Opioid Crisis through the Eyes of Psychologists

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Opioid Crisis through the Eyes of Psychologists
Lately, many media outlets have been reporting the ongoing litigations against Purdue Pharma, a defendant on the continuing war on opioids. Purdue Pharma is a drug manufacturing firm based in Connecticut. The company has been sued for pushing the sales of one of its products (OxyContin) which ignited the opioid crisis. The company is sued for misleading regulators, doctors and patients about the dangers of OxyContin while blaming abusers and street drugs for the epidemic of dependency and death. Opioid crisis is a structural problem that has plagued the United States. The pharmaceutical companies initially insisted that their products were not addictive. The big pharma continued developing new opioids which are more potent (like Fentanyl) than their predecessors and while they kept minting billions in profit, more people became addicted. The Purdue Pharma is currently being sued for orchestrating the crisis. At the moment the company is facing and ‘avalanche of cases’ and it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company is seeking a $10 billion settlement for the role it played in creating this mess.
In an article by the New York Times, Jan Hoffman and Mary Williams Walsh report that the Purdue filed for bankruptcy in mid-September 2019 in White Plains, New York. According to the article, the bankruptcy announcement came shortly after the company had reached a tentative deal with state and local governments of its role in creating the opioid crisis. The article reports that some states have not signed to the $10 billion settlement and they claim it is not worth the damage they have caused. Further, the Purdue’s board of directors have voted to follow through with the bankruptcy filing as it hopes to restructure and steer out of the crisis. Details of the settlement deal include a provision that the Sackler’s family would give up ownership of the company, sell their UK based drug manufacturer (Mundipharma) and pay $3 billion to the plaintiffs in 7 years. After restructuring the company, the company has claimed it will play by the rules governing marketing and sales of drugs. Some states have faulted the deal and claimed it is a slap on the wrist since even the tentative compensation value was calculated by the defendant. CITATION Jan19 \l 1033 (Hoffman and Walsh) also report that the opposing states cite that the Sackler’s family will continue to participate in the business until their UK-based company is sold which basically means the company will continue wreaking havoc on other lives while purportedly appearing to be apologetic for the mess they have already caused. The company also claims that the bankruptcy filing comes after the New York attorney general, Letitia James, uncovered almost a billion dollars in previously undisclosed wire transfers from Purdue to private accounts held by one of the Sackler’sCITATION Jan19 \l 1033 (Hoffman and Walsh). The article also notes that some states have opted out of the settlement and it is yet to be determined whether the resolution to which other plaintiffs have agreed to is binding to all plaintiffs.
This article relates to drug and substance abuse in which we discussed in our Introduction to psychology class. The discussion detailed the chemical effects of psychoactive drugs on the...