06/01/18 06/01/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! billionump: we got $6 for opioids and getting rid of that scourge that is taking over our country. and the numbers are way down. amy: this week president trump claimed "the numbers are way down" in the opioid epidemic. in fact, the latest statistics show there was an increase of opioid-related deaths and overdoses during trump's first year in office.

and the $6 billion trump mentioned is in the budget for next year. today, we look at the spread of opioid epidemic and how purdue pharma new more than 20 years ago that the drug was highly addictive but continued to promote it with promotional materials like this -- >> the rate of addiction amongst pain patients treated by doctors is much less than 1%. they don't wear out.. ththey go on working. they do not t have serious medil side e effects. so these drugs, which are repeat, are our best, strong pain medications, should be much more than they are for patients in pain. amy: since i video was recorded, more than 200,000 americans have died from opioid overdoses. we will speak for the hourr with barry meier, author of "pain

killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump ordered tariffs thursday on imported steel and from canada, mexico, and the european union, prompting criticism from u.s. allies and threats of sanctions. the european union said it would challenge the u.s. tariffs at the world trade organization. the terrace came as justin trudeau -- the tariffs came as justin trudeau said talks during have to get nafta broke down after vice president mike pence insisted any new deal include a five-year sunsetet claususe. meanwhile, mexico blasted the tariffs as a a latest insult by hostile trump administration. this is the mexicacan foreign

minister. mexico's position on trade or on immigratition or on secururiy war on whahatever area of cooperation with the united states will not vary, not because of offensive rhetoric or a justified unilateral measures like this type. we will continue to defend thehe intereststs of mexixico just ase have done ununtil now. amy: the european court of human rights has ruled that the when you and romania violated the rights of two accused men by allowing the u.s. central intelligence agency to torture them in secret prisons. the court found the countries violated article 3 of the geneva conventions, which requires the humane treatment of prisoners of war. judges say lithuania operated a secret cia black site from 2005-to-2006, where accused al qaeda recruiter abu zubaydah was tortured. they also ruled the prisoner abd al-rahim al-nashiri was tortured at a cia prison in romania between 2004 and 2005.

"the new york times" reports al-nashiri was tortured at a separate cia black site in thailand in 2002, a prison that was overseen by gina haspel, who was confirmed last month as cia director. in spain, prime minister mariano rajoy y lost a no-confidence voe in parliament today, as a major corruption scandal toppled his administration. rajoy insists he was unaware of an alleged bribery ring that saw members of his conservative people's party receive cash payments in return for political favors. pedro sanchez, head of the opposition socialist party, will replace rajoy as spain's prime minister. sanchez has the support of regional parties from basque country and catalonia, but has said he won't support catalonia's bid for independence. italian lawmakers have agreed to a coalition government led by euro-skeptic populists, with giuseppe conte as italy's new prime minister.

the coalition brings the right wing anti-immigrant league party together with f five-star movement, which seeks to abandon the euro as italy's currency. in nicaragua, armed supporters of president daniel ortega opened fire on a crowd of tens of thousands of anti-government protesters wednesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding almost 80 others. elsewhere in nicaragua, another four were killed and scores more injured at demonstrations around the country, bringing the death toll in recent anti-ortega protests to nearly 100. wednesday's deaths came as some of the mothers of those killed led a protest dubbed "the mother of all marches." the protests began in april as president ortega moved to roll back workers' pension benefits. u.s.s. ambassador toto the unitd nations nikki haley said thursday she will veto a u.n. security council resolution calling for the protection of palestinians living in the occupied territories.

the resolution, introduced by kuwait, calllls israel's massace of palestinians at recent nonviolentnt protetests in theha strip excessive and indiscriminate. israeli snipers have killed at least 116 palestinians since late march, while injuring some 12,000 others. ambassador haley circulated a rival resolution on thursday that primarily blamed hamas for the deaths and injuries. back in the united states, president trump pardoned right-wing media personality dinesh d'souza thursday, vacating his 2014 conviction for breaking campaign finance laws. d'souza is known for his racist and homophobic comments. he's previously called president obama a boy from the ghetto, mocked survivors of the parkland, florida, high school massacre, and assailed women activists as feminist whiners. trump also signaled he's preparing to commute the sentence of former illinois governor rod blagojevich, who was sentenced to 14 years in

