Empire of Pain

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“Pain demands to be felt.”- Fault in our stars.

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Empire of Pain is the story of capitalism; and much like capitalism, at its core, it begins with greed. The Sackler family for decades, whitewashed the blood money from the sale of their opioids by donating liberally to arts, education and philanthropy. Quite like zealous despots, they bought their place in history. Until it all came crashing down through the work of few gritty, investigative journalists. 

The book makes me question what to believe in. Advertisements are obvious vehicles of promotion but is the research they quote also fake? An independent pain society claiming how Oxycontin is groundbreaking turns out to be paid promotion. The FDA approvals for this wonder drug have also been bought with bribe money. The whole premise of “breakthrough pain” was nothing but plain English. I walked away thinking if someone- with money, power and influence in the right places- wants me to believe in something, do I stand a chance? If not, where does it end? Is Trump right about global warming? It's easy to be confused, misled and most of all, it is heartbreakingly easy to put your faith in the wrong hands. 

With cruelty that no movie can accurately depict, in the end, justice meted out in the opiod crisis was not satisfying enough. The Sacklers barely scratched their treasure chest in the payout and largely admitted nothing. Keefe’s book implies they didn’t even ‘feel’ guilty. In fact, they maintained that an FDA approved drug was meant to do well, and any opioid abuse stemmed largely from misuse by addicts. Somehow that hits harder. 

We love to read complicated stories of grief, pain, struggle but in the end, we want a happy ending. This is simply how our brains are wired.
This was a riveting story and now, I find myself pondering endlessly about the Sacklers. What are they doing now with their blood money? Were all the states that sued Purdue Pharma able to provide rehabilitation for the hundreds of thousands?

Who else out there today, is misleading us towards a global epidemic in the future?

 





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