Tucker Carlson addressed the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma on Monday night, criticizing them for making billions of dollars on the production of oxycontin — all while knowing and hiding the drug’s addictive nature.
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Carlson began, “Now, new filings in a lawsuit in Massachusetts against members of the Sackler family showed just how far they were willing to go to get rich. Prior to the release of oxycontin, Purdue Pharma argued that the drug was less addictive than the other opioids because it was released gradually because of its packaging. They had no proof this was true and of course this turned out not to be true at all.”
“Oxycontin was and is again remarkably addictive. But it didn’t matter. Purdue sales reps were told to claim the drug had an addiction risk of less than 1 percent,” he continued. “At the drug’s launch Richard Sackler boasted about how successful the drug would be ‘The launch of oxycontin tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition. The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white.'”
“The Sacklers didn’t appear to care. In 1997, Richard Sackler deduced that doctors were prescribing oxycontin more often because they had the mistaken belief it was weaker than morphine. In fact, oxycontin is stronger than morphine,” Tucker added. “Purdue personnel were told to suppress this fact to keep the prescriptions flowing. In 2001, a federal prosecutor noted that 59 overdose deaths had occurred in his state alone.” (RELATED: Mass Drug Overdose Shows Dangerous Fentanyl Is Spreading Throughout The Country, Police Chief Says)
He concluded, “Sackler’s response in an internal company memo, ‘This is not too bad. It could have been far worse.’ The company refused to take responsibility for the people it was killing so they went after the addicts themselves. In 2001, Richard Sackler said this in an internal memo, ‘We have to hammer on abusers in every possible way. They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.'”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is reviewing its gift acceptance policies after having accepted donations from the Sackler family.