Purdue guilty plea 'cuts head off' opioid serpent
Wed, November 25, 2020, 

A NY attorney says Purdue Pharma's guilty plea "is a very, very important step" in addressing the opioid crisis but will never bring back the people who died. Hunter Shkolnik said the plea has essentially "cut the head off" the opioid serpent. (Nov. 25)
Video Transcript

HUNTER SHKOLNIK: This is now the company being charged with the crime and pleading to the crime. And that affects its ability to do business, to get contracts, just to run [INAUDIBLE] as a pharmaceutical company in the future. A company doesn't go into jail, but it's going to cost them money, and it's going to cost them their ability to run their business the way they have over the years.

Purdue is a bad company. The Sacklers ran it in a bad way. They're out of the company, they'll never step foot back in Purdue. Purdue will continue operating, albeit at a smaller size than it was, and it will sell the drug that many people need, paying patients need, in a legal and proper way.

It also provides for the financial compensation, the peace that is needed to get the money back to the cities, the counties, and the states to pay for the cleanup, to clean up the mess that we're seeing in our communities. This is a very, very important step.

I think a lot of folks would like to have seen a Sackler standing up there raising their hands saying, I plead guilty. But that didn't happen. I mean, no one's going to bring back the the family members they lost. No one is going to cure an opioid addict because of a settlement. But what's important here is we really cut the head off of this serpent. It is never going to be able to do this again.