John Oliver talks OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma and Sackler family on Last Week Tonight

Richard Sackler and Purdue Pharma have a big hand in the rise of OxyContin and opioid addiction. John Oliver explains on Last Week Tonight.

Let’s talk about drugs. Except, of course, none of the marginally fun or enjoyable things about drugs. Not even, as John Oliver pointed out, that one photo of First Lady Nancy Reagan sitting on Mr. T’s lap that was somehow part of an anti-drug bit.

No, we’re talking about opioids, along with Oliver. Why are we doing this? After all, didn’t Oliver and company cover this on an earlier season of Last Week Tonight? Unfortunately, things haven’t gotten better since that 2016 segment. More than 47,000 Americans died due to opioid overdoses in 2017.

While much has been made of the vulnerability of given communities in response to this crisis, we’re not interested in cultural commentary right now. Instead, it’s time to focus in on the drug distributors.

The three largest ones are AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and the McKesson Corporation. Together, these companies account for over 90 percent of the American drug distribution market. And these three aren’t just handing out Flintstones vitamins. They are dealing with some real heavy-hitting medications, including the opioids at the heart of the much-discussed opioid epidemic.

These companies are supposed to alert authorities if there are suspicious activities related to shipping and use of opioids. Yet, the case of Kermit, West Virginia, where millions of doses of opioids have been shipped to a town of around 400 people, shows that this oversight is tremendously lacking.

McKesson, one of the largest distributors, lamely tried to implement a monitoring program after the state of things in West Virginia was revealed to the wider public. But, of course, it backfired horribly and opioid use in Kermit actually increased. What else should you expect when you ask the drug company to monitor itself? Especially when fines levied against it are a fraction of their sky-high income.

Purdue and Sackler

For an even deeper picture, turn to Purdue Pharma, which manufacturers OxyContin. They’re responsible for the aggressive marketing of Oxy, including oversize bonuses for sales reps and underplayed representations of OxyContin’s addictiveness.

Purdue Pharma is connected to the Sackler family, whose name is all over high-culture centers, like the Guggenheim, Kew Gardens, the Smithsonian, and Oxford University. Earlier this year, the Guggenheim was the site of a protest led by artist Nan Goldin, wherein people released false prescription papers throughout the middle of the iconic building, protesting the acceptance of donations from the Sacklers.

We’re only now beginning to understand how involved the Sackler family is in this affair. Richard Sackler, son of the founder and former Purdue president, is accused of intense micromanagement, to the point where he insisted on visiting with doctors himself. He even predicted that the introduction of OxyContin would produce “a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition”.

“This is not too bad,” he said in response to the growing addiction crisis. “It could have been worse.”

Oliver isn’t sure that the “full horror” of the comment really comes across. That’s in part because Richard Sackler absolutely does not grant interviews. It’s difficult to find more than a couple of pictures of him, even.

Convenient invisibility

“This invisibility feels deliberate,” he said. “It’s definitely been convenient for Richard Sackler.” Really, who wants to hear someone like John Oliver simply read court documents? The words, all on their own, have a certain bland quality that doesn’t fully communicate the dread of this still-growing addiction crisis.

We don’t have to rely on Oliver, however. Last Week Tonight got a certain person to play Richard Sackler. A little-known character actor you may know: Michael Keaton. Frankly, he’s really good. Keaton is genuinely menacing here, not least because Sackler’s words are utterly chilling.

Legally, Oliver has to acknowledge that the Sackler family obviously doesn’t agree with this. They say journalists don’t add context, for one. “Whenever they’ve added context, it doesn’t really help much.” That blizzard comment was supposedly in reference to the blizzard of 1996, but so what? Sackler is still metaphorically tapping his hands together, Mr. Burns-style, while anticipating the flood of money OxyContin addiction will bring to Purdue.

Cutting ties

After the protest, the Guggenheim cut its ties with the Sackler family. It isn’t the only place to have done so. The National Portrait Gallery did the same thing, giving up $1.3 million dollars in donations. For the Sacklers, that sort of money is chump change, but that’s not all at stake here. Oliver argues that the loss of their name on some gallery or ornamental bridge is what must truly sting.

He also claims that they shouldn’t just suffer the loss of social capital. They should also suffer the connection of their name – clearly, undeniably – to the incredibly damaging opioid crisis. There’s just the annoying fact that we have no useable footage of Sackler himself.

However, we do finally have the deposition of Richard Sackler, taken in August 2015 when the state of Kentucky accused Purdue of illegally promoting OxyContin. Purdue eventually settled out of court to the tune of $24 million, but that didn’t make the affair go away entirely. At first, the deposition remained sealed and away from public eyes, until ProPublica recently obtained a copy of the 337-page document.

Bringing in some talent

That’s a lot for Michael Keaton to recite, as good as his performance may be. Thankfully, Last Week Tonight also secured the talents of Bryan Cranston, along with some dramatic lighting and music.

“Then we remembered,” said Oliver. “This is HBO.” Thus follows a performance by Michael K. Williams, of The Wire.

Still, as good as Keaton, Cranston, and Williams may be, they’re too engaging and cool to embody the true spirit one must assume inhabits Richard Sackler. Thus, we are treated to a deposition reading by Richard Kind, of Mad About You and Spin City fame.

And if Sackler’s upset about all this, well, then he should release the recordings of his deposition. How are we supposed to know that he didn’t eat an atrociously large turkey sandwich while testifying? Until Richard Sackler himself does something to make his negligent comments and avaricious actions somehow less horrifying, we’ll have to rely on the menace provided by the above actors.

Their work is available for viewing at The Sackler Gallery online, which also includes the full 2015 deposition. The site also includes a lawsuit filed against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family by the Massachusetts attorney general, and one by the New York attorney general.