What A Day - Pharma Police

Episode Date: October 22, 2020

The DOJ announced an $8.3 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma yesterday for illegally marketing their painkiller Oxycontin. The settlement doesn’t prevent members of the Sackler family, who own Purdue Pharma, from criminal liability and there is still a criminal case pending. Protests continue in Nigeria against a notorious police unit called SARS, which has been accused of corruption, violence and other forms of abuse. Earlier this week, security forces fired on a crowd of protesters, reportedly killing several people and injