2 Essential Books on Addiction & the Destruction of Democracy

Until I read Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe and American Cartel by ­Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz, most of what I knew about the pharmaceutical industry I learned teaching in Turkey: the only drug I take (Levothyroxine), prescribed for folks with underperforming thyroids, cost then between $15 and $30 a month in the U.S., but there, it was $3.50 for a 3 months’ supply! The U.S. is Big Pharma’s cash cow and it has no compunctions about bleeding us dry. Reading these two books, depressing as it is, gives you chapter and verse of who’s responsible for the opioid crisis.

Keefe’s book, a slower read, outlines the history of the Sackler Family from 1920s, who toward the end of the last century plastered their name on wings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, buildings at Harvard, Cambridge, even the Louvre and the British museums. While portraying themselves as great philanthropists, the Sackers, employing some of the best legal minds in the country, quietly undermined the Drug Enforcement Agency, Food & Drug Administration, and any other enforcement arm of the government that might try to hold them to account.

Yes, and the U.S. Congress, whom they leveraged to pass laws that were in the best interest of their industry creating an opioid addiction crisis especially the Appalachian coal country states, while they destroyed our democracy.These people have a lot to answer for, but so far, none has. A few dedicated DEA people, sweat blood to hold them to account but either lost or watched a paltry settlement that would not undo the harm done result.

The bottom line is:  none of the wealthy men and women, companies or their lawyers who brought us the opioid crisis is in jail. None of the poor and powerless addicts, who left orphaned children, overwhelmed grandparents, sundered communities and bereft families has been compensated. The few court victories that have been handed down have come from juries because they understand misery and don’t need a law to do what is right. Judges can’t seem to sort that one.

These two books tell us far more than we want to know, but most of what we should know about the immorality of the drug industry, our political leaders and our courts.  If you have to pick one, American Cartel is a shorter, faster paced, more comprehensive read.

One would also do well to take one giant step back, and ask how our own local democracy—city and county government--has been compromised by business for whom the bottom line is the primary value. What is the impact of 5 business people on the Cascade City Council?