By now, you’ve probably heard about the heartbreaking opioid crisis that has taken so many lives throughout the country.
Opioids are a class of drugs that help manage pain. Aside from heroin, most are prescribed legally, and the seeds of this crisis were planted 20 years ago, when big pharmaceutical companies misled doctors into believing they were safe to prescribe.
Purdue Pharma, which played a significant role in the crisis with its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has long feigned innocence. But as the New York Times reported several weeks ago, their lies may finally be catching up with them: “A copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about ‘significant’ abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug’s introduction in 1996 and concealed that information.”
In the late ‘90s, Purdue Pharma officials had heard that their pills were being crushed and snorted. Previously undisclosed documents reveal that some doctors were being charged with selling prescriptions. But that wasn’t enough to stop them. In 2006 prosecutors determined that Purdue Pharma “continued ‘in the face of this knowledge’ to market OxyContin as less prone to abuse and addiction than other prescription opioids.”
More Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016 than the number of lives lost throughout the entire Vietnam War. But these companies will still do anything and everything to skirt responsibility.
The prosecutors cited in the New York Times article have recommended that Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges. But this crisis is widespread and far-reaching, and justice must be served on different levels.
Get Legal Help From An Opioid Crisis Attorney
Many people don’t realize that the opioid epidemic affects society’s most vulnerable: children.
Because of the aforementioned misbranding, mothers and doctors alike didn’t understand the side effects opioids could have on child development. This misconception led to mothers taking opioids for pain management or addiction while pregnant or breastfeeding, causing their unborn children to become addicted to the drugs, too. Those children spent their very first days in agonizing withdrawal because of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS).
I am outraged and ready to fight for your rights. If you believe your adopted child was exposed to opioids during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or that you suffered from NAS as in infant, please call (901) 327-1212 or contact us online, and let’s get the justice you deserve.