the competition.d the prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense and white. well, he was right.wh that blizzard came and people began to die. the sacklers didn t appear to care.e. in 1997, richard sackler deduced that doctors were prescribing oxycontin more often because they have thehe mistaken belief that it was weaker than morphine. in fact, oxycontin is stronger than morphine. purdue personnel were told to suppress the fact to keep the prescriptions flowing.es in 2001 a federal prosecutor noted that 59 overdose deaths had occurred in his state alone. sackler s response in an internal company memo, quote: this is not too bad. it could have been far worse. the company refused to take responsibility for the people that was killing so they2 went after the addicts themselves. in 2001, richard sackler said this in an internal memo, quote: we have to hammer on abusers in every possible way. they are the culprits and the problem.