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8-Hour Deposition of Richard Sackler Deny Family's Role in the Opioid Crisis

1 points by raybb 5y ago

hilbert42 5y ago
I have only had a chance to listen to a small portion of Dr Richard Sackler's deposition and I find it very difficult to believe what I'm hearing. For instance, when questioned about opioid addiction in the 19th and 20th centuries he responded with words to the effect that he was not a student of or wasn't knowledgeable about the history thereof. One doesn't need to be an historian to know that the 'modern' addiction crisis started around the time of the Civil War when a confluence of factors came together. The first being that many soldiers were injured and that they needed the strongest pain relief available, the second being that around this time the hypodermic needle had just been invented and that opioid administration by this method greatly potentiated the drug's effect and thus the much greater likelihood of a patient to suffer addiction—a fact learned the hard way through terrible circumstances. The indisputable facts are that many soldiers became addicted to their narcotic painkillers and that these facts were widely known both then and now by both the medical and pharmaceutical professions and the public at large. The fact that the media has been full of such news about opioid addiction for 150 years, one cannot not be unaware of the issues as if one were some kind of modern-day Rip Van Winkle. And for someone in Dr Richard Sackler's position, multiply that knowledge by just about any number you'd like! Even the notion that Sackler wasn't aware or knowledgeable of the facts is outrageously absurd! The widespread knowledge of the dangers of opioid addiction led eventually to regulation then worldwide treaties on the distribution and trafficking of narcotics etc. which then led to a further tightening of laws in almost every country in the first half of the 20th Century. (It's worth reading the History section of the Wiki on heroin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin. What Dr Sackler is implying that he knew none of this.) Again, it is inconceivable that a person in Dr Sackler's position did not have at least a skeletal outline of these facts as they would have been a part of any reputable medical or pharmacology course. Even if he skipped every lecture about the dangers of narcotic opioid addiction—heroin, morphine, etc.—then he wouldn't have been able to skip the highly topical and common worldview (of the population, law enforcement, government, etc.) about opioid addiction as it has been a constant thread throughout the media across his life. I hope for the sake of all Purdue's victims that there are sufficient forces at work with the will, determination and fortitude to expose this farce of a testimony for what it really is. Listening to this video is hard going and there's lots of it but I'd hope many of you will listen to at least the first half hour or so of it to get a feel for what's happening—that is, how Purdue is trying to dodge and wheedle its way out of what is a huge crime against many thousands of people many of whom are now dead as the consequence.

1 points by raybb 5y ago

I have only had a chance to listen to a small portion of Dr Richard Sackler's deposition and I find it very difficult to believe what I'm hearing. For instance, when questioned about opioid addiction in the 19th and 20th centuries he responded with words to the effect that he was not a student of or wasn't knowledgeable about the history thereof. One doesn't need to be an historian to know that the 'modern' addiction crisis started around the time of the Civil War when a confluence of factors came together. The first being that many soldiers were injured and that they needed the strongest pain relief available, the second being that around this time the hypodermic needle had just been invented and that opioid administration by this method greatly potentiated the drug's effect and thus the much greater likelihood of a patient to suffer addiction—a fact learned the hard way through terrible circumstances. The indisputable facts are that many soldiers became addicted to their narcotic painkillers and that these facts were widely known both then and now by both the medical and pharmaceutical professions and the public at large. The fact that the media has been full of such news about opioid addiction for 150 years, one cannot not be unaware of the issues as if one were some kind of modern-day Rip Van Winkle. And for someone in Dr Richard Sackler's position, multiply that knowledge by just about any number you'd like! Even the notion that Sackler wasn't aware or knowledgeable of the facts is outrageously absurd! The widespread knowledge of the dangers of opioid addiction led eventually to regulation then worldwide treaties on the distribution and trafficking of narcotics etc. which then led to a further tightening of laws in almost every country in the first half of the 20th Century. (It's worth reading the History section of the Wiki on heroin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin. What Dr Sackler is implying that he knew none of this.) Again, it is inconceivable that a person in Dr Sackler's position did not have at least a skeletal outline of these facts as they would have been a part of any reputable medical or pharmacology course. Even if he skipped every lecture about the dangers of narcotic opioid addiction—heroin, morphine, etc.—then he wouldn't have been able to skip the highly topical and common worldview (of the population, law enforcement, government, etc.) about opioid addiction as it has been a constant thread throughout the media across his life. I hope for the sake of all Purdue's victims that there are sufficient forces at work with the will, determination and fortitude to expose this farce of a testimony for what it really is. Listening to this video is hard going and there's lots of it but I'd hope many of you will listen to at least the first half hour or so of it to get a feel for what's happening—that is, how Purdue is trying to dodge and wheedle its way out of what is a huge crime against many thousands of people many of whom are now dead as the consequence.