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The Evil Empire of the Sackler Family

Last month was the launch of a well received expose on the Sackler family and they are sure to figure prominently in the upcoming HBO documentary Crime of the Century that starts airing on the tenth of May. Anybody read the book yet and want to share or continue the discussion when the documentary comes out? I read the extended article in the New Yorker a few years ago, I’ll link it inside, but I’ve known mainly out them from being involved in the art world and museums. Most impressive is photographer Nan Goldin’s crusade against them. There have been a smattering of threads, but not much discussion over the years, hopefully some more will happen here. And like the Tina/Meth threads, firsthand experience with the Oxy addiction would really give insight.

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by Anonymousreply 48November 27, 2022 2:50 PM

This is the 2017 New Yorker article that Keefe built upon for the book.

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by Anonymousreply 1May 2, 2021 4:42 PM

This was an interesting revelation from the book.

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by Anonymousreply 2May 2, 2021 4:43 PM

Not all Sacklers.

by Anonymousreply 3May 2, 2021 4:44 PM

Haven't read the book yet, but the NYT has run a series of articles on this odious family and its refusal to take responsibility for the aggressive distribution of OxyContin. Just makes your blood boil.

But the doctors who went along and prescribed that poison like it was candy are as bad as the Sacklers, if not worse.

by Anonymousreply 4May 2, 2021 4:52 PM

The NPR Terry Gross interview with the book's author at OP's post is pretty good.

I thought I knew about the opioid crisis, but it's so much darker.

by Anonymousreply 5May 2, 2021 5:11 PM

Cut and run.

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by Anonymousreply 6May 4, 2021 9:13 AM

This airs tomorrow and Tuesday nights on HBO, getting great press and reviews.

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by Anonymousreply 7May 10, 2021 1:28 AM

Evil, evil drug peddling cunts. I remember when Oxycontin was first brought to market promising to not be addictive. I am definitely watching this tomorrow.

by Anonymousreply 8May 10, 2021 5:15 AM

Wow, it’s dense and terrifying. Of course evil Guliani shows up at the end of the first episode to be one of the biggest mouthpiece for Perdue. There was a huge federal case that should have shut most of it down, but they ended up plea bargaining paying $600 million and burying the 136 page document that might have brought much to light and then it opened up the door for things to get even worse.

by Anonymousreply 9May 11, 2021 11:11 AM

Christ this is a rap video made to inspire the pharmaceutical reps to push their evil project. Cute guys though.

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by Anonymousreply 10May 11, 2021 11:35 AM

There is nothing "impressive" about Nan Goldin's shamless publicity grab. She's an unremarkable upper-middle class suburban girl who became famous by snapping pictures of her junkie friends/lovers and then using along with them. She made heroin, domestic violence, and self-mutilation glamorous and cool long before the days of Kate Moss and "heroin chic" in the early '90s. The Sacklers didn't get Goldin to use heroin in the '70s and '80s and they didn't convince her to seek out opioids for fake injuries from a pill mill quack (Oxycontin for a painful wrist? really?) and become addicted all over again, nor is it the Sacklers' fault that she used money from selling her art to museums to buy black market pills instead of seeking addiction treatment from a real doctor.

by Anonymousreply 11May 11, 2021 11:51 AM

Sort of feel bad for the branches of the Sackler family who weren't involved in this and didn't benefit from it. I'd be tempted to change my name if I were in that boat.

by Anonymousreply 12May 11, 2021 12:15 PM

The Sacklers give a lot of their money to Israel and are very close with the Kushners. Someone should ask Ivanka what she thinks of this wonderful family.

by Anonymousreply 13May 11, 2021 12:28 PM

Where was the FDA while this was going on?

by Anonymousreply 14May 11, 2021 12:53 PM

Steal enough money through any scheme, and you can get away with the crime. It’s an incredible phenomenon because the steal gives the criminal money to ingratiate themselves with people, politicians, and institutions.

by Anonymousreply 15May 11, 2021 12:57 PM

Behind every great fortune there is a great crime.

