Rahm Emanuel's War on Drugs
Tired of waiting for the FDA, cities sue makers of addictive painkillers
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Seven years ago, the maker of OxyContin pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it had promoted the painkiller for off-label uses and played down its risk of addiction. The settlement, which cost Purdue Pharma $600 million, was supposed to stem the dramatic rise of prescription painkiller abuse that has swept the U.S. since OxyContin hit the market in 1996.
In the years since the settlement, America’s opioid problem has only gotten worse. Deaths involving prescription painkillers tripled in the first decade of the 21st century to more than 40 per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which called the problem an epidemic in 2011.