only to leave his post in 2001: Gregory D. Kesich, “Former Prosecutor Backs Drug Company—Maine’s One-Time U.S. Attorney Tells Senators the Maker of Oxycontin Has Worked to Curb Abuse,” Portland Press Herald, Aug. 2, 2007. “The drug diversion problem was not caused by OxyContin, and it will not be solved by going after OxyContin as a whipping boy,” McCloskey said.
doling out prescriptions from the back seat: Author interview, Ramseyer; Dr. Denny Lambert, who was also addicted to opioids, was sentenced to fifty-two months in prison for illegally distributing OxyContin, Ritalin, and Dilaudid: Laurence Hammack, “Doctors or Dealers?,” Roanoke Times, June 11, 2001.
“Look, my view of the case was”: Author interview, John Brownlee, Sept. 30, 2016.
“his star power alone”: Author interview, U.S. assistant attorney, March 2, 2017.
a memo written by the federal prosecutors to Brownlee: From a memo draft written Sept. 28, 2006, from the assistant prosecutors to Brownlee.
“Brownlee, you are fine”: “Evaluating the Propriety and Adequacy of the OxyContin Criminal Settlement,” hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, July 31, 2007, online at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-110shrg40884/html/CHRG-110shrg40884.htm.
senior Justice Department officer phoned Brownlee: Ibid.
eleventh-largest fine paid by a pharmaceutical firm: David Armstrong, “Purdue Says Kentucky Suit Over OxyContin Could Be Painful,” Bloomberg News, Oct. 20, 2014.
two thousand cardboard containers they’d filled: Hammack, “OxyContin Settlement a Reversal of Fortune.”
falsified charts created by Purdue: “Agreed Statement of Facts,” United States of America v. The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc., and Michael Friedman, Howard R. Udell, and Paul D. Goldenheim, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Abingdon Division, May 7, 2007, 7–8.
(“I would not write it up at this point”): Point No. 36 of Attachment B to Plea Agreement, The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc., et al., 13.
68 percent of the drug: Point No. 20(a.), The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc., et al., 6.
oxycodone was harder to extract: Ibid.
OxyContin caused less euphoria: Point No. 43, 14, The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc., et al.
CHAPTER FOUR. “THE CORPORATION FEELS NO PAIN”
Interviews: Sister Beth Davies, Dr. Art Van Zee, Andrew Bassford, Randy Ramseyer, Dr. Sue Cantrell, Barry Meier, Judge James Jones, Andrew Bassford, Jeff Udell, Lee Nuss, Laurence Hammack
the Barter stage featured a homegrown comedy: The Quiltmaker, a comedy by Catherine Bush, Barter’s playwright in residence, premiered at the Barter in the spring of 2007.
even written a poem: “OxyContin,” by Dr. Art Van Zee, Annals of Internal Medicine, April 6, 2004: 527.
“Everything I’d written was now justified”: Author interview, Barry Meier, Jan. 24, 2017.
voices broke periodically as they choked out: From a host of names submitted in memorial to Ed Bisch’s memorial website (no longer active, but Bisch provided me with a document he had archived that contained hundreds of names).
two moms in matching rain scarves held each other: Barry Meier, “3 Executives Spared Prison in OxyContin Case,” New York Times, July 21, 2007. Don Petersen took the photograph.
“What if it was your son or daughter”: Testimony of Victor Del Regno, about his son, Andrew, from the transcript of United States of America v. The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc., and Michael Friedman, Howard R. Udell, and Paul D. Goldenheim, sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Abingdon Division, July 20, 2007: 10–12.
“Brian is here in the courtroom with me today” and “I think jail is too good for you guys”: From the transcript of The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc., et al., sentencing hearing, 28–30.
“I think you should go spend some time in a rehab facility”: Ibid., 20–21.
“a personal tragedy for Mr. Udell”: Ibid., White testimony, 92–102.
“a criminal, and that is horrendously harsh punishment”: Ibid., Good testimony, 103–109. Goldenheim left the company in 2004.
to jail him would be virtually unprecedented: Ibid., Mark D. Pomerantz testimony, 83–91.
“the enormous benefits of OxyContin far outweigh”: Ibid., Purdue Frederick attorney, Howard Shapiro testimony, 73–83.
“unprecedented” to hold pharmaceutical corporate officers: Ibid., Randy Ramseyer testimony, 67–72.
“they didn’t seem as unhappy as those three guys”: Author interview, Ramseyer, March 17, 2016.
every American adult around the clock: 2010 data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Super Bowl ads now targeted relievers: The 2015 ad was meant to promote Movantik, a first-of-its-kind constipation drug for painkiller users, though the ad didn’t directly mention the drug. The U.S. market for treating opioid constipation is projected to reach $500 million by 2019, according to Matt Pearce, “What the Super Bowl Constipation Ad Did Not Say,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 10, 2016.
Purdue had earned over $2.8 billion: Caitlin Sullivan, “Punishing OxyContin’s Maker,” Time, July 20, 2007.
earn its way onto Forbes’s: Alex Morrell, “The OxyContin Clan: The $14 Billion Newcomer to Forbes 2015 List of Richest U.S. Families,” Forbes, July 1, 2015. The family dropped to number nineteen on the list in 2016, its estimated worth down to $13 billion, even though it had reaped some $700 million the preceding year, the magazine estimated, according to Chase Peterson-Withorn, “Fortune of Family Behind OxyContin Drops Amid Declining Prescriptions,” Forbes, June 29, 2016.
Mortimer Sackler even had a pink climbing rose: Bruce Weber, “Mortimer D. Sackler, Arts Patron, Dies at 93,” New York Times, March 31, 2010.
Arthur pioneered the idea: Jesse Kornbluth, “The Temple of Sackler,” Vanity Fair, September 1987.
put the figure as high as 56 percent: From a systematic review of Bridget A. Martell et al., “Opioid Treatment for Chronic Back Pain: Prevalence, Efficacy, and Association with Addiction,” Annals of Internal Medicine, January 2007: 116–27.
“Arthur built his own temple”: Kornbluth, “The Temple of Sackler.”
Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group: Laurence Hammack, “OxyContin Settlement a Reversal of Fortune,” Roanoke Times, May 12, 2007.
“The corporation feels no pain”: Author interview, Andrew Bassford, Jan. 16, 2016. He admitted his point of view was in the minority “and maybe even heresy” to his colleagues in the office.
The $634.5 million fine: According to Brownlee’s news release, May 10, 2007, the fine included the following directives: $276.1 million forfeited to the United States; $160 million to federal and state agencies to resolve liability for false claims made to Medicaid and other government health care programs, $130 million to resolve private civil claims; $5.3 million to the Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit to fund future fraud investigations; $20 million to Virginia’s prescription monitoring program. “In addition, Purdue will pay the maximum statutory criminal fine of $500,000.” The executive fines were assessed at $19 million for Friedman, $8 million for Udell, and $7.5 million for Goldenheim, and each executive was also fined an additional $5,000.