Healey still suing OxyContin maker
AG wants nothing to do with ‘offensive’ Purdue settlement
Recovering addicts who blame Purdue Pharma for getting them hooked on opioids say the company’s multibillion-dollar plan to settle lawsuits as part of a bankruptcy is dodging responsibility.
“It’s not enough. I think that they’re trying to hide their own fortune,” said Rob Demeo, outreach coordinator for Sunrise Detox in Millbury, of the projected $10 billion to $12 billion settlement that will go into a public trust to address the opioid crisis.
Demeo got addicted to opioids, and later heroin, he said, after being hit by a drunken driver in 2010 and was prescribed OxyContin for his injuries.
Instead of the settlement, Demeo wants to see jail time served.
“There’s no amount of money in the world, or any fortune, that can replace the lives of the people that I grew up with or the brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews and daughters that we’ve lost because of this opiate epidemic,” Demeo said.
Attorney General Maura Healey is opposed to taking any part in the settlement, which she said does not require the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, to pay back any of the profits it earned from selling OxyContin.
Healey, speaking at a press conference Monday, vowed to “aggressively prosecute and litigate this case.”
“I will do everything in my power to ensure that these billionaires don’t escape liability and aren’t able to once again shield themselves, cover everything up, conceal everything and move on with their lives which is exactly what they’re intending to try to do,” Healey said.
Healey said it is “offensive” that the settlement will be funded through future OxyContin sales.
Shaun Wallace, co-owner of The Willing House in Worcester, said she got addicted to OxyContin but she’s been clean for five years.
“That family, Purdue, they were my first drug dealer. And luckily, I found recovery unlike some of my friends who died,” Wallace said.
Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute and cochairman of the Right Care Alliance, said measuring dollars against human lives isn’t fair.
“Both Purdue and the Sacklers are really kind of dodging what the truth is here,” said Saini. “They deserve to face real justice and honestly I don’t think real justice is about the money.”
There are 24 states involved in the settlement. It will be up to a federal bankruptcy judge in New York to decide whether to approve the settlement, and also whether those state lawsuits can continue.
Steve Miller, chairman of Purdue’s board of directors, said in a statement, “This settlement framework avoids wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years on protracted litigation, and instead will provide billions of dollars and critical resources to communities across the country trying to cope with the opioid crisis.”