prison on corruption charges that included trying to sell or trade president obama's former u.s. senate seat. and trump is preparing to pardon tv personality martha stewart, who was convicted in 2004 of lying to investigators who were investigating an insider trading case. both want start on "celebrity apprentice." virginia democratic senator mark warner warned the pardons could be a signal to those indicted by special counsel robert mueller's investigation. warner tweeted -- "the possibility that he may also be sending a message to witnesses in a criminal investigation into his campaign is extremely dangerous. in the united states of america, no one is above the law." california democratic senator dianne feinstein is set to introduce a bill that would end the trump administration's practice of separating immigrant children from their parents. the legislation comes less than a month after attorney general

jeff sessions made a threat to migrants crossing the u.s.-mexico border. >> if you're smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you. and that child may be separated from you. amy: s since then, reports of babies torn from their mothers' arms by ice officers have drawn outrage and widespread calls for an end to the practice. todaday, the aclu, national domestic workers alliance, and other groups have called a a non-violent national day of action for children. they are planning protests in at least three dozen cities across states.ed president trump called today for the firing of comedian samantha bee after she called ivanka trump the c-word on air. trump tweeted --

on her show bee blasted the wednesday, president's daughter -- who's also a senior white house adviser -- over child-parent separations at the u.s. border showing an obama-era , photo of young people sleeping in cages and a photo of trump and her son posted to instagram last weekend. this is a clip from samantha bebee's program. >> after decades of ignoring the isise, americans are fininly paying attention. welcome in most of us. ivanka trump who wks at th white house,hose to post the send most oblivioiv tweet with the thiweweek. ankathat, is a autiful photo of you and her cld, but t t me justst s, one moer to another, do something abo your d's immigration pracceces, y [blee he lisns to you. t on somhing tig and l and ger fath to stop i

amy: samtha b apologized for heher coents thuday on ttter sang -- "i croed a lin and i dply gret it. the watcog groupommon cae callingor a pro into whher present trumis usining s officeo enenri hisis faly, raisg the alm about wh it call cronyis neposm, abus of poweand conflicts of interest in trump's recent negotiations with china. trump announced that he would save chinese electronics company zte from collapse just two days after beijing invested $500 million into a trump development project in indonesia. a week before that, ivanka trump's fashion business won approval for trademarks in china. ivanka trump abruptly left a conference call with reporters on tuesday when asked about her business in china. inin washington, d.c.c., the nation''s largest union of federal employees has filed suit against an executive order that severely limits the amount of time government workers can spend on union activity. trump signed the order last

friday, along with other measureses that will make e it easier to fire f federal w work, whwhile compelling federal agencies to o negotiate less union-frfriendly contractsts. the president of the american federation of government employees, j. david cox, said in a statement -- "this is a democracy, not a dictatorship. no president should be able to undo a law he doesn't like through administrative fiat." in las vegas, nevada, tens of thousands of casino and restaurant workers are posed to walk out oststrike today after theiununion ntraractexpirereat mimidnight. early this morni, , the linanary unioiolocal 226 reached a tentative fi-y-year al w with caesa's tertrtaient cocoring me 12,000 workerththat wl avert ststriket nine cinoo resortonon theas v vegas stripi. but talkreremainngoioingt a furtr r 25 ppertrtie wherere more tn 30,000 workersay they' readydyo join pket nes latetoday.

in washingto d.c., psecucuto haveropped fony chars agagainst several people who fad possible decades-long prison terms after they were arrested at president trump's inauguration day "disrupt j20" protests in early 2017. the dismissals came after defense lawyers told the court that federal prosecutors hid dozens of videos from the protesters in a breach of court procedure known as a brady violation. although a jury found a first round of defendants not guilty last december, prosecutors have continued to press felony charges against scores of people that could see some of them imprisoned for as much as 60 years. to see our full coverage o of te j20 protest trials, visit our website democracynow.org. in northern ireland, pro-choice activists deployed robots on the streets of belfast thursday to distribute abortion medication, in defiance of a near-total ban on abortions. police seized the two robots and the pills they were distributing

and said they were investigating whether to press criminal charges. the protest came just days after voters in the republic of ireland voted resoundingly to repeal a constitutional ban on most abortions. the move left northern ireland as the only part of the united kingdom, and one of the last parts of europe, where abortions are effectively outlawed. this is pro-choice campaigner eleanor malone. >> we have a number of volunteers, activists who have volunteered in defiance of the law. we are doing this to say we're not willing to be the bastion of -- in the developed world. northern ireland will be one of two jurisdictions in europe to effectively criminalize women for having abortions. we're just not willing to accept

