What victims of opioid abuse have wanted most was a chance to confront members of the Sackler family, whom they blame for touching off a crisis that has cost some 500,000 lives over the past two decades. On Thursday, some of them will get their chance.
NEW YORK — Releasing years of anguish and anger, victims of opioid abuse and those who have lost loved ones to a deadly addiction crisis stretching back more than two decades unloaded their emotions Thursday on members of the family they blame for fueling it.
Theresa’s and David’s expressions remained largely neutral as people spoke on video about the pain of losing children after years of trying to get them adequate treatment, about their own journeys through addiction, and about caring for babies born into withdrawal and screaming in pain. “You have destroyed so many lives,’ she said, pulling her daughter into view. “Take a good look at this beautiful little girl your robbed of the person she could have been.”
The hearing may be the closest thing to a trial for Sackler family members, who victims say helped spark and prolong the epidemic through the marketing of their signature painkiller, OxyContin. It’s a crisis that has grown deadlier in recent years, driven largely by deaths from illicit forms of the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.
The settlement agreement is estimated to be worth at least $10 billion over time. It calls for members of the Sackler family to contribute $5.5 billion to $6 billion over 17 years to fight the opioid crisis. That’s an increase of more than $1 billion over a previous version that was rejected by another judge on appeal. Most of the money would be used for efforts to combat the crisis, but $750 million would go directly to victims or their survivors.
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