- The opioid epidemic in America is ongoing, with over 47,000 opioid overdoses in 2017.
- New information has emerged about the involvement of companies in the crisis.
- Drug distributors, such as McKesson, failed to properly monitor and report suspicious orders of opioids.
- McKesson agreed to fines but continued their reckless behavior.
- Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, aggressively marketed the drug as less addictive, which was untrue.
- The Sackler family, who owns Purdue, has been accused of engineering the opioid epidemic.
- Richard Sackler, former president of Purdue, was heavily involved and made troubling statements about the launch of OxyContin.

- The piece discusses Richard Sackler, president of Purdue Pharma, and his controversial comments regarding the opioid crisis.
- Sackler's comments, including his dismissal of 59 deaths caused by OxyContin, are seen as callous and lacking empathy.
- The lack of public appearances and interviews by Sackler has made it difficult to fully understand his role in the crisis.
- The Sackler family and Purdue Pharma deny responsibility for the opioid crisis and claim that quotes have been taken out of context.
- Purdue Pharma has fought to keep evidence sealed and inaccessible to the public, but leaked documents have resulted in backlash and institutions cutting ties with the Sacklers.
- The transcript of a video deposition given by Richard Sackler in a Kentucky case has been leaked, but Purdue Pharma is fighting to keep the video sealed.
- Actors, including Michael Keaton, Bryan Cranston, and Michael K. Williams, read excerpts from Sackler's deposition, highlighting his arrogance and lack of knowledge.
- The piece argues that the public should be able to see the video deposition to fully understand Sackler's role in the opioid crisis.

- The speaker questions whether an excessive number of patients in Kentucky became addicted to OxyContin.
- Purdue has not made any effort to determine how many people who started on OxyContin later became dependent on heroin.
- Richard Sackler's deposition should not be hidden by Purdue.
- Videos of Richard Sackler reading extracts from his emails and deposition are available on SacklerGallery.com.
- Various state lawsuits are linked on the website for further reading.
- The speaker invites viewers to visit the website and use the clips as they see fit.

- The opioid epidemic in America has resulted in over 47,000 opioid overdoses in 2017.
- Companies such as McKesson failed to properly monitor and report suspicious orders of opioids.
- Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, aggressively marketed the drug as less addictive, which was untrue.
- The Sackler family, who owns Purdue, has been accused of engineering the opioid epidemic.
- Richard Sackler, former president of Purdue, made troubling statements about the launch of OxyContin.
- Sackler's comments and lack of empathy have caused backlash.
- Purdue Pharma has fought to keep evidence sealed, but leaked documents have resulted in institutions cutting ties with the Sacklers.
- The transcript of Richard Sackler's video deposition has been leaked, and actors have read excerpts highlighting his arrogance.
- The public should be able to see the video deposition to understand Sackler's role in the crisis.
- Richard Sackler's deposition videos are available on SacklerGallery.com for further understanding.

Following some recent revelations about the role of large companies in America’s ongoing opioid epidemic, John Oliver takes another look at the crisis.

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On 1 hand, America's war on them has been a complete catastrophe, but on the other hand, it did give us this photo of Nancy Reagan sitting on Mr.

And by the way, I pity the fool that didn't think they were gonna fuck after that.

Specifically, specifically, we're gonna talk about opioids.

And if you're thinking, hold on, didn't you do a show on this before?

Yeah, we did 1 2 and a half years ago, but tonight we're gonna do an update for a couple of key reasons.

First, the epidemic is very much ongoing.

In 2017, opioid overdoses killed more than 47,000 Americans.

And second, since then, we've learned a lot more about many of the companies involved, and some of it's been amazing.

For instance, a criminal case involving executives from the drug maker Insys unearthed a rap video, allegedly made to motivate their sales force to go out and sell a painkiller containing the highly addicted drug, Fentanyl.

My delivery, it's giving me 38% of this industry ♪ ♪ Plus my buy-bail ability I'm built to last ♪ ♪ Y'all can't get rid of me ♪ How'd you even be sick of me?

Just silly comparing actigamy ♪ Y'all tickle me

This ain't no fight at all ♪ And if you're trying to ball

I'll substitute you like you're a xylitol ♪ Ha, beast -♪ Ha, beast

But let's just stop for a moment there to unpack the line, if you're trying to ball, I'll substitute you like a xylitol.

That is a reference to the key ingredient in sugar-free gum.

It is astonishingly, almost impossibly lame.

It is genuinely difficult to come up with a rap that is lamer than that, and I'll show you.

Hank's get the mermaid, Daryl Daryl Hannah, y'all.

I think It's hard for you to make that case.

And that rap video was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of new information now coming out through numerous court cases.

