Writer, director, and actor, Danny Strong, left, creator of the hulu miniseries “Dopesick” stands with Randy Anderson, as he speaks during a protest with advocates for opioid victims outside the Department of Justice, Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, in Washington. In the background is a banner made by artist Fernando Luis Alvarez with the image of Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco that reads “DON’T SHIELD THE SACKLER CARTEL!”. A federal judge has rejected OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s sweeping deal to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon in New York found flaws in the way the bankruptcy settlement protects members of the Sackler family who own the company from lawsuits. Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP
The terrible, terrible losses associated with the opioid epidemic are almost too horrifying to describe. Statistics alone cannot explain its scope, but it is important to note that, last year alone, over 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses across the country. Strikingly, the increase in overdose numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic took place in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia. See Bobby Mukkamala, 2022 a critical year to address worsening drug-overdose crisis, American Medical Association (Jan. 11, 2022).
The opioid epidemic, of course, did not begin with the COVID-19 pandemic. As far back as August 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions formed an Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit in the U.S. Department of Justice, with the stated purpose of combatting “the devastating opioid crisis that is ravaging families and communities across America.” Yet the number of deaths have continued to rise since then, crushing families and friends.
