industries, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Sheldon Adelson.</span></div><div>
</div><div>“RAGA receives support from a wide variety of people and industries interested in supporting the rule of law,” Will said in an emailed statement.</div><div>
</div><div>McKesson, Cardinal Health and Purdue Pharma also have donated to the Democratic Attorneys General Association, but that group hasn’t spent any money in West Virginia. Reynolds has largely self-funded his campaign so far and has not received help from any outside groups or super PACs.</div><div>
</div><div><b>RAGA, which advertises on Morrisey’s behalf, is legally prohibited from coordinating with his campaign.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In April, Huntington lawyer Marc Williams gave $500 to Morrisey’s campaign — one of two lawyers to donate to the campaign who also represents a drug distributor that Morrisey’s office is suing.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I don’t think there is any conflict,</span>” Williams said. “All of the counsel that are representing the state in that, which includes staff attorneys and retained outside counsel, have done so vigorously and represented the state’s interest well in a way that would make any objective observer proud.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Williams said he has also worked on other cases that Morrisey’s office is involved in — both with and against the attorney general — including litigation over the 2014 Elk River chemical spill, where he represents Eastman Chemical.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Williams, who’s defending drug wholesaler J.M. Smith, praised Morrisey, saying he had “significantly enhanced the quality of representation and lawyering in that office since he took over” in 2013.</div><div>
</div><div>The other drug company lawyer, Charles Bailey, did not respond to requests for comment. Bailey, who represents <b>Quest Pharmaceuticals, gave Morrisey $1,000 in 2015.</b></div><div>
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</div><div>Another lawyer who formerly represented a drug wholesaler being sued also donated to Morrisey’s campaign in May.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two of Morrisey’s former employers — Washington, D.C., law firms King & Spalding and Sidley Austin — have given RAGA a combined $30,350.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">King & Spalding is lead defense counsel for Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin-related lawsuits. Sidley Austin lobbies for Purdue Pharma on Capitol Hill.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>While Morrisey worked for Sidley Austin, lobbyists for Purdue Pharma listed Morrisey as the firm’s contact, according to lobbying disclosure forms.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At King & Spalding, Morrisey himself lobbied for the Healthcare Distribution Management Association, a trade group that represents McKesson, Cardinal Health and other prescription drug wholesalers, generating $250,000 for the firm.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Morrisey’s wife, Denise Henry, lobbies for Cardinal Health in Washington.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since last year, King & Spalding lawyers contributed $14,800 to Morrisey’s campaign, while Sidley Austin lawyers and lobbyists have added $8,750 to his coffers.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Lawyers from both firms, along with prescription drug wholesaler PACs and executives, also helped bankroll Morrisey’s 2012 campaign.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Cardinal Health executives donated $4,000 to Morrisey’s campaign in 2012, $3,000 of which came after McGraw’s office filed suit against the company. A Cardinal vice president also contributed $1,000 to Morrisey’s campaign in December 2012, a month after Morrisey defeated McGraw. Cardinal Health also contributed $2,500 to Morrisey’s inauguration ceremony</div><div>
</div><div>A McKesson vice president contributed to Morrisey’s campaign in 2012, and AmerisourceBergen’s PAC donated $2,000 to the campaign the same year.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In January, Morrisey recused himself from his office’s lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen and 10 other smaller distributors, following a state Lawyer Disciplinary Board investigation. The disciplinary board concluded that Morrisey did not violate any lawyer ethics rules, but the board suggested he step aside from the drug company lawsuit to avoid any appearance of impropriety.</span></div><div>
</div><div>That same month, Morrisey also recused himself from his office’s lawsuit against McKesson, after heading an investigation of the company for more than a year.</div><div>
</div><div>Morrisey previously stepped aside from the Cardinal Health lawsuit — a recusal he characterized as a “permanent screen” — in July 2013, seven months after taking office, according to the disciplinary board.</div><div>
</div><div><b>The investigative panel found the contributions from the drug wholesalers and their executives didn’t appear to “amount to extraordinary campaign support,” and it wasn’t unethical for Morrisey to accept the donations.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But the disciplinary board noted that attorneys general in other states restrict campaign contributions from companies their offices are investigating.</span></div></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Except that the literature was based on short-term usage, not on long-acting opioids taken over extended periods of time. By 2003, Portenoy admitted to the Times that he had misgivings about how he and other pain specialists had used the research. Although he had not intended to mischaracterize it or to mislead fellow doctors, he had tried to counter claims that overplayed the risk of addiction. But if not for such mischaracterizations, the Sacklers wouldn’t be as wealthy, and America might not be suffering from a public health crisis that is costing the country an <a href="https://wolterskluwer.com/company/newsroom/news/2016/09/costs-of-us-prescription-opioid-epidemic-estimated-at-usd78.5-billion.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">estimated $78.5 billion a year.</a></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even as the scope and scale of the opioid epidemic unfolds, the fortune OxyContin built continues to grow. In the case of OxyContin heir Jonathan Sackler, part of that fortune is being devoted to expanding charter schools and weakening protections for teachers in traditional public schools. Patrick Keefe’s <em>New Yorker</em> feature ends with a stunning statistic: “An addicted baby is now born every half hour.” He asks whether such devastation should give pause to organizations that benefit from the Sacklers' extensive philanthropy. In the case of the charter schools and education reform advocacy groups that Jonathan Sackler funds, the answer to that question should be obvious. </font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>