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Saturday, July 21, 2007

Federal judge in Virginia accepts plea deal, big fines for OxyContin makers -- but no jail

After asking why three executives of Purdue Pharma shouldn't go to jail for their marketing of the painkiller OxyContin, which became the scourge of the Appalachians, U.S. District Judge James Jones accepted a plea agreement that requires the company to pay $600 million in fines. "While this may not be a popular decision, my job is not to make popular decisions but to follow the law," Jones said in court at Abingdon, Va.

"Jones said it would be improper to send someone to jail for something they didn't actually do," reports Laurence Hammack of The Roanoke Times. The executives "were held criminally accountable for misbranding committed by other company officials. In order to obtain convictions, prosecutors did not have to prove they even knew that crimes were being committed under their watch. Not only were the convictions based solely on the executives' positions of responsibility, there was also no evidence to link the misbranding to rampant abuse of OxyContin." The executives will pay $34.5 million in fines.

The executives "sat impassively through emotional statements by people who blame them for the overdose deaths of their loved ones. Other speakers recounted their own near-death experiences," Hammack reports. "Fifty people from around the country . . . held a vigil near the courthouse in a steady rain before going inside." Hammack cites the staggering statistics: "In far Southwest Virginia alone, more than 200 people have died in the past decade from overdoses of oxycodone, an opium-based narcotic that is the active ingredient in OxyContin. Police have also reported dramatic increases in crime as addicts turn to fraud, theft and violence to support their habits." (Read more)

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