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The major court case no one seems to be talking about is bringing much needed light to a dark subject every day.
The ongoing battle against America’s largest drug companies has given American’s another insight into exactly what opiod manufactures thought while the opioid epidemic was going on. Emails between executives of these pharmaceutical companies revealed that these executives routinely mocked those negatively affected by the drugs they made.
From The Daily Caller:
In one of the emails that Farrell shared, AmerisourceBergen executive Chris Zimmerman ridiculed West Virginia addicts by emailing a parody of the theme song for the 1960s classic television show, “The Beverly Hillbillies.” In the email, Zimmerman mocked a “poor mountaineer” that bought drugs at a “cash ‘n carry” pain clinic, Mountain State Spotlight reported.
A second email was titled “OxyContinVille,” a play on the famous Jimmy Buffett song, “Margaritaville.” It included a parody of a drug addict driving across state lines to Kentucky to purchase pills.
Huntington, West Virginia, was considered ground zero of the epidemic at one point, ABC News reported. A new program that began in 2017 helped to alleviate damage from the epidemic, however, the COVID-19 pandemic reversed some of the progress that was made.
AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp are accused of being the catalyst for a “public nuisance” by ignoring the addiction that was destroying the local community and peddling approximately 80 million opioid doses over eight years in Cabell County and the city of Huntington, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
An executive would apologize for the insensitive emails in court and would attempt to claim that the term “pillbillies” was actually a reference to drug dealers not those who became addicted opioids.