Patrick Radden Keefe on the Sacklers' Responsibility for the Opioid Crisis

Patrick Radden Keefe is a brilliant journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker. His recent book, Empire of Pain, examines the ways in which the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma contributed to the opioid epidemic in the United States by aggressively marketing OxyContin to physicians and patients. His story is unique in its focus on the owners of that company – the Sacklers. 

Patrick's revelations about the ways in which Purdue and the Sacklers gained advantage and avoided responsibility through revolving door relationships with officials at the FDA, DEA and Justice Department are particularly compelling and infuriating. But I also pressed him to address the concerns of legitimate pain patients who use opioid medications responsibly but are now increasingly stigmatized and unable to obtain the medicines that enable them to manage their pain. I challenged Patrick on his view that the entire Sackler family merits collective responsibility for the actions of some. And we had a lively discussion about who should be held culpable for the epidemic of overdose fatalities when so many variables play a role.

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