Starting in 2013, a powerful synthetic opioid surged in popularity: Fentanyl. It’s a 100 times more powerful than morphine. Rather than reckoning with its dangers, companies sold it as aggressively as drug cartels. But instead of gun-toting dealers on street corners, men and women in suits and lab coats pushed opioids and cash bonuses and power-point presentations at pain management jamborees. Flush with campaign cash from Big Pharma, Congress would look the other way. ibid.
‘40 people every day die from Prescription overdoses.’ Alex Gibney, The Crime of the Century II ***** news
‘The opioid crisis started with prescriptions, prescriptions and patient care. This idea that we weren’t adequately treating pain. Drugs like Oxycotin … began to preach the gospel of the opioid … they developed new medical terms like pseudo-addiction … As you get stronger drugs, it’s more expensive. ibid. Joe Rannazzisi, insider whistleblower gives evidence
Fentanyl byproducts is killing a lot of people … It was a natural progression … Overdose deaths is under-reported, we know that for sure so we don’t know really how many people died. We started seeing massive amounts of death … prescriptions: 250 million. ibid.
An onslaught of pills, hundreds of thousands of deaths. Who is accountable? ibid. The Washington Post online article 20 July 2019
Some of America’s biggest pharmaceuticals were not only profiting from the opioid crisis, they may have been manufacturing it. ibid.
We have had many run-ins with the Sacklers lately. The crisis began when Oxycontin hit the streets. Their man point of contention is that they did not ignore the opioid crisis single-handedly. Whether you believe that or don’t believe that, there is voluminous evidence the crisis began when Oxycontin hit the streets. Purdue [Pharma] led the charge. ibid. Bernstein, Washington Post
Generic versions … sending massive amounts of these drugs downstream because there were corrupt doctors all over the country. It became like the Wild West. This was a new drug cartel that was being established in the United States. But instead of coming in from a foreign country, they were drug dealers who were wearing suits and lab-coats. ibid.
A patient survey form. You say, I got back pain. The problem is that no-one ever saw the patient. As long as they have any kind of credit card they were fine. You’d have a doctor on the east coast, a patient and drug seeker on the west coast, the pharmacy was in the mid-west. It was just a trafficking organisation that was hiding behind the veil of the internet. ibid.
Broward County has more pill-mills (142) than McDonald’s. ibid.
Superior Injury Centre 870-6370. ibid.
There was one store in particular that was known by drug dealers as the go-to: CVS Pharmacy. ibid.
In 2011 there was a crack-down by the DEA. Operation Pill Nation involved more than 500 law-enforcement officers resulting in seizures resulting in 7 vehicles, $19 million in cash and 105 arrests. ibid.
But the real problem wasn’t on the street. It was in the Executive Suites of pharmaceutical companies which had become addicted to the profits opioids could deliver. ibid.
Workers disciplined in Prozac mailings: At least one Lilly’s employee fired; seven face various other measures. ibid.
The product was Act-Tiv. It was a lolly-pop made of Fentanyl whose potency carried the enormous risk of overdose. ibid.
They start paying exorbitantly, a huge number of speaker programs, and they use the speaker program basically as a way of cover for the bribes they are paying. ibid. whistleblower
Clearly we’re breaking the law. ibid.
CVS Pharmacy: on the edge of a highway, so people would cruise in, get their drugs, and be out in no time at all. ibid.
I know they’re sick like me. Gotta be number one. ibid.
These changes are good to one way of thinking in the sense that they make it harder to buy and abuse pharmaceutical opioids. But what that does is it drives all these people who are already addicted on to the black market. ibid.
International drug cartels catered to those who had become addicted to prescription pills. As their need for narcotics increased and doctors were more reluctant to prescribe an increasing doses, users turned to heroin, and a synthetic opioid fifty times more powerful: Fentanyl. ibid.
Since 2015, Fentanyl overdoses have been rising dramatically. Rates have soared by 2000% in San Diego. ibid.