that. amy: in argentina, hundreds of women rallied outside the congress in buenos aires thursday as lawmakers debated whether to legalize abortion in the predominantly-catholic country. argentina currently only allows abortion w with the permission f a judge in cases of rape or a risk to a pregnant woman's life. in croatia, border police opened fire thursday on a van carrying 29 migrants from afghanistan and iraq, injuring nine people. police say they fired when the van tried to avoid a roadblock set up to interdict migrants entering the country from bosnia. among those hurt were two young children. in hawaii, fema has ordedered te evacuation of parts of a neighborhood on the state's big island as fast-moving lava from kilauea volcano threatened to destroy more homes. the evacuation zone is home to some 2000 people. at least 77 houses have been destroyed since the volcano erupted lastst month. officials also warned d of the threat o of toxic gases, choking ash plumes, anand volcanic glass

falling from the sky. and a prison watchdog is s callg for inin and t to the prpracticf prisons charging copayments to prisisoners seseeking memedical. 42 states and the federal prison system charged prisoners of the eight to see a doctor. the prison policy initiative says the practice, when you're making pennies an hour or nothing at all, a small co-pay can be the equivalent of hundreds of dollars. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today we spend the hour looking at the ongoing opioid epidemic and how it spread across the united states. drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for americans under age 50. but during a speech tuesday, president trump claimed "the numbers are way down." he spoke in nashville, tennessee. pres. trump: we got $6 billion

for opioid and getting rid of that scorch that has taken over our country. and the numbers are way down. we're getting the word out. bad stuff. you go to the hospital, you were broken arm, you come out and you are a drug addict with this crap. it is way down. we are doing a good job withth . but we got $6 billion to help us with opioids. amy: in fact, the latest statisti show therere was an increase of opioid-related deaths and overdoses duringg trtrump's first year in office. according to the c centers for disease control and prevention, drug overdrdose deaths involving opioioids rose to about 46,000 r the 1212 month period that ended october 201017. october 2016.rom the epidemic has been so widespread that life expectancy is falling in the united states for the first time in 50 years.

meanwhile, the white house says it is about to launch a series of public service advertisements next week on opioid d ngers aimed d young peoeople. the ads s were developed witith kellyanne conway, trump's point person on n opioids. this comes as "the new york times" published a confidential justice department report this week that found manufacturers of the drug oxycontin had access to information showing it was addictive as early as 1996, the first year after the drug hit the market. purdue pharma executives were told oxycontin was being crushed and snorted for its powerful narcotic, but still promoted it as less addictive than other opioid painkillers. this report is especially damning because purdue executives have testified before congress that they were unaware of the drug's growing abuse until years after it was on the market. well, for more, we're joined by barry meier, the reporter who broke this story for "the times"

headlined, "origins of an epidemic: purdue pharma knew its opioids were widely abused." barry meier was a reporter at "the new york times" for nearly 30 years, the first journalist to shed a national spotlight on the abuse of oxycontin. his book "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic" was published this week in an updated and expanded edition. he has won the pulitzer prize and two george polk awards for his past reporting on the intersection of business, medicine, and public health. barry meier, welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. talk about this latest justice document that you just got a hold of. >> the basic outlines are this. as you noted, new pharma has claimed it has first become aware of their growing abuse of oxycontin in early 2000. that wasas about four years aftr its introduction. in fact, what this document show is the company had extensive information about oxycontin's

1997, 1998, 19 99 -- amy: 20 years ago. >> yes, and conceal that informrmion. ththey did notot tell t the fda, doctors, or patience. this was a very damming report. the crimes were so significant that the prosecutors who spent four years investigating the company recommended that three top executives at purdue pharma be indicted on -- for a series of felony crimes like conspiracy to defraud the united states, false statements, and things of that nature. unfortunately, their efforts were blocked i top administration officials within the justice department. amy: explain what actually took place. >> what took place is the fofollowing. purdue pharma a was given permission to market oxycontin as less prone to abuse and addiction than competing narcotics.

