“Sackler Lies, People Die”

From the Guardian (March 11, 2018) – Nan Goldin stages opioid protest at the Met

Artist Nan Goldin and about 100 other demonstrators threw pill bottles in the moat inside the Metropolitan Museum yesterday to protest sponsorship by the family that wholly owns Purdue Pharma, one of the largest manufacturers of highly addictive opioids.

Nan Goldin leads a protest at the Metropolitan Museum. Video by Joanna Walters.

Goldin herself recently recovered from a near-fatal addiction to Purdue’s Oxycontin painkiller that was prescribed after a wrist injury: “As artists and activists we demand funding for treatment: 150 people will die today, 10 while we are standing here, from drug overdoses.”

Purdue and other opioid manufacturers are facing hundreds of lawsuits brought by US cities, counties and states. OxyContin is regarded as the “ground zero” of the opioid crisis because in 1996 it was released as the first of a new breed of slow-release, morphine-type prescription pills.  In 2007 Purdue pleaded guilty to federal charges that it misled regulators, doctors and patients about OxyContin’s risk of addiction and abuse.

Opioids have killed more than 200,000 Americans and are blamed for the deaths of more than 100 more a day. The Centers for Disease Control reported this week that overdoses were up by 30%. Many of the 2 million or more Americans estimated to be dependent have turned to street drugs to offset the threat of withdrawal.

More on the story here.