New York Sues Big Pharma 'To Make Them Pay' for Deliberately Fueling Opioid Epidemic

in #life7 years ago

New York City has become the latest city to hold Big Pharma accountable for the role it has played in the Opioid Epidemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city has filed a $500 million lawsuit against eight major drug companies that distribute prescription opioids because it is "time for Big Pharma to pay for what they’ve done. It’s time that they are held accountable.”

The companies named in the lawsuit include manufacturers Allergan Plc, Endo International Plc, Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma LP and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, and distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp.

In a statement, de Blasio noted that he feels the lawsuit is necessary because deaths from opioid overdoses have reached unbearable heights in recent years, and now occur more often than deaths from car crashes and homicides—combined.

“More New Yorkers have died from opioid overdoses than car crashes and homicides combined in recent years. Big Pharma helped to fuel this epidemic by deceptively peddling these dangerous drugs and hooking millions of Americans in exchange for profit. It’s time for hold the companies accountable for what they’ve done to our City, and help save more lives.”
The lawsuit is accusing manufacturers of misleading consumers and hiding the dangers of highly addictive prescription opioids, and it is accusing distributors of oversupplying the drugs, ignoring suspicious orders, and helping illegal suppliers. As Reuters reported, more than 42,000 Americans died from opioid-induced overdoses in 2016, and more than 1,100 of those deaths occurred in New York City.

In statements responding to The Hill’s request for comment on the lawsuit, Endo and Purdue Pharma denied the allegations, Janssen Pharmaceuticals called the claims “baseless and unsubstantiated,” AmerisourceBergen said it has been working closely with the DEA, and Allergan insisted that its products containing opioids were only responsible for 0.08% of the overdose deaths in 2016.

"Teva is committed to the appropriate use of opioid medicines, and we recognize the critical public health issues impacting communities across the U.S. as a result of illegal drug use as well as the misuse and abuse of opioids that are available legally by prescription,” the company responded.

New York City joins more than 10 others who have filed lawsuits against Big Pharma, which started when the city of Chicago took legal action in 2014. Other major cities that have filed lawsuits include Seattle, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. City Lab reported that the current lawsuits are hoping for a victory similar to one that occurred when attorneys from 46 states sued the tobacco industry in 1998:

“Drug companies marketed and sold too many prescription drugs to too many patients, they argue, without offering adequate and accurate information about their risks. As a result, thousands of users have become dependent, often turning to harder versions of those originally prescribed opioids.

The cities developing the lawsuits listed below are bolstering the state effort in holding Big Pharma accountable, much in the way that 46 state and local attorneys worked together to take on Big Tobacco in 1998. Then, their efforts were successful: tobacco companies ended up paying out more than $200 billion in settlements for peddling addictive, harmful drugs. The opioid industry could be next.”
Five of the major pharmaceutical companies named in New York’s lawsuit were also named in a lawsuit filed by the state of Ohio in June 2017. As The Free Thought Project reported, state Attorney General Mike DeWine alleged that the companies “helped unleash a health care crisis that has had far-reaching financial, social, and deadly consequences in the State of Ohio.”

“This lawsuit is about justice, it’s about fairness, it’s about what is right. These drug companies knew that what they were saying was wrong and they did it anyway and they continue to do so,” DeWine said in a statement.

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There seems to be a lot of alleged attacking going on, but very little evidence of actual prosecution and accountability, we can only hope it is not another whitewash to keep us quiet and content that all is well, when in fact it gets worse everyday. That said I just cannot understand people who do this to themselves. Stop self -destructing! Thanks tftproject for the post.

Many people do not realize how much control big pharma has over the American government. Pharma uses government to regulate competition out of society. Politicians make millions, and pharma makes billions.

Statistically the "opioid epidemic" has peaked. Thankfully deaths have started to decline.

Great article it is interesting to hear that states are acting out against big pharma companies as this is nothing new and has been happening for awhile. For myself I have been disgusted with the health system I have been apart of my whole life and how easy it is to get certain prescriptions and other drugs. The issue that got me started on this path was how easy it is for children to be hooked on adderall or given prescriptions of the drug. I personally tried this as a study aid as I heard from fellow classmates while I was in school and after feeling the affects I read more into what it actually was and was shocked and disgusted with the results. It shocks me that parents and doctors can prescribe these drugs to children who do not need them on the basis that they cannot focus for defined periods of time. If it was around when I was growing up, I know for certain I would be characterized on the list as being unable to focus for extended periods of time, but what normal child can? I am happy to see action finally being taken against the big pharmaceutical companies and hope they get punished accordingly for their role in our current societal problems.

