Opioid victims face Purdue owners in hope of closure

Kara Trainor composed herself, looked at a camera, and began talking to the pharmacists responsible for two decades of suffering that have spread from her to an opioid-born child.

Three members of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma watched in silence or listened to the virtual court hearing as Trainor described giving birth to a baby who was quickly submerged in the retreat: “The screams will haunt you the rest of your life “and how it was to raise him. At 11, he still wears a cup and diapers.

Trainor and others who have suffered or lost relatives due to opioid addiction had been waiting for years for this moment: a direct, albeit virtual, confrontation with members of the Sackler family in court over the consequences of the painkiller he made a fortune while helping fuel a deadly drug epidemic. Finally, the opportunity came for about two dozen victims or their families in a special bankruptcy court hearing on Thursday.

Some came out exhausted, some angry, some relieved, and not everyone was sure if the Sacklers, who were not allowed to respond during the session, had moved. However, several people who made statements said that they valued being able to speak for their lost loved ones and show solidarity, and that they had achieved a degree of resolution.

“I can feel, as a mother, that my son was seen and heard by the family,” said Trainor, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, who received an OxyContin prescription at age 21 and soon became addicted. He is now 40 years old, is recovering and working with other people who are struggling with drug abuse.

“It will be part of my healing and part of a 20-year closure,” he said, “finally being able to be heard.”

Victims are looking for a settlement, closure

The hearing, very unusual for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, was suggested by a mediator who helped negotiate a potential settlement of thousands of lawsuits against Purdue. If it gets final approval, the deal will generate $ 10 billion or more to fight addiction and overdoses, with the Sacklers providing up to $ 6 billion in exchange for protection against civil lawsuits. Up to 149,000 people who have struggled with addiction or lost loved ones must share $ 750 million under the agreement.

One after another, the victims entered Hawaii and New Hampshire on Thursday with reports of surgeries and illnesses that led to OxyContin prescriptions, followed by addiction, despair, drug abuse treatments, personal and financial ruin, and too often, dead. for overdose or suicide.

Vitaly Pinkusov described waking up and finding the body of his wife, 32, cold in bed. Kristy Nelson played a recording of her frantic 911 call reporting that her son was unresponsive. Stephanie Lubinski recounted how her husband entered the basement and shot himself in the chest.

Former Purdue chairman and chairman of the board Richard Sackler overheard on the phone, a bad point for some victims who found it disrespectful not to confront them. Her son, David Sackler, and another family member, Theresa Sackler, appeared in front of the camera, looking attentive but showing little reaction.

“They sat there, alone but with a stone face, and they never changed their expression, never,” said a frustrated Lubinski from Blaine, Minnesota.

The Sacklers have never apologized unequivocally. They issued a statement last week saying they had acted legally but “regretted” that OxyContin “unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has caused pain and loss to too many families and communities”.

OxyContin, a pioneering long-acting analgesic, hit the market in 1996, while Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies funded efforts to suggest that prescribers consider opioids for a wider range of pain conditions than previously thought. . Purdue claimed that far less than 1% of people with opioid prescriptions developed addictions, although there were no rigorous studies to support the claim.

Waves of deadly overdoses of opioids, prescription drugs, heroin, and more recently fentanyl and similar drugs followed. Purdue’s documents made public in the lawsuits seem to show that family members sometimes downplay the crisis.

Tiffinee Scott asked the Sacklers if they had ever resurrected one of their children from an overdose, as he did with his daughter before he finally lost her to an overdose at 28 years old. said the mother.

“They embarrass you,” he told the Sacklers, though he later said he hadn’t expected any reaction from people he considers heartless. For her, the goal of the session was the impact of family unity and their joint message.

“For once, we felt we had a sense of power over privileges, as far as the Sacklers are concerned,” he said.

After her 21-year-old son Chris Yoder died of an overdose, Dede Yoder used to insult the Sacklers as he passed by Purdue’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, near his home in Norwalk. She has been sued for bankruptcy and public scrutiny by the Sacklers.

“A level of catharsis”

“Being part of this court record is very important, and my son’s story is part of the record,” he said after making his statement during the hearing.

Ryan Hampton of Las Vegas found “a level of catharsis” in declaring Thursday about the years of addiction, overdose and periods of homelessness he suffered after a knee injury. But he was annoyed that the victims and their families were sending a message that he said should come from the authorities.

Like several of those who testified, he wants the Sacklers to be prosecuted. There is no indication that it will happen, although seven U.S. senators last month asked the Justice Department to consider it. Purdue Pharma, meanwhile, has twice pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

Cheryl Juaire, meanwhile, looks forward to the potential for money to flow into addiction treatment programs and “begin to heal this country.” Juaire, of Marlborough, Massachusetts, lost two adult children, Corey Merrill and Sean Merrill, who died just last June.

Jill Cichowicz, who lost her twin brother Scott Zebrowski, hopes Thursday’s unusual personal hearing will “set the tone for future businesses and understand the ramifications of their actions.”

For a long time, he had wondered what he could say to the Sacklers if he never got the chance.

“And then when you’re in the room in front of them, face to face, you’re not so angry. You’re hurt,” said Cichowicz of Richmond, Virginia. “It was a feeling of closure, but in the same sense, I’m still suffering, being hurt by his actions.”