others.e vicodin and >> it was a gift from the fda. they took that gift and they ran with it. faye told doctors, not only that it might be less prone to abusee and addiction, but it would be less prone to abuse and addiction. in 2007, they admitted, basically lying to doctors, line to patients by misrepresenting what they have been allowed to say. what we did not know was during the course of it being invest -- the investigation that led to that confession, the federal government had also uncovered information to show that only had a mis-marketed the d drug, they werere awaware almost frome beginning that people were significantlytin and they concealed that information. had they sent a warning about that to the public, oxycontin

would never have become a andion-dollar drug thousands of lives would not have been affected by it. amy: we're going to talk about the origins of oxycontin. we will talk about how this drug company grew. at rigig now your book came out like over 15 years ago, "pain killer." that is before the company was indicted and the corporate officials were indicted. talk about rudolph giuliani, now once again in the headliness because e he is trump's attotor. his role in the r rise of oxycontin in preventing a serious prosecution of thihis company. >> rudolph giuliani was hired in 2002. a lot of the reporting i did for "the times" in 2001 was aimed at the overaggressive marketing of oxycontin by purdue pharma as well as the growing reports,

public reports, about the drug's abuse. they then came under scrutiny by the fda, by the dea, and they felt they needed a public defender, a fixer, if youou wil, the person t they brought inin o that was rudolph giuliliani. he went in with his reputation as a former prosecutor, mayor, and so forth, -- amy: you are t talking about rit after the september 11 attacks when he was called america's mayor. >> exactly. he took that reputation and he sold it to corporations. one of the corporations he sold it to was purdue pharma. he became a sort of front man, if you will, their fixer. he went to meet with dea officials, other officials, and basically spouted the company's line. knewhave no idea what rudy about what was in the company's files, whether he was privy to the information that prosecutors

later discovered. but he became essentially the person who tried to smooth things over. amy: and was particularly powerful because he was a cancer survivor himself. he spoke about what it means to reduce pain. >> exactly. he made a very compelling argument. this drug has valuable uses. it is needed in certain situations. but what purdue had done was to basically market this drug as a cure-a-all for all kinds of pai. and wiwith the vast availability of the drug, he poured out onto the streets and that leled to ts wave of abuse and addiction. amy: who were the officials in washington, the political appointees in the justice department who intervened? this also goes to the whole and aof west virginia crusading prosecutor who took this case on. >> basically, there were people at the senior levels of the criminal division -- alice

fisher was the head of the criminal division. amy: this is under george w. bush. >> correct. and alberto gonzales was the attorney general at that time. essentially what happened was in september 2006, this very small group of prosecutors, as you noted in farar westernrn virgin, arwarded a report, confidential report to the justice department recommending that serious felony indictments be brought against the executives of purdue. that report contained extensive exhibits, emails, recordsdsthat they plannnned too present to a grand jury to support the call for their and indictments. it was backed by the local u.s. attorney there, and man named john brownlee. it was backed by mid-level officials within the justice department headquarters. 2006 of october, two

weeks before these prosecutors were scheduled to go before a grand jury and seek these indictments, there was an 11th hour meeting at the justice department. purdue brought in its ,igh-powered legal defense team met with top justice department officials like alice fisher, and after that meeting, there was a chill on the case will stop basicacally, peoplple likee john brownlee were told, we're not going to give you the resources to support this prosecution. you're on your own if you want to do it. had no resources. he had a small group of people that spent four years, 24 hours a day investigating this company. they were facing a company of unlimited financial and legal firepower. they really had no choice but to settle the case at that point. amy: the story of west virginia is astounding. as you write in your "new york times" piece, starting in 2007,

the year of the settlement, just routers sent enough painful still west virginia over five years to supply every man, woman, and child with 433 of them. this is according to a report in the charleston gazette. we will talk about was virginia as ground zero and exactly what happened to these communities with barry meier, author of "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic." it is just out this week. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "puppet charm" by two ton boa. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. our guest for the hour is barry meier, the pulitzer prize winner, former "new york times" journalist whose book is out again. well, it is updated. this is particularly relevant.

