For Your Health

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Meet the Sacklers: The Family That's Killing Millions (Maybe More Than Stalin)

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/11/22/meet-sackler-family-making-billions-from-opioid-crisis.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20171122Z1_UCM&et_cid=DM171919&et_rid=128702465

Story at-a-glance

Opioids are now the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50. Between 2002 and 2015, more than 202,600 Americans died from overdosing on opioids

The massive increase in opioid sales has been blamed on an orchestrated marketing plan aimed at misinforming doctors about the addictive potential of these drugs

Purdue Pharma was one of the most successful in this regard, driving sales of OxyContin up from $48 million in 1996 to $1.5 billion in 2002

Purdue Pharma is owned by the Sackler family, whose estimated worth is about $14 billion. While well-known for their philanthropic pursuits, the Sacklers have been careful not to associate the family name with Purdue Pharma or OxyContin

In 2007, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to charges of misbranding OxyContin “with intent to defraud and mislead the public,” and paid $634 million in fines. A non-prosecution agreement accompanying the settlement shielded the Sackler family members from personal accountability