So tonight, let's pull a few of these new revelations together and look at what we've learned about how the first wave of the opioid crisis began.

Because it's a story of how major companies acted wildly irresponsibly, skirted any meaningful consequences, and for the most part, avoided public scrutiny.

The companies responsible for getting drugs to pharmacies and hospitals.

They're supposed to alert authorities if they notice suspicious orders of controlled substances.

But for a sense of just how badly they failed to do that, look at Kermit, West Virginia.

Named, of course, because it's where Kermit the Frog lives with his secret second family.

He's in a throuple with 2 salamanders named Francois and Gary, and they are very, very happy.

It was never you, Miss Piggy, it was him.

The amount of opioids sent to Kermit, a town of just 400 people, was utterly ridiculous.

This undercover video of Kermit's main pharmacy shows scores of people picking up prescriptions inside and at the drive-thru window.

More than 3000000 doses of hydrocodone were ordered by a Kermit pharmacist, James Woolley, in 1 year.

That's around 7,500 pills for every resident in Kermit.

And just to be clear, we mean every resident in Kermit, not every resident in Kermit.

But those sorts of figures clearly should have caught the attention of distributors.

In fact, the largest 1, McKesson, alone, shipped 5000000 doses of opioids to Kermit in just 2 years.

And that's just 1 example of McKesson's reckless behavior.

And the problem is, at no point were they effectively deterred.

In 2008, the DEA alleged that McKesson had failed to control its controlled substances.

McKesson agreed to pay a 13 million dollar fine, that's all, without admitting wrongdoing.

And also promised to do better by implementing a controlled substances monitoring program.

But, that program emphatically did not work.

In fact, a DEA official later wrote, their bad acts had continued and escalated to a level of egregiousness not seen before.

You can't put McKesson in charge of monitoring McKesson.

If the bears in your zoo get out at night and start mauling the other animals, you don't deputize 1 of the bears to monitor the situation.

know what you're thinking, but, John, I've already bought him a little sheriff's outfit to wear, and I think he'd look great in it.

And, again, before you say, well, I've spent quite a bit of money designing a custom-made sheriff's badge just for him.

Don't you think the bear will recognize the gravitas of that symbol and feel compelled to grow and change his bear ways in some way?

No, I don't, because bears respect nothing.

They think the importance that we place on symbols and status makes us weak.

They value nothing but blood and strength.

And I know what you're gonna say now, is there anything I can do?

The answer is of course not, because while you were talking, Sheriff Bear mauled you to death.

The point is, McKesson monitoring itself clearly did not work, because in 2017, they wound up agreeing to another fine, bigger this time, $150 million.

This time, which yes, sounds like a lot, until you realize that that is less than 1 one-thousandth of their revenue for 1 year.

And while today, McKesson says that they've improved their monitoring systems for realsies this time, pinky promise!

And they argue that they weren't the ones setting the demand for opioids at any point.

Even the DEA agent in charge of their case thought that their settlement was absurd.

How do you say, it's okay, just, here, write this check this time and close this place for a little bit.

And honestly, I'd watch an entire show that is just that guy telling me where to put things.

This group of corgis, put them in tiny boots!

For companies involved in the opioid crisis, fines just became the cost of doing business.

And throughout this crisis, it has been difficult to find any real accountability for the people involved.

And there may be no more frustrating example of that than Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer behind OxyContin, the drug that arguably kick-started this crisis.

Purdue famously, aggressively marketed OxyContin to doctors as a less addictive painkiller that could be used to treat common conditions like backaches and knee pain, which was obviously untrue.

It would be like using cocaine for a toothache, which, incidentally, back in the 1800s, people actually did.

My tooth hurt this morning, but I took some medicine, and now I'm really fucking psyched about 20 different business ideas.

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Purdue is owned by members of The Sackler family.

Collectively, they're worth an estimated $13 billion, which has enabled them to proudly slap their name on some truly impressive monuments to other people's talent.

The Sackler name is on parts of the Met, the Louvre, the Museum of Natural History, the National Gallery in London, the Royal College of Art, an institute at Yale, a library at Oxford, and the Sackler Crossing at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Not bad for a family whose very name sounds like a hamburglar-like villain that steals testicles.

The Sackler came in the middle of the night and now my penis is shivering!

♪ The Sacklers love putting their names on things.

Although, until very recently, they've been miraculously good at keeping their name off the opioid crisis, but that is now changing with protests like this.

In New York City this weekend, protesters flooded the Guggenheim Museum.

They dropped fake prescription slips from the upper walkway, angry that the museum takes big donations from the Sackler family, which has been accused of engineering the opioid epidemic.

And look, I know this isn't the point, but just spare a thought there for the Guggenheim janitor who has to clean all that up.