the book is called "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic." in 2003.ut 15 years. what a difference it makes in this country. how many deaths are we talking about? i mean, yeah this incredible description of the death toll writing in 2016, 60 4000 americans died from drug overdoses. that number equal to the population of cities such as portland, maine, lynchburg, virginia, and santa fe, new mexico. it was as if i in one year a ply get ininjured one of these towns and killed every single inhabitant. >> we're in the midst of the greatest public health disasastr of the 21st century. it started outut with the drug like oxycontin and morphed since then into a kind of hydra headed

these. on the one hand you have the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs. on the other hand, your this growing death toll from counterfeit versions of drugs like fentanyl. we're in this very, very complicated situation. the kind of policies that the posing -- is never now proposing may not get as out of it. we're going to need aa real exextreme effort to o get out o. amy: we're talking about in n 20 years, 25050,000 people have di. >> that is just from prescription painkillers alone. that is from legal drugs. that is from drug companies are allowed to produce, sell legally, and prescribed by doctors. and that alone is a stunning sterling figure. ad fromant to go to an purdue pharma. this is from 1998. the ad to market oxycontin.

features dr. alan span us of north carolina. >> no question our besest, strongest pain medicines are the opioids, but these are the same drugs that have the same reputation of causing addiction another terrible things. in fact, the rate of addiction amongst pain patients who are treated by dococtors is much les than 1%. they don't wear out. they go onon working. theyey do not hahave serious mel side effects. and so these drugs, which i repeat, are our best, strongest pain medications, should be used much more than they are. amy: that is an ad put out by purdue pharma, the maker of oxycontin. >> in the late 1990's, there was a movement to promote -- treat pain much more aggressively than it had been in the past. a lot of the movement was funded by purdue pharma will stop people like dr. alex spanos. there were these tropes, the

addiction rate is less than 1%. it was a total lie. there was no basis for that figure but it was repeated, repeated, repeated. it sort of got ingrained into the medical culture. prescribed, doctors more a and more e of t these drs into believe. amy: the guy who was talking about? >> dr. spanos. i believe they made another video with him that involved a patient and that patient wasn't even on oxycontin. he was on a totally otherer drug thatat came out. it w was this masassive public relations campaign that was funded in large part by purdue pharma t to sell oxycontin. amy: talk about the growth of purdue pharma. talk about the sackler family, what was unusual about this company, what also makes it so difficult to investigate. >> the sackler family is a fascinating family. their names are on every museum in the united states here in new york at the metropolitan, at the national gallery in washington.

amy: their names are on wings. their names are very prominent. but when it comes to the drug where they make their fortune, we don't see their name. >> not only that, -- there are three brothers. and mortimer.d, arthur was the eldest. he was this kind of, i guess, you will genius, if you will. he invented the modern day drug advertising industry. all of the ads that we see on tv today are in print are kind of a result of arthur sackler's genius, or lack there of as you see it. wedded together the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession. he made doctors shields for drug companies. he created medical journals that were really kind of fake medical journals because drug adadvertisers had toto pay to gt

their studies s into those medil journals. so he created all of these deceptive marketing and practices that are commonplace today. he died in 1986 before oxycontin was created. but to get his brothers into the drug industry, he bought this time a little firm located here in new york called purdue frederick. they basically sold a lot of crazy stuff. mid-1990's,in the they decided to get into the pain medication business. they first bought a drug called ms contin and marketed it mainly to cancer specialist, or the drug was very, very valuable in dealing with cancer pain. but in the mid-1990's, as this drive to treat pain more aggressively began to unfold, they began to sell oxycontin,

which is a long-acting form of the narcotic oxycodone. aggressive,the most high-powered marketing campaign for prescription narcotic in drug industry's history. with sacklered money. the sacklers or the beneficiaries -- were the premier beneficiaries of it. there were something like $31 billion of oxycontin sales in subsequent years, and the sacklers became, i believe, the 14th or 15th richest family in the united states. i want to go to 1998. purdue pharma distributes another video featuring seven patients who used oxycontin to deal with chronic pain. one of the patients was and johnny sullivan. >> i got my life back. now i can enjoy every day that i live. i can really enjoy myself.