The company told me nothing ever. ibid. whistleblower
Late in 2020 the Trump administration rushed to make an announcement for the presidential election. Pleading guilty to three felony counts. The Sackler family would pay a $225 million fine. Purdue Pharma would plead guilt to kickbacks and fraud. And promise to pay fines totalling $8.3 billion. ibid.
Purdue is in bankruptcy and only has about $1 billion which a whole bunch of creditors are already fighting over. That money is never going to be paid by the company or anybody else. ibid.
A cruel irony: the only way the company could pay damages was to increase its sales of drugs, including Oxycontin. ibid.
Just over four hundred years ago a group of London merchants arrived here on the India coast hoping to do some peaceful trading ... and built from scratch a commercial enterprise to export goods to Britain ... and by accident created one of the most powerful empires in history. Dan Snow, The Birth of Empire: The East India Company I, BBC 2014
The greatest company the world has ever known. ibid.
Determined to reassert supremacy, Clive recaptured Calcutta. ibid.
The nabobs represented the East India Company at its most venal and corrupt. ibid.
It’s estimated that between two million and ten million died: a salutary lesson in the dangers of unchecked corporate power. ibid.
Massive government bail-out ... It was decided that the East India Company was too big to fail. ibid.
It was nothing less than the birth of empire. ibid.
The East India Company made some devastating mistakes. Dan Snow, The Birth of Empire: The East India Company II
For investors, WeWork was the future of work. It became this poster-child for a growing trend of flexible offices, digital nomads. WeWork: How to Lose $30b in Two Weeks, Steven Bertoni, Forbes, Sky Documentaries 2021
We are a community of creators. We create an environment for entrepreneurs and freelancers. We leverage technology to connect people. And it’s a new way of working. ibid. Adam
We were just flushing cash down the toilet … We were laying people off. What’s going wrong? ibid. former employee
WeWork CEO steps down amid drug use allegations, failure to launch IPO. ibid. CNBC
WeWork was a $47 Billion dollar Unicorn. Now it plans to layoff up to 6,000 employees. ibid. article Jack Kelly 18th November 2019
He got a golden parachute worth $1.7 billion. ibid. ex-employee/victim
Owners of assets have all made out like bandits. The Decade the Rich Won I, dude, BBC 2022
Bailout: ‘the rich survived and got even richer.’ Bailout to UK banks: £124 billion. ibid.
Google: £395m, estimated corporation tax £6m; Facebook: £175m, estimated corporation tax £238,000; Amazon: £3.3b, estimated corporation tax £0; Starbucks: £398m, estimated corporation tax £0. ibid.
World leaders were plotting an exit from the pandemic. But our prime minister walking talking about the 2008 crash. The Decade the Rich Won II
Printing money: ‘only game in town’. ibid.
Total Bank of England Quantitative Easing August 2016: £445 billion. ibid.
QE benefited the richest the most … It is the top one or five per cent who have benefited the most. ibid. Paul Marshall, Marshall Wace LLP
Britain’s economy is producing more billionaires than ever. ibid. caption
Uber drivers in the UK are not alone. Protests spring up around the world. ibid.
Total Bank of England QE March 2020: £645 billion. ibid.
‘Concerns are growing about the health system’s ability to handle the peak of the crisis with beds filling up and critical supplies dwindling.’ Capitalism and the American Pandemic Response, Youtube 26.50, news, Second Thought 2020
‘It is incomprehensible and unspeakable that corporations now are taking advantage of this crisis in order to get tax breaks and subsidies that have nothing to do with coronavirus.’ ibid. Bernie Saunders
‘The cheapest commodity on earth today is human flesh and blood. To make a profit at the expense of human life is the central controlling motive of the capitalist system.’ Iibid. Eugene V Debs
With the world’s largest and wealthiest superpower on the brink of collapse, it’s unsurprising that people are beginning to ask why this is happening. ibid.
Amazon paid $0 in federal taxes. ibid.
Condemn millions to die because some billionaire arsehole can’t stand to lose a few dollars. ibid.