Stamford-based Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty Tuesday to three federal
criminal charges – admitting its role in the opioid epidemic.
The
company admitted to impeding the DEA's efforts to combat the addiction crisis
and acknowledged that it had not maintained an effective program to prevent
prescription drugs from being diverted to the black market. It also admitted
paying doctors through a speaker’s program to induce them to write more
prescriptions for its painkillers.
Teri
Kroll, a Lindenhurst mother who lost her 23-year-old son Timothy in 2009,
asked, “Why did it take so long?”
Her
son died of a heroin overdose years after Kroll says he became addicted to pain
pills pushed by a doctor.
The
guilty pleas are part of a criminal and civil settlement announced last month.
The deal includes more than $8 billion in penalties, but the company may only
pay a fraction of that depending on the outcome of a federal bankruptcy case.
“You
cannot put a monetary value on my son's life,” Kroll told News 12. “They will
never be able…to repay the damage they've done.”
Members
of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma have also agreed to pay $225
million to the federal government to settle civil claims. No criminal charges
have been filed against family members though that is still a possibility in
the future.
“Every
cent of money that is extracted from this family and that company should go to
substance abuse prevention and education in every school,” says Steve Chassman,
of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence.
The
federal settlement and the company’s proposed settlement in bankruptcy court
are opposed by the attorneys general in several states.