and before, even a good day was hell. now i can enjoy myself. i look at the future the same guy 25, 30 year old would. amy: after a caring and that promotional video for purdue pharma, johnny sullivan became a severe addict to oxycontin and other opioids. in 2008, he died in a car crash when he fell asleep at the wheel. his wife said because of his addiction, he would often nod off. ,> this drug g for some patients has been n godsend. but for mamany others, it t has turned into a nightmare. we focus a lot on the subject of addiction, and rightly so. but not long ago, i interviewed a pain specialist who again on the bandwagon promoting these drugs when they first came out. he said to me, you know, addiction is not the real problem with these drugs. it is not the only problem with these drugs. these drugs caused patients to

emotionally opt out of life, to become couch potatoes, become withdrawn, to reject their family members and lose social contact. they have all other kinds of troubling side effects. there is now a generation of patients who effectively are emotionally dependent upon drugs. amy: a spokesperson for purdue pharma said in a statement in response to your article in "the new york times" -- "suggesting that activities that last occurred more than 16 years ago are responsible for today's complex and multifaceted opioid crisis is deeply flawed." your response? >> i am not a $600 in our lawyer. statementse up with like that. but let me put it in simple terms. purdue pharma violated the trust of doctors and patients.

it lied to them. the justice department discovered reams of information, which in their minds, showed this company also concealed extraordinarily powerful information pointing to the onse of these drugs early when it was first marketed. amy: what was the line to the doctors? would be lesstin prone to abuse and addiction than competing painkillers. they admitted they told that lie in 2007 and paid $600 million in fines. that was a drop in the bucket where oxycontin sales were concererned, but they admitted they had lied. amy: you write about how prettty sales reps used hrt convince doctors that oxycontin was more stable than a traditional narcotic, even though the fda had told purdue that the information they were giving out was bogus. >> that was just one of many lies that they used.

the entire predicate of the company's marketing campaign was based on a lie. that is the simplest way of putting it. the fda had given them permission to say "this drug might be less prone to abuse and addiction." they trained their sales reps to prone to abuses and addiction. sales reps did not know what the reality was, but they would go to doctors and pharmacists and say, you can't inject oxycontin because the junk you will get a heart attack, they will drop over and die. this is a safe truck. this is much safer. it was all in incredible life. at the same time, the company was concealing what was probably the most to forget information they needed to tell doctors, which was this drug was being

widely abused. amy: who is laura nagle? >> laura nagle was the key figure in the dea at the time of this episode. she was in charge of the vision of dea that whenever the diversion of legal drugs onto the streets. it was no sort of the narcs, the guys who busted people for selling heroin or cocaine, but it was the diversion division which dealt with the misuse of prescription drugs. amy: what did d she do? >> she was a hero. she was a fighter. she saw what was going on. she realized thatat this compan, eight, was overly aggressive -- promoting this drug, you know, to the nines, that people were dying from this drug. she tried to call them to account. this initially unleashed as much legal and lobbying firepower on roll hersically try to

over. amy: and what happened? >> she basically backed off. just like everyone else in those days who came up against purdue pharma. amy: let's talk about ground zero, west virginia. what was happening in some of these towns, in some of these small, independent drugstores that were bringing in how much of this drug? >> they were bringing in huge amounts of this drug. tens and tens of millions of pills annually of this drug. amy: how did it start and was virginia? >> oxycontin was being distributed to west virginia, virginia, and other states. drugstores were prescribing it. but you had doctors there that were essentially running what mill peopleill woulds. come in and say, doctor, i heard, have. pain. ok, fine, let me write you prescription. forontin works really well

me and my papain. yoyou have these doctorsrs who e writiting prescriptions for drus at the request of the patient, which is a rare situation. and so these patients who are often drug abusers would go to the pharmacy and get the prescriptions filled. on this story, i would go to small towns where the doctor had a pharmacy and his office. so he would write a prescription, go next-door to the pharmacy that he owns, and they would dispense the drug. millions of these pills were being dispensed. they were ending up on the street in these horroror shows f crime and abuse and separated families andnd everything else would follow. amy: i am looking at a piece that you referred to in your piece, this is in the west virginia gazette mail. it says, in southern west

virginia, many of the pharmacies that receive largerr s shipmentf prescription opioids were small, independent drugstores like once in raleigh and wyoming counties that ordered 600,000 to 1.1 million oxycodone pills a year, or they were locally owned pharmacies in logan were whololesalers distributed 1 1.4 millllion to 4.7 million hydrocodone pills annually. i contrast, the walmart at charleston, one of the rituals busiest stores in west virginia, shipped out about 5000 oxycontin and 9500 hydrocodone pills each year. >> it is startling. one of the things that happened when the justice department did not crack down really on purdue pharma, it sent a s signal that drug companies, drug distributors, you can ship these drugs in whatever quantity you want to wherever you want and the worst you're going to face