As someone who has worked in the field of education I can say first hand that I have seen schools recommend drugs for children who are under 5 years old. It is a disgusting practice. We are sold the lie that the school system is properly formatted and any child who does not conform to it must have something wrong with them; give them drugs and make them conform. In reality we are subjecting children to a crazy system. It is biologically appropriate for a child not to sit still for eight hours daily.

Hopefully, we see more lawsuits against big Pharma, especially ones that are causing the opioid crisis around the world. Medical Cannabis is much safer and a better alternative.

Here is a great article talking about the medical benefits of Cannabis to various ailments by @juanidi

https://steemit.com/life/@tftproject/new-york-sues-big-pharma-to-make-them-pay-for-deliberately-fueling-opioid-epidemic

@tftproject. It's about time this big pharmacy companies are held accountable for the evils they are perpetrating under the guise of producing drugs to alleviate or improve people's wellbeing all. Selling despite the side effects out weighing the benefits of its use. Hope their influence and money prove useless in influencing the court's ruling.

I hate these stupid lawsuits, Boston is filing one as well. Seems like a huge waste of tax dollars to file these frivolous political lawsuits. Maybe its time for some protections for the pharmaceutical industry against frivolous suits like the gun industry has. What we really need to do is legalize opium and heroin, that's how to really stick it to these legal drug dealers, give them some competition.

Many people do not realize how much control big pharma has over the United States Government. Pharma uses lobbying connections to partner with corrupt elements of the American government to create corporate-government monopolies by regulating away potential competition. Politicians get millions, and pharma gets billions.

They are always in trouble making false claims and people trust these drug thugs ?
Doctors trust these thugs
Parents trust the doctor
Kid trusts the parent

Good luck

It's a systemic thing with the Pharma, Police, Private for-profit prisons, and the DEA. It's been racially motivated against black people in particular, and then mexican. Not just latin of some sort, but specifically from mexico. All of the current drug laws are aimed that way, and so is everything else. The US medical-prison complex simply hates you, and wishes to eat you alive. Blood sacrifice en masse, as far as I can tell.

Incidentally, marijuana has been 100% legal for those over 21 since 1999. It's just that if people aren't directly told, they never bother to look into their rights. Not knowing your rights or the law means those who enforce them can do as they wish.

Worse still - opiates and opioids aren't simply addictive. The first commercial one was made by Bayer and called Heroin. It was a cough suppressant for children. It did end up fixing whooping cough pretty much, but it also lead to a generation of trained addicts.

You can serve only One master. And you yourself are designed to be a servant, not a leader. We simply don't get the fact that the Governments of any country are necessarily criminal enterprises. One only gets power through cheating, lying, and keeping the secrets of other powerful people. But it's all bloody fake.

You can serve God. That involves ten simple laws and nothing more. Or you can serve Man. That involves property taxation to force you into eternal labor to a machine that not only hates you, but has a passion for taking and ruining your Children. These, whether you believe me or not, are fallen angels. Each is named, and you can figure it out pretty easily. Azaezel was released from his chains in the early 1940's, and then Admiral Byrd was sent to meet him. Followed by us shooting nukes straight up. A lot of them.

They all blew up at around 100 miles up. Which is where the goddamn ceiling is. The ground is solid under you, you are not being pushed down against it and it's not rising up to meet you. Look up, and notice the stars. If you were spinning at 666 miles per hour, wouldn't they be streaking quickly across the sky? "Distance" you say? Go for a drive. Notice how the trees furthest away appear to move away the fastest. Not the slowest.

The sun is millions of miles (totally different number depending on the 'scientist') away, and 666 times the size of the moon. Which is utter bullshit if you've ever been in a plane and looked up. The sun is close, and the same size of the moon. Both are under the dome.

Watch rockets. Notice what they do. They go 100 miles up (depending on how close to the center/north pole). At that point, they either blow up or start curving back toward the ocean. Take a look at photos from space, and notice that they are all artistic renderings. Worse yet, according to NASA they use balloons to float cameras, take a bunch of photos and have an artist stitch them, and then wrap them around a sphere. Why? "To match public expectation."

You know exactly what the earth is. And it's not a planet. And the sun isn't a nuclear explosion holding itself together. And you aren't an accident. And life simply cannot spring up from nothing. The main problem is that it's a catch-22. You, nature, and time ... none can create life.

I mention all of this nutty sounding stuff because it's the reason for All of this bullshit. You can't get a culture to worship you unless they are addicted to what you have. When you break a bone, and you get opiates, pay attention when you stop taking them. That pain isn't the injury, it already healed. The pain is simply the lack of opiates. And worse, it's the doctors and NYC knows that. Doctors are mostly drug dealers with a DEA license.

It's all crooked. This will not help. And the solution is to drop out of the entire system altogether.

Good luck.

Because that crisis was not fueled by government, who encourages the use of opioids by waging a war ond rugs...

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