by Anonymousreply 16May 11, 2021 1:23 PM

R11, I am sorry Nan and her friends never invited you to their parties.

by Anonymousreply 17May 11, 2021 1:26 PM

R14 One of them was schooled to write the approval by the company and get the pharmaceuticals clearance, then he went to work for another company for a year and then was hired as a top level Perdue executive.

by Anonymousreply 18May 11, 2021 1:49 PM

R11 is a butt-hurt bitch. Goldin has proved to be very effective in her campaign against this despicably evil family, precisely because she's a preeminent photographer whose work is in the collections of the museums she's. protesting. And it worked as one museum after has now refused Sackler money. And yeah, you idiot R11, they DID prescribe Oxy for wrist injuries--and back injuries, and knee injuries...and they were prescribed by doctors.

The book is brilliantly researched and written, and the HBO documentary is harrowing and extremely well done.

As for this assertion that the oldest brother, Arthur, was innocent just because he died well in advance of OxyContin's creation, he marketed and ruthlessly sold Librium and Valium claiming the same nonsense they weren't addictive. He created the 1960s and 1970s version of the "non-addictive" addictive pill--without all the dead lives, maybe. But the other 2 brothers who pedaled and pushed Oxy took a page from their brother's playbook.

They're ALL evil.

by Anonymousreply 19May 12, 2021 5:08 AM

The Sackler family has the blood of millions of lives on their hands. Not just the immediate victims but the families, friends, homes and business they destroyed - profit at any cost.

They should be bankrupted, publicly vilified, pitchforked and then run out of the country.

by Anonymousreply 20May 12, 2021 5:21 AM

I agree R20 ,but like the trumps nothing will happen to them . He who has the gold rules.

by Anonymousreply 21May 12, 2021 5:33 AM

Unfortunately, you're correct R21.

by Anonymousreply 22May 12, 2021 5:48 AM

I forgot to mention - not only have the Sackler family knowingly been a large part of the reason that America has been destroyed/brought to its knees in recent modern times (past 20 or so years) but they are also responsible for unknown intergenerational damage which will last for millions of children who grew up in these drug addicted homes. These children will go on to repeat the addiction, replicate the dysfunctional behavior, kill others or commit suicide and pass all of that damage on to their own children again and again.

The entire Sackler family should be lined up on a wall and shot to death. They really deserve that. Every single one of them knew.

by Anonymousreply 23May 12, 2021 6:07 AM

This is a well-written and presented summary of the Sackler family situation.

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by Anonymousreply 24May 12, 2021 6:23 AM

More on each family member. Who they are, what they do and what they own and what they did to hide the money.

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by Anonymousreply 25May 12, 2021 6:37 AM

I have to say, I've heard odds and ends about the opioid crisis and a bit about the Sackler family, but until watching the doc... wow... I had no idea how truly calculated and horrendous the entire opioid epidemic was (or is). It's really harrowing to constantly be reminded that the powers that be, who are "supposed" to be looking out for the wellbeing of the every day citizen they are elected to represent, isn't doing that at all. Sad.

by Anonymousreply 26May 13, 2021 12:48 AM

Yes it was very calculated and sinister R26. They all knew exactly what they were doing. All of them.

by Anonymousreply 27May 13, 2021 1:22 AM

I didn’t realize the simple distinction that it was the coating that made the time release of it work and kept it from being so addictive and that by braking, cutting, crushing it you basically reduced it back to being the pure drug and so much more lethal. And then that’s why they basically blamed the abusers, because they were not “using” it correctly, so what happens to them becomes their own damn fault. If it was really that simple and obvious there shouldn’t have been any question about shutting it down when it became apparent what everyone was doing.

by Anonymousreply 28May 13, 2021 1:49 AM

I remember seeing a 60 minutes episode about Oxycontin early on. They were already questioning it, but they showed people who really needed the pills too (I think a teen boy with cancer or something). Did people really not know this was addictive?

by Anonymousreply 29May 13, 2021 2:35 AM

Good, concise review.