is a fine. so theyiewed it as a cost of doing business. there was never going to be any countability for the corpoporate executives. there was no going t to be like the dealerr drug addddict that wowould end up in prison. all of the c corporate executivs were goingng to have to o pay wa small fine. that was a fction of the profits ththat they were going o make by shipping huge quantities of the drug to places likeke was virginia.. amy: we will continue this conversation with barry meier, author of "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic." about ourask you family, a doctor in virginia. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: member of the left and passed away ththis week at 43. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. , authorest is barry meier of "pain killer: an empire of

deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic." tell us the story of art van zee . >> art van zee's can of thehe ho of myy book. i met him when i was reporting for "the times" back in early 2000. he is a small-townwn doctor. borderd in the kentucky in virginia. he was a gracious, lovely person. he reminded me kind of a doctors without borders, but here in the u.s., working at appellation, in an area that desperately needed medical care. town wased that his being overrun by oxycontin abuse. he saw kids being addicted to it. he decided eventually that he had to do something. she could not stand quiet and let this unfold.. he tried to lead a small town

fda to pullget the this drug off the market or at least to crack down on this drug. and painkiller, follows his saga in a solid the of other people in the country, a wonderful, nun named sister beth who try to take on this huge, powerful drug company and hold it to account. amy: what happened to dr. art van zee? >> art van zee malec laura nagle, eventually got shouted down, got ignored. there was this rather pivotal senate hearing where he comes and pleads with the senators to do something about this drug. chris dodd, the democratic senator from connecticut at the time, starts raking them over the coals and sounds like he i s badgering him with talking

points that have been given to him by purdue pharma. and lo and behold, when i started looking at campaign finance records and other documents, it turned out that chris dodd had met with purdue pharma prior to o thisearing and chris dodd had gotten a $10,000 contribution from purdue pharma shortly afterwards. purdue pharma, you know, was spreading money around and going after its critics and co-opting them thrhroughout this entirire period. the u.s. attorney in m maine who first sounded a public alarm -- amy: the first one in the country. ,> the first one in the country in 2001, went immediately on the payroll of purdue and became one of its biggest defenders. i found documents that suggested he was discussing a job with them even before he e left publc office. he's were up and down that t tht was not the case, bubut in fact,

there are emails produduce from his own he mills suggesting he reached out to them to discuss job opportunities. amy: explain the nature of the settlement in 2000. can individuals in the come to be held criminally responsible today? what, 200,000 deaths later the last 20 years as they would argument does argue that was not all as? >> it was twofold. pretty company -- purdue pharma, is a comedy, pled guilty to misrepresenting the drug and paid $600 million in fines. the three executives, top , , to aes of the countr misdemeanorr charge. it only held him liable in their roles as corporate executives. it did not accuse them personally of any wrongdoing.

they paid around $34 million in fines. is what we can to discover that the prosecutorsrsn the case wanted to charge them also with very serious felonies that could have put them in jail had that he's gone forward. amy: talking about holding people responsible, you write about how those that do drugs together, a husband to be found guilty of murdering his wife, etc. close never different standard of justicece in this country. one standard is for the person who gets caught with some drugs in their pocket, another standard is for the person who is caught selling drugs. and another standard is for the executives of corporations that allow these drugsgs to get into the wrong hands of people or

knowingly are aware that these drugs are being abused and don't say anything. littleeems to be very punishment that those kinds of individuals face. amy: but people on the ground -- >> they face the rest of her life in prison. they can be sent away for 10 years, 20 years, have their lives destroyed whereas the corporate executives don't see their bonuses going down, don't see their lives being ruined. they just go on with their lives. amy: earlier this year, build a blah zero announced that new york would sue manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids to account for their part in the city's ongoing deadly opioid epidemic. firms named in the suit include purdue pharma, johnson & johnson, and mckesson corporation.

