The Shameful Case of The Sacklers: Arthur's Story

In 2012, the use of opioids reached its peak in the United States with 255 million prescriptions written that year- or 81 for every 100 Americans. Much of the blame for the widespread abuse of opioids is often attributed to the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, who made billions of dollars from the widely prescribed opioid Oxycontin. Which, despite being dangerously addictive, was easy to get hold of because the Sacklers bought off doctors and aggressively marketed the drug almost as a cure-all.

However, the story of how the Sacklers contributed to the opioid crisis begins long before Purdue Pharma started making OxyContin. Here, I'm looking at the story of Arthur Sackler, the man who shaped the future of the entire pharmaceutical advertising industry and set the stage for what was to come many years later.

Much of the information about Arthur Sackler is from the book "Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty" by Patrick Radden Keefe. It's a good read if you're interested in this story.

[caseylascallette]

This is close to my heart... I was snorting oxycontin in the bathroom of my highschool daily... Like 10% of my highschool class died from overdose and I'm still suffering from the consequences to this day... One year sober!

[ghiblinerd]

Another uplifting lighthearted video from georg

[stuneale]

I'm writing an academic paper presently on the pharmaceuticalisation of self help. The through line is comparing the opioid crisis with historic valium use. I will be using this for reference material. Thanks!

[deathmagneto-soy]

The little snippet of Zappa/Beefheart's 'Willy The Pimp' is just the perfect encapsulation of all things Sackler related. Literal chef's kiss 👍

[kelownatechkid]

Georg, cannot praise your work enough.

[mahazhael]

A highlight of my week is when Georg uploads a video, I love your work and *adore* this transition towards holding the bastards to account.

[kirbymarchbarcena]

Philanthropy is not charity...now that is something I really will agree, too.

[dza]

Ah, interesting and depressing. My two favorite things.
Very well done, looking forward to the next installment.

[Ronin]

Thank you for shining a spotlight on the truth.

[mikedrop]

Great video as always. Thanks for the education. This was fascinating and the way you tell stories is mesmerizing. I can't believe how much info you crammed into a 40 minute video nor how quickly the coming of the end of it felt.

[overtlybiased]

Very fitting, antidepressants are the cigarettes of our generation on how industry lobby spoke way louder than consumers well-being

[YanAbaus]

Great video and especially important now. If we had even a handful of investigative journalist as dedicated as Georg we wouldn't be in this mess we are in now.

[davidlean]

It made me laugh to hear that the pharmaceutical entrepreneurs called in sick the day they were due in court!

[lyndahuggus]

A brilliant, well researched overview of the secrecy behind drug advertising. Look forward to the next instalment.

[efnissien]

I've recently been given an 'Ethics' lecture in work (in the pharma industry) and at the end of it we were all asked to agree to follow. I refused, the amount of panic that followed was comical - I was asked why I didn't agree and stated that a homogenous ethical policy was dangerous as the ethics of a US company based in Connecticut would be based on a Middle class W.A.S.P., America centric model and could potentially be at odds with local ethics and potentially legal framework. Also as an entity a company's primary purpose is to make money, and if this puts it in conflict with it's ethics... well, the ethics will lose every time. I wanted to mention the Sacklers and the opioid problem... but thought that might be pushing my luck (I also wanted to say that in the scheme of things the pharmaceutical industry's ethics were up there with Prostitutes & Mercenaries... the only difference being that Prostitutes and Mercenaries freely admit they're in it for the money and don't claim they're trying to change the world.)

[johnpierson]

In 1980, I joined a small start-up electronics company as an electronic technician.The founder of the company had met Richard Sackler at Harvard in an MBA program. I met Richard and John Sackler many time... I am ashamed I shook their hands. I didn't know about the history of this family. From this, Richard Sackler invested in the start-up company. It took us longer to develop our products than we planned and the Sackler's were not OK with this. They wanted their money and eventually put in a full time accountant in our facility. This was the beginning of the end.

I don't wan't to disclose or defame the company I worked for. They were good people and it it was a great place to work. Now that I know about the Sackler family, it is frightening that I came into contact with them. I can testify about their greed and complete disregard for anything that gets in their way. Including human lives. It's horrifying to find that you had come into contact with people responsible for some of the worst evil in history

[Retro_wq]

My grandfather was a sales rep for Valium in the 60's.

[cosmokramer]

This should have more views. This is a great documentary. This is like watching an Adam Curtis documentary.

[egoborder]

a good topic might be, "How is significant corruption actually dealt with?"

[KLR]

I used oxy after a workplace injury in 2008. Amazing painkiller and I thank God I had it at the time.