This HBO doc about the opioid crisis and Sackler family should be prescribed viewing haaretz.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from haaretz.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The war on drugs in the United States has been a failure that has ruined lives, filled prisons and cost a fortune. It started during the Nixon administration with the idea that, because drugs are bad for people, they should be difficult to obtain. As a result, it became a war on supply.
As first lady during the crack epidemic, Nancy Reagan tried to change this approach in the 1980s. But her “Just Say No” campaign to reduce demand received limited support.
Over the objections of the supply-focused bureaucracy, she told a United Nations audience on Oct. 25, 1988: “If we cannot stem the American demand for drugs, then there will be little hope of preventing foreign drug producers from fulfilling that demand. We will not get anywhere if we place a heavier burden of action on foreign governments than on America’s own mayors, judges and legislators. You see, the cocaine cartel does not begin in Medellín, Colombia. It begins in the streets of New York, Miami, Los Angeles and ev
A dynastic dive into opioids business-standard.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from business-standard.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I m Terry Gross. The one entity that has received the most blame for the opioid epidemic is Purdue Pharma, the company that makes and sells OxyContin. It s now facing over 2,500 lawsuits. Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family that owns and runs it is the subject of the new book Empire Of Pain by my guest, Patrick Radden Keefe. The Sacklers have been a secretive family. They never put their name on the company, but many wings of museums, universities, medical institutions and other organizations were named after the Sacklers after the Sacklers contributed huge sums of money. This connected the Sackler name with great acts of philanthropy. Keefe has investigated those philanthropic donations and the motivations behind them. The Sackler name has been removed from some of those institutions after the name was sullied by the opioid epidemic.