ifthis is a a man-made e crisis ever there was one, fueled by corporate greed a and the actios of big pharmaceutical companiess that hooked millions of amamericans o on opioids to begn with. and some of them stilill are addicted to prescriptioion drugs and others have migrated t to hr when, t t we know whwhere to ben for so many peoplele. bluntly, it wawas so a few peope could profit. honestly, the horrible actions of criminals who sell drugs and profit in depth as well. that combination has led to where we are today. we need to remember that those origins at the root of this problem means it is a problem that can be defeated. we can fight back against the big pharmaceutical companies. we can fight back against the criminals who battled drugs. we can change it so anyways, including changing the entire weture around us issue so

can help people. amy: that is new york mayor build a blah zero. more than 60 cities are suing big pharma over opioids. what does this mean? well, this could have happened a long time ago, amy. with his startling to me, someone who has watched this over all must two decades, is the issue of why did we wait this long to do this? we could have done this in 2003, in 2010, in 2012. we have allowed this to morphed into this horrible situation. it is a good thing that it is happening now -- and i really do hope that these cities and states carry through and get to the truth, anand not walk away with a simple settlement with the justice department did in 2007. the only way this problem is really going to be settled dust

salt visibly understand what happened, if the truth about what happened comes out. the fact is confidential memo has now come out as to the truth of what we know. amy: and a again, say what is te essential point in this confidential memo. >> the essential moment is that purdue pharma has claimed from day one,e, and still claims tod, that it first became aware of oxycontinn''s growing abuse in 2000. this memoo shows that prosecutos believe that they were aware of the drugs abuse for years before that and concealed that information. amy: what about the lawsuits of new york and 60 other cities and towns? what are they trying to accomplish with these lawsuits? >> they're trying to get money to pay for some of the medical costs that they have had to absorb as a result of andcription drug overdoses

addictions. it is very similar to the tobacco lawsuits, which i also covered for "the times." it is essentially taxpayers have borne the brunt of the health care costs related to prescription painkillers. purdue pharma has not paid for it. johnson & johnson has not paid for it. these drug to strip heaters have not paid for it. they've only profited from it. now the states and towns are trying to recover some of the cost from the people who profited from this trade. amy: barry meier, what about the american medical association? >> it is funny should bring that up. the amererican medical associatn has been, over time, one of the big stumbling blocks to the solutition of this problem. back in 2001, i met a wonderful doctor. he argued that doctors should be required to undergo some type of mandatory trainining as a

condition for prescribing prescription drugs like oxycontin. training,ours of eight hours of training, you could do it at home, do it througugh some sort of thing on the internet. very s sple. the ama fought this tooth and nail. as recently as the obama administration. the white house office of drug policy wanted to propose a l law to make this happen. ama lobbyists came to officials of the white hou and, you know, to the obama administration and said, if you do this, we will fight you tooth and nail. we will not allow this to happen. this is too much of a burden for our members. they don't have six hours, eight hours to spend looking at information on how to prescribe these drugs more safely. so i think they have a lot on their shoulders here.

they basically blocked picking a very simple step that would have been -- would have provided tremendous good for patients and for doctors. did not putklers their name on the drug company and are very secretive when it comes to that of a very public when it comes to supporting the big museums. do you think, given these big art institutions and universities around the country get federal funding, that they should have their name stripped from these wings? >> that is really up to the institutions and these medical schools to decide. amy: explain the medical school connection. >> they find a lot of medical schools, a lot of educational programs at medical schools. there is been a lot. inre's a wonderful piece "esquire" and patrick keep did in "the new yorker" about the

sacklers. i wrote about them extensively in "pain killer." they have become the face of this problem. museums and -- amy: may be name the wings after the victims of their drugs. >> either that or have information about their donors. amy: next week begins the big push, the white house in conjunction with the ad council, will be debuting public service shockes about -- should the conscience, they say. what do you think needs to be done? >> well, i think we have a two headed beast that we are dealing with. one thing that is being done, unfortunately, it has been about a decade too late but it is being done now, is a reassessment of the use of drugs the treatment in of medical conditions. as i said, it is a valuable drug member there many other ways to treat pain and treat common

types of pain that are just as effective as the use of pain pills. unions need too make suree that their members ad employees are getting the best possible pain treatment, not pills which are profitable for drug companies and cheap for insurers. that is one side of the problem. problem iside of the the illegal side, and that is really a law-enforcement enforcement issue. cracking down on companies -- countries like china and mexico that ship the chemicals used to make these horrible and dangerous illegal street drugs. amy: i want to thank you for being with us. barry meier, author of "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic," which is just out this week in an updated and expanded edition. pulitzer prize-winning journalist formally with "the new york times." that does it for our show. i will be speaking in atlanta, georgia, on saturday.

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