Dennis didn't take millions from the pharmaceutical industry.

Dennis gets $15 an hour and maybe the occasional chance to masturbate on a Cezanne.

Look, look, hey, I didn't say he was a good janitor.

-...the reason for this change in public perception is a dawning realization of just how deeply some of the Sacklers were involved.

Because unlike most second generation heirs for family fortune, some were very hands-on.

Richard Sackler worked at Purdue throughout the crisis, serving as president from 1999 to 2003, and served on the board along with 7 other family members.

And now, thanks to a number of lawsuits filed by various states, we're getting glimpses of the depth of Richard's involvement.

Massachusetts alleges that Richard Sackler at 1 point demanded to be sent into the field with sales reps on visits to doctors.

In fact, his micromanagement was apparently so extreme that Purdue's VP of Sales and Marketing wrote to the CEO, anything you can do to reduce the direct contact of Richard into the organization is appreciated.

And going by some of his statements, that micromanagement was in service of a pretty clear purpose.

According to newly filed court documents, when OxyContin was first released, Richard Sackler, Purdue's former president and son of the company founder, is quoted saying at a company event that the launch would be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions.

Amazingly, the full quote is actually worse.

He calls it a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition, and then goes on to say, the blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white.

And look, as a tagline for Frozen 2, that's pretty good.

But it's troubling when applied to addictive fucking painkillers.

And Richard Sackler's glib tone continued, even as Purdue began to see the consequences of the drugs that they were pushing.

At the dawn of the opiate epidemic, when 59 deaths were reported in a single state, Perdue's president wrote, quote, this is not too bad, could have been far worse.

That is both callous and also completely besides the point.

Because the phrase, it could have been worse, can be applied to literally anything.

In fact, 1 of the only things it cannot apply to is Richard Sackler's statement regarding those 59 deaths.

And I have to say, I'm just not sure the full horror of that comment comes across when you just hear a guy read it out on TV.

And the problem is, we have to use clips like that, because there are no clips of Richard Sackler.

Even that photo is 1 of only a small handful we could find.

And think of how remarkable that is in and of itself.

And it's genuinely easier to find multiple image options of birds standing on turtles or babies that look like Wallace Short.

And let's all agree, those babies look a lot like Wallace Short.

And Whether it is or not, it has definitely been convenient for Richard Sackler, because it's honestly hard to tell the story of his time at Purdue without any video.

There is only so long that anyone will listen to someone at a desk reading from court documents.

So tonight, we've actually done something unusual.

To help you get the emotional impact of Richard Sackler's actual words, we got an actor to play him.

Richard Sackler, a news article about OxyContin addiction says it's caused 59 deaths in a single state.

-♪ ♪ -♪ Because, And I'll tell you why.

Because when you're casting for a shadowy heir to a vast fortune who doesn't like to be in the limelight, you go Batman.

And look, that helps a little bit, right?

As evidence mounted that Oxy was causing widespread addiction, Sackler urged the company to publicly blame those who were addicted.

Michael Keaton, what did he actually write?

We have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible.

And not only does that come off as malicious and cold-hearted, it also doesn't even make any sense.

He's furious at the people who are part of the problem, but the people he's angry at help to make him incredibly rich.

You don't see Adam Levine releasing a song condemning horny middle-aged women because that would be hypocritical.

Who do you think made you who you are, Adam?

It's your just dangerous enough for suburban moms to masturbate to energy that got you where you are today.

The legal reasons, I have to tell you, the Sacklers and Perdue insist the family didn't cause the opioid crisis and vigorously deny the claims in the lawsuits that we've mentioned, saying that Richard Sackler's comments have been taken out of context with quotes cherry-picked from among tens of millions of other emails and business documents.

But 2 things about that, because first, whenever they've added context, it hasn't really helped much.

For instance, Their explanation for Sackler saying the news of 59 deaths was not too bad was that he was merely commenting about the nature of recent press coverage.

Which is not better in any meaningful way whatsoever.

As for that blizzard of prescriptions line, they've claimed the full context for that is that his remarks were an allusion to his delayed arrival at that event due to the well-known blizzard of 1996.

Oh, hey guys, it's not like Richard was recklessly and callously anticipating Oxycontin's popularity while it was sunny out, it was snowing.

And the thing is, for a family that complains about a lack of context, they have fought tirelessly to withhold it because time and time Again, they've settled cases on the condition that evidence will be sealed and unavailable to the public.

In fact, a few years back, Perdue settled a lawsuit with Kentucky on the condition that the state AG destroy 17 million pages of documents.

That's an actual blizzard of context that they did not want anyone to see.

And you can kind of see why, because just the glimpses of information that we've seen recently resulted in that Guggenheim protest, which in turn, led to the museum deciding to stop taking funding from the Sacklers.

