Angry, defiant and sometimes tearful, more than two dozen Americans whose lives were upended by the opioid crisis finally had their long-awaited chance Thursday to confront in court some members of the family they blame for fueling it.
They were unsparing as they unleashed decades of frustration and sorrow on members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma over the course of a three-hour virtual hearing.
The unusual hearing was conducted virtually in U.S. Bankruptcy Court at the suggestion of a mediator who helped broker a deal that could settle thousands of lawsuits against Purdue over the toll of opioids, generating billions for the fight against the addiction and overdose crisis and giving Sackler family members protection from lawsuits.
Jannette Adams told of her late husband, Dr. Thomas Adams, who was a physician and church deacon in Mississippi and a missionary in Africa and Haiti. He became addicted to opioids after pharmaceutical representatives pitched them, she said. After a terrible decline, he died in 2015. “I understand today’s your birthday, Richard, how will you be celebrating?” she said. “I guarantee it won’t be in the cemetery. ... You have truly benefitted from the death of children. You are scum of the earth.”
The forum was unconventional for the White Plains, New York, courtroom of Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who on WednesdayOther drugmakers and wholesalers and even a consulting companyover the opioid crisis, which has been linked two more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades. But Purdue’s case stands out because it was an early player with OxyContin and is privately owned.
The family also agreed not to oppose any efforts to remove the Sackler name from cultural and educational institutions they have supported and to make public a larger cache of company documents.
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'Scum of the earth': Drug victims face Purdue Pharma ownersAngry, defiant and sometimes tearful, more than two dozen Americans whose lives were upended by the opioid crisis finally had their long-awaited chance Thursday to confront in court some members of the family they blame for fueling it.
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'Scum of the earth': Drug victims face Purdue Pharma ownersAngry, defiant and sometimes tearful, more than two dozen Americans whose lives were upended by the opioid crisis finally had their long-awaited chance Thursday to confront in court some members of the family they blame for fueling it. One woman played a recording from when she called 911 to get help for her overdosing son, then called one of the Sacklers the “scum of the earth.' Several displayed pictures of loved ones who died too soon because of their addictions.
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Opioid victims face Purdue Pharma owners: 'Scum of the earth'In a U.S. Bankruptcy Court virtual hearing, more than two dozen addiction and overdose survivors addressed members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma. One speaker called a family member 'scum of the earth.'
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