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by Anonymousreply 30May 13, 2021 10:32 AM

The Sackler family is one of the biggest drug cartels in the world. Worse than most of the South American cartels. They should all be in jail for life and have all of their money taken and distributed to the families of the addicts they purposefully created.

Only in America.

by Anonymousreply 31May 13, 2021 12:09 PM

[quote]In a huge development, the @ metmuseum is removing the Sackler name from the Sackler wing and other galleries.

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by Anonymousreply 32December 10, 2021 3:37 AM

R28 but OxyContin was later reformulated to prevent abuse through insufflation (snorting) or other un-prescribed means. This reformulation is what spurred addicts to seek out heroin and fentanyl (cheaper, more widely available but incredibly dangerous), just as rappers in the 2000s like Eminem and Lil Wayne abused codeine (sizzurp/purple drank), which is nearly identical to oxycodone on a molecular level. Nobody ever seems to rail against the producers of codeine...

I don't see the evidence that connects the Sackler family to the proliferation of Chinese-produced fentanyl, which is much stronger than Oxy and usually cut with toxic additives to increase profits for drug dealers, or heroin from Mexican/central American cartels.

by Anonymousreply 33December 10, 2021 12:49 PM

This is disconcerting.

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by Anonymousreply 34December 11, 2021 4:48 AM

Finally getting around to reading the immensely readable and accessible Empire of Pain. I’m taking many side deep dives into things that are revealed, one of the most interesting being about Bill Frohlich, who on the surface was Arthur Sackler’s rival, but in reality was the fourth musketeer along with Arthur’s two brothers. He was a closeted Gay man and secretly Jewish running the supposed rival pharmaceutical advertisement agency, but was in cahoots with the Sacklers the whole time.

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by Anonymousreply 35January 25, 2022 6:31 PM

This story is so awful. So much death destruction caused for profit.

by Anonymousreply 36January 25, 2022 6:34 PM

Just finished “dopesick” and want to watch “crime of the century” but don’t have hulu prime, i should though, right?

by Anonymousreply 37January 25, 2022 6:42 PM

R37 Crime of the Century is on HBO.

by Anonymousreply 38January 25, 2022 6:45 PM

Ain’t got that either, but I could

by Anonymousreply 39January 25, 2022 6:47 PM

Wait, you mean the medical industrial complex doesn't actually care about my health? But I should trust them when it comes to forced vaccinations that require profitable boosters every few months, right?

by Anonymousreply 40January 25, 2022 8:58 PM

What about the weak junkies? Don't they have to take responsibility for their actions. They didn't have to shoot up heroin after they couldn't afford OxyContin. They could have told the Drs. NO, I don't like the shit& what it does to me. People make excuses for these junkies whores.

by Anonymousreply 41January 25, 2022 9:07 PM

[quote]But I should trust them when it comes to forced vaccinations that require profitable boosters every few months, right?

you lie like a sackler

by Anonymousreply 42January 25, 2022 11:56 PM

Well, I just finished Empire of Pain and there are few times in life I’ve ever been this angry before. I would like to see a scorched earth policy where it comes to the Sacklers, these are truly abhorrent, horrible people, even the ones that marry into the family like Joss Sackler. I’ve never thought much about Courtney Love before, but her telling Joss to shove the $1000,000.00 to attend a fashion show up her ass makes her heroic. And I’ve always loved Nan Goldin, but now I think of her as a Bodhisattva and hope that she has found peace in this lifetime on earth.

by Anonymousreply 43January 31, 2022 9:33 AM

I'm working my way through it and indeed these companies frustratingly have all gotten off with nothing more than a parking ticket

by Anonymousreply 44January 31, 2022 12:53 PM

Some better news, especially that they have to disengage from the company by 2024.

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by Anonymousreply 45March 4, 2022 11:14 PM

They should be sanctioned as much as the oligarchs.

by Anonymousreply 46March 4, 2022 11:22 PM

I’m glad there are continuing works that keep chipping away at this family.

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by Anonymousreply 47October 9, 2022 1:57 PM

Impressive review of documentary.

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by Anonymousreply 48November 27, 2022 2:50 PM
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