And the Guggenheim is not the only institution that's cutting ties.

The Sacklers and London's National Portrait Gallery have mutually agreed to call off a planned 1.3 million dollar donation.

It's true, the National Portrait Gallery bailed on the Sacklers too, and I know that.

As punishments go, getting to keep 1.3 million dollars doesn't sound all that fucking bad.

But keep in mind that these people have infinite money and seem to enjoy nothing more than using it to purchase social status.

So, not getting to put their name on things may be a real punishment to them.

But I would argue that that should only be half of it.

The other half is having to put their name on the opioid crisis that they fought so hard to distance themselves from.

And that public accounting is starting to become possible, despite the fact that Richard Sackler has barely appeared in public.

And there's actually a tantalizing development here, because a few weeks ago, the transcript of a video deposition that Richard Sackler gave in that Kentucky case, the case, remember, where 17 million documents were destroyed, leaked to ProPublica and Stat News.

This is the thing that Purdue really did not want anyone to see, and there is some damning stuff in here.

The really effective thing would be to see the video of this deposition, but Purdue is fighting ferociously hard to keep it under seal, which benefits them.

As you've seen tonight, newscasters reading quotes will only get you so far.

And you should know, Michael Keaton is not the only actor we got to play Richard Sackler.

In fact, we got multiple actors to read parts of his deposition word for word.

And who better to convey the arrogance of an early exchange about Sackler's involvement in Purdue than someone responsible for playing 1 of the greatest drug dealers in the history of television?

On July 30th of 2014, were you a director of Purdue Pharma, Inc.?

This is an affidavit filed in the Southern District of West Virginia, And does that appear to be your name?

If that's what it says, then that's what it says.

Richard Sackler came off like a real dick there, right?

Certainly more so than if I'd just read that to you.

And since we had Bryan Cranston, we didn't stop there, because this deposition also contains an excerpt of a speech that Sackler gave when OxyContin was launched, bragging about how quickly Purdue got the FDA to approve it.

So we had him go full Walter White on that 1, too.

It was a deftly coordinated, planned event that took dozens of workers years of effort to succeed.

The most demanding new drug approval package for any analgesic product ever submitted didn't languish at the agency.

Unlike the years that other filings linger at FDA, This product was approved in 11 months, 14 days.

Our previous best approval time for other products was measured in years, not months.

-♪♪♪♪ -♪♪♪♪ God, I felt that in my fucking bones.

And look, sure, we could have stopped there.

Those 2 actors were already incredible, but then we remembered, this is HBO.

And if we want someone to read the shit out of another email that Richard Sackler wrote, this 1 characterizing his devotion to OxyContin, we have access to the cast of another iconic drug drama.

So, brace yourselves, everyone, because...

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ -♪ You won't

It is almost that I've dedicated my life to it.

And look, the only problem here is, all of these actors are pretty cool, and Richard Sackler decidedly is not.

And so, to embody the fact that he responded, I don't know, more than a hundred times during his deposition, we asked Richard Kind to read just a selection of them.

How much money has Purdue Frederick or Purdue Farmer made off the sale of OxyContin?

know how much the Sackler family has made off the sale of Voxipontin?

And look, Richard Sackler might say, hey, hey, that's not fair.

I didn't sound like that, but we don't know if he sounded like that if we can't see the tape, which is why he should absolutely allow it to be released.

But if he doesn't, we can only imagine what was going on during his deposition.

For instance, maybe he was sloppily eating a turkey sandwich during this actual exchange about OxyContin addiction.

Have you made any effort, Or as we sit here today, do you know how many patients who took OxyContin in Kentucky became dependent or addicted?

Do you believe that an inappropriate number of patients or an excessive number of patients who took OxyContin in Kentucky became addicted or dependent?

Do you know, or has Purdue made any effort to ascertain how many people who were started on OxyContin wound up becoming dependent and moving on to heroin at some point?

-♪ ♪ -♪ Why would he eat a sandwich during such a serious deposition?

I mean, yes, maybe he didn't, but it would be so easy for Richard Sackler to prove that he didn't.

The point is, until he does that, We've uploaded a bunch of videos of 4 different Richard Sacklers reading extracts from his emails and deposition to SacklerGallery.com, which I'm sure they'll enjoy.

They love having their names on fucking galleries.

We've also linked to various state lawsuits at the site so that you can read them for yourself.

The point here is, Richard Sackler's deposition should not be something that Purdue gets to bury, like it's buried so many other things over the years.

So please, go to the website and watch and use the clips as you see fit.

So, if Richard Sackler wanted context, then guess what?

See all LastWeekTonight transcripts on Youtube

Opioids II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)