Parents rally at trial against opioid makers
‘You wake up every day and your heart breaks a little’
They came bearing oversized images of the sons and daughters they lost to drug overdoses and signs demanding justice from the pharmaceutical company they hold most responsible.
The parents and their supporters rallied outside a Boston courthouse Friday as a judge heard arguments in Massachusetts’ lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, over its role in the national opioid epidemic.
“Unless you’ve lost a child, you don’t know what that pain is like,” said Kathleen Scarpone, a New Hampshire resident whose 25-year-old son died of an overdose in 2015, just a few years after serving as a Marine in Afghanistan. “You wake up every day and your heart breaks a little. I don’t want anyone to ever feel that.”
Scarpone was among more than 100 people gathered in front of Suffolk Superior Court through the daylong hearing. The group laid poster boards filled with photos of hundreds of Massachusetts overdose victims on the courthouse steps.
Some held signs saying, “Sack the Sacklers,” referring to the wealthy family that owns Purdue Pharma and whose name is emblazoned across major institutions such as the Smithsonian, Guggenheim and Harvard from years of philanthropy. Organizers also sent letters to state attorneys general calling on them to dedicate all money recovered from opioid makers into addiction prevention efforts, substance abuse treatment and recovery support programs.
“They need to see the families,” Cheryl Juaire, a mother from Marlboro, whose 23year-old son died of an overdose in 2011, said of company officials and the Sackler family. “They need to be held accountable for the deaths of our children.”
Members of the Sackler family weren’t present Friday as lawyers representing the company, former executives and family members argued that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s lawsuit should be dismissed.
The suit is among more than 2,000 by state and local governments pending against Purdue Pharma and other opioid makers.
Lawyers for the numerous defendants in the case said Healey, a Democrat, has distorted facts and made oversimplified claims in a bid to scapegoat the company and its leaders for an epidemic that’s claimed more than 400,000 lives since 1999.
Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders is expected to decide on the legal motions to toss out the case later.