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Sacklers threaten to scrap opioid deal if they aren't shielded from lawsuits
Lawyers for OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma filed a new complaint late Wednesday threatening that the company's mega-rich owners, the Sackler family, could pull out of a proposed multi-billion-dollar opioid settlement deal if a bankruptcy judge doesn't shield the family from outstanding state lawsuits.
Purdue's lawyers argue that if the lawsuits continue, the Sacklers will have to waste "hundreds of millions of dollars" on legal costs that could otherwise go to claimants in the settlement. The family's lawyers added that in that event, the family "may be unwilling—or unable—to make the billions of dollars of contributions" to the proposed settlement.
State attorneys general, however, argue that the tactic is yet another move designed to shield the Sacklers and their ill-gotten wealth.
"This filing isn't a surprise. It's yet another effort by Purdue to avoid accountability and shield the Sackler family fortune, and we will be opposing it," Maura Healey, the attorney general of Massachusetts, told the New York Times.
Related:
- Makers of OxiCotin, Purdue Pharma, Files Reorganization Chapter 11 "Bankrupty"
- Opioid Talks Fail, Purdue Bankruptcy Filing Expected
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Username on Sunday September 22 2019, @08:15AM (3 children)
A prescription is a choice. You can refuse ambulance service, you can refuse any service you want. The only way your anecdote makes sense is if you're unconscious and the drug is administered without your consent.
This just sounds like, "oh, that kid had no choice but to shoot up that elementary school, the NRA made him do it."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 22 2019, @09:15AM (2 children)
I suppose there is truth in what you say. You CAN refuse medical treatment. From experience, when you are lying on the floor, or the ground, helpless, your judgement changes. With or without pain, the helplessness is more than enough to "force" you to accept the help being offered. Add some medium pain, and you are much more willing to accept a medical professional's help, and to trust his judgement. Turn that into severe pain, then all you can think about is the pain. You'll accept almost any offer to relieve that pain.
I believe that you can accept and understand that premise. Let us keep in mind that people are *almost* never addicted when morphine or whatever is prescribed for a short term emergency situation. There is little reason to believe that you are going to be addicted within the span of 12 to 48 hours, under the care of a doctor or hospital staff. The danger comes from longer term care.
Given that you have already placed your trust in your doctor. Given that most injuries and ailments do hurt. Now, you have to consider the patient's history. Does the patient have experience with pain? Does the patient have any coping ability with pain? What is the patient's attitude toward drugs, in general? There's a lot of stuff to consider here - stuff that the doctor should be considering. Among all the other considerations, is, how manipulable is the patient, when healthy and pain free? Now, weakened, and in pain, he is likely to be far more manipulable. When that Voice of Authority suggests pain meds, the patient is likely to go along with Authority.
Some of us who have "problems with authority" find it easier to reject those suggestions of longer term pain medications. Others - not so much.
Really, you have to put yourself in that position, to the best of your ability, before you start judging these victims. Have you never been helpless? If not, I really don't think that you can understand the problem.
As for school shooters - there is not, and cannot be, any defense of them, or their actions. Burn 'em, using your preferred burning methods. I can't care about them or their "problems".
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @08:12AM (1 child)
Almost a year ago, I went to the local ER for a heart attack.
On the 1-10 scale of pain tolerance, I am a ZERO. On the 1-10 scale of pain threshold, I'm a 0.5 on a good day.
When the attending physician wanted to get a helicopter dispatched to take me to a regional hospital, I objected (because: cost).
Weather prevented the (prohibitively expensive) flight. My spouse insisted I be transported via ambulance, against my strenuous objections. By that time, I had received enough morphine for the medics to disregard my protestations. and follow my spouse's directions. I was in intolerable (to me) pain.
While I'm glad I survived, I would MUCH rather they had kept up with the morphine, put me in a room, and let me die with my credit score unaffected.
BTW: there is a collection agency in pursuit of me for the ambulance ride, for which I can't pay.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday September 23 2019, @07:51PM
I'm sorry that you've had such issues, and hope that your life gets better. I'm a little confused by your saying that you wish you had died and yet you're glad you survived. I hope you keep up the hope and mindset that you're glad you survived. Heart pain (and, if you experienced it, that feeling of dread that you know your body is shutting down on you) is something you can't explain to someone who hasn't had it. Because morphine can cloud judgment is why one relies on someone else's (a spouse's) judgment. And it can be hard to know that the morphine is helping when it is. But it's also important to get off the morphine when you doctor advises you to.
That said, I replied because there was one significant piece of advice you didn't ask for and yet I feel compelled to give it: Talk to the collection agency and don't just push them off. If you haven't had a collection bill for the hospital yet, talk to them before they send your hospital bill to a collection agency. The problems won't go away because you ignore them, and if you talk to them (both hospital and agency) you might be able to work out an arrangement that is acceptable. You may require a very long term arrangement (most places an ambulance ride can be between $1,500-$3,000) just to hospital, and transports more, but it's better to give $20 or $50 a month seemingly forever than have a lawsuit take a bigger chunk. Sometimes you can negotiate the bill downward as well so that you've rehabilitated the debt in 3-5 years. And you won't hurt yourself any more for having talked to them than what can be done if you ignore it. FWIW, IANAL, YMMV, and may it all work out for you.
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