was responsible for more than two hundred thousand over doeth overdose deaths from one nine hundred ninety nine to two thousand and sixteen now thankfully some brave souls are fighting back against america's real drug dealers this week massachusetts attorney general mara healey filed a lawsuit against purdue pharma and the sackler cartel alleging the company and its executives knowingly engaged in the unconscionable scheme to mislead doctors and consumers about the deadly dangers of its opioids so will this be the turning point where they real drug dealers in america are finally brought to heel let's find out as we start watching the hawks. that's. the bottom. like you know that i got. with. this.

well in the in the watching the hawks i am i robot for joining us today to discuss this a landmark lawsuit by the state of massachusetts on the real war on drugs is a man who knows a thing or two about the highs and lows of the u.s. legal system one lion-el of lionel media always a pleasure thank you sir so. we see other you know we've seen others a state attorney general's take similar action against big pharma in the past what makes this lawsuit against purdue pharma by the attorney general massachusetts soaps so unique. what is going out for the actual family members and i notice the way you said card tell biarritz there was a bit of a freudian slip there i don't know but but but i got to ask this one question before we do this it just hit me now i don't want to spring is there anybody

fourteen billion dollars anybody got a calculator how many pill must you make. to profit not gross but profit for t.v. i know there were other obscure pharmaceuticals but but just work with maybe it's just an billion how many pills must you make how many people are there in the country how many pills per person for three hundred thirty three or forty million people i mean has anybody ever done the math and said wow we're all these pills go away i mean yes it's great to you know to help people in pain but you've got the population of the planet ten times over maybe i'm just saying maybe the numbers tyrrel are just monumental before we even get to the issue of fraud and misleading how much of this stuff is even being made. i have to

ask i mean it's truly incredible when you look at the how much money about families made off of purdue pharma you know from what i've read it's a family owned business and it is it says since they've developed oxy cotton and since they pushed it into the marketplace you've seen the company make them fourteen billion dollars now was and i believe twenty fifteen so it's probably even higher today. mike you know years ago there was a problem and i noticed as we were prosecuting in that there was a real problem and before i up a layman to smirch the whole pharmaceutical industry you know tyrrell there are people that are in absolutely. in comprehensible unbelievable pain who use these drugs not to get high but just to just to live i mean they are there i don't want to throw them out and just say everybody uses octagon it's a scam so this is important but you know there was

a time in this country where these doctors would be so parsimonious with scripts because the d.n.a. . and you would try getting you know can i get a tylenol three wood coating get outta hair what are you crazy take advil take some aspirin i mean they never even you couldn't get this you couldn't find it then somebody flipped the switch and it went from a code in the lauda going to the idea more phone i did go down and now to know opioids ten fifteen a hundred times the potency people just overdosing there used to be a time. when we were prosecuting and i was defending where people would take some of this time release stuff and chew it and it would be released so look how we went over night from this rather dilute version of this to this

monstrously powerful deadly now the issues legally is simply this if you have a product. car or something that you know as faulty brakes or kills people and you know about it and maybe it's alleged you're not telling the dealers everything about this you know these doctors your duty believe it or not it's amazing tyrol that the manufacturers provide much of the information to the medical community because they made this up they know how it works their defense is what he's suing us for that's what the f.d.a. is for here have never will read the warning read the instructions they cover everything have you ever listened to any of those discussed being commercials and they talk about oh yeah i'm restless like ok so their defenses don't look at us just because somebody stealing it it's just like the gun manufacturers this is

a legal product of somebody breaks into it that i will probably i want to read you the statement that the attorney general says she said we found the purdue misled doctors patients and the public about the real risks of their dangerous opioids including oxy cotton their strategy was simple the more drugs they sold the more money they made and the more people died now that's a bold statement is that a good indication of how strong her case could be if she can prove that this you know that the executives of this company were maybe fudging the facts about just how dangerous this actually is and getting into that kind of big tobacco territory . is a public statement in a press conference indicative of the strength of their case could be i mean that's that's that's a good one would think that before we do this. and before we because this is going to be is this going to be the big tobacco but let me also take my my lawyer hat off

and say now let me represent this company and i want the people out there imagine this all of a sudden you have these people in wheelchairs and say this stuff that you wanted this thank you produce thank you you gave me my life back this is the world of pain we make a very powerful substance we told you here let me read what are we doing to mislead that being said look that's their defense we all know where they're going they're going to claim is the f.d.a. going to play this is by its very nature but tyrrell when you engage in a product that you put into commerce it's an automobile a drug a weapon something that has risks to it gerri somewhere is going to ask were you reasonable what if you want attorney general prove your case call your first witness dr tyrrell ventura state what were you told dr ventura they told me

this this was wrong cross-examination did you have any way to independently verify this did you read this what about these warnings that you not understand tell me where you were misled and by the way ladies and gentlemen of the jury we're in the pharmaceutical business we're capitalists this is america so it's a lot more difficult than you think to prove the case it's going to be and i want to i want to switch gears because you're also the media analyst that you are and so i i assume i could not be on without mentioning our good friend of c.n.n. jim acosta who's been a little bit under fire this week for controversial you know yelling some questions out during the trump summit now on twitter acosta responded to the criticism of folks calling for his press credentials to be suspended declaring dictatorships takeaway. press credentials not democracies to wit our very own tabitha wallace

gently reminded jim on twitter except when the credentials are held by our t.v. reporters the next super democratic to take them a lot of her no risk yet now i got to as well i don't believe the mainstream media and jim acosta do they just not understand how to first amendment actually works in this country are they that hypocritical but in their you know palace walls in atlanta new york city they are that hypocritical and they are the poster children this is a fascinating question number one i.m.h.o. that's what the kids call it in my humble opinion i don't believe anybody's press credentials should ever be taken away i want to hear affray let the public decide number two. my dear friend you made one mistake that's not the mainstream media anymore this ain't streaming we're doing right now this is that they are in an existential threat for their life but you know when farrah came along and all of

a sudden they turn on our d. and don't remember the reason why this started initially everything in view of today's idea report was hillary clinton i mean this is where all this started but that's for a different issue what people do it's funny how they get very selective with their rights and by the way we are not a democracy where a constitutional republic we all know that but it's funny how people especially because this is a take away his right to speak i believe there is nothing better no greater example of the glory of our grand republic and the first amendment the disks that their turn to kim jong un and say you got one of these people you know mr owen i've never been one for dictatorships but you know just once i'd make an exception for that guy but this is our country this is what it is he kidding yeah let me and you and that's the way it is so there's something tyrell strangely beautiful about this

juventus and squatting from this petulant. person with with a younger issues yes. you know it's really is and when i look at all of this i agree with you ana with the more voices the better and ultimately what our job should be doing is not throwing stones at each other as news organizations calling out when we do wrong of course but what we need to be doing is all getting together to better educate the public on how to read and digest news and to make the right decisions and be an informed electorate some thank you always having me on and always a pleasure to have you on line all takers for our no of wine no radio thank you sir . all right i'm going to break clock watchers don't forget to let us know what you think about topics we've covered on facebook and twitter and see our poll shows at our t.v. dot com coming up our own sean stoll brings us a startling look at the foods we are consuming as he talks with one of the filmmakers behind the new documentary giving you why you want to miss this state to watch the hawks.

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