To the Editor:

Re “Owners Tied to Plan to Hide OxyContin Risk” (Business Day, Jan. 16), documenting the talking points of Richard Sackler, then the president of Purdue Pharma, while misleading the public in 2001:

I met with a representative of Purdue Pharma around that time while an editorial writer with The Day of New London, Conn. I have never forgotten the meeting. He was combative and echoed exactly Mr. Sackler’s contention that those who were addicted to OxyContin were misusing the drug and were therefore criminals.

This repulsive argument sought to place the entire blame on the people who became addicted to OxyContin while holding the company harmless.

Now the body count of opioid overdose victims is in the hundreds of thousands. The Sacklers should not be lauded and honored for wealth that is built on the bones of far too many children and family members, dead because of their product. The entire family should be, at a minimum, shunned and shamed for their greed in seeking profits heedless of human pain.

Maura J. Casey
Franklin, Conn.
The writer is a former editorial writer for The New York Times.

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