Opioids have wreaked havoc on the American public with no location left unscathed by their addictive wrath. They’ve served as a stepping stone to heroin, meth, and other life-destroying drugs, and in many cases have led to the eventual point of death. Sadly, most opioid victims were decent and productive people at one time. It wasn’t their fault.
Pharmaceutical companies have always faced immense criticism over how they wine and dine physicians to start prescribing their latest wonder drug, and an FDA approval doesn’t mean squat. Those can be bought, and besides, the FDA only analyzes what they think a new drug’s short-term effect will be. Who cares what’ll happen down the road once all that money’s been made?
At long last, and not nearly soon enough, it’s pay-up time. Johnson & Johson, the creator of this hellacious concoction of chemicals, along with three major distributors of their opioid-based drugs, better strat reaching deep. This is gonna sting hard. The settlement they’re signing off on will lessen their coffers by $26 billion. Yes, that’s billion so expect a price increase in baby aspirin and talcum powder.
A lesser lawsuit was just won in New York state against the three opioid distributors, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson. That one was worth $1 billion just to settle the drug’s massive destructiveness in one state alone.
Pulling no punches, immediately following the trial’s outcome New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “Today, we’re holding them accountable delivering more than $1 billion more into New York communities ravaged by opioids for treatment, recovery, and prevention efforts.”
Information of the $26 billion settlement was anonymously given to the Associated Press due to those involved being forbidden at this point to publically reveal the outcome that’ll soon enough be widely known anyway.
This latest national win involving all four of the Satan-worshipping companies is the largest single settlement in the known universe over the crisis this drug has caused in the U.S. But the pursuit isn’t about to stop while there are still other fish to filet and deep-fry. And you can bet they’re flopping pretty hard right about now.
Purdue Pharma, the drug kingpin of OxyContin, and drug manufacturer Mallinckrodt that pushes a generic knock-off version are both being blistered in the hot seat. The sticker shocking amount for this one has not as yet been disclosed but it’s highly anticipated to be within the coming days.
Regional drug distributors, local and chain pharmacies, and scriptwriting physicians shouldn’t be breathing too easily either. They knew what was up but the bribes were just too extravagant to pass up. And the more of it they got into their patient’s bloodstreams the bigger and better the gifts got. They were observing their own ‘hypocritical’ creeds.
Johnson & Johnson issued a cleverly worded statement that neither admitted blame nor expressed sorrow or condolences to the victims or their families. Sad.
“There continues to be progress toward finalizing this agreement and we remain committed to providing certainty for involved parties and critical assistance for families and communities in need.” Well…okay…that’s not so bad. Yet.
“The settlement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing, and the Company will continue to defend against any litigation that the final agreement does not resolve.” An unempathetic denial in its most glorious moment.
It’s question and answer time. How many of our readers have personally witnessed a friend or family member’s rapid decline as the result of opioid addiction? Have you? And of those who have suffered or are still suffering, how many of them had previously been happily zipping through life and doing well?
How many of them escalated to harder drugs? How many of them stuck needles in their arms once the opioids no longer did their job? How many of them died from overdoses or tainted drugs they bought on the street from some unknown character? How many of you are now permanently damaged because of it? It’s the long arm of opioid addiction.
Money will never amend for the lives lost and destroyed at the hands of the greedy, yet legal, drug pushers. We can only hope that the cost of this one at least serves as a future deterrent. They have in-house laboratories for such testing purposes, maybe this will convince them to start using them. Or maybe to just start telling the truth. Either way…
As for the FDA stamping their seal of approval on anything delivered via a new Mercedez and a sweet vacation package for the entire crew, fire the lot of them and start over. They also have unused labs.
If any of you answered yes to the asked questions, we here at this publication can only express our most heartfelt condolences. Though it might be too late for some of you, rest assured for the sake of others, this epidemic is finally being dealt with, and we’re keeping a very close eye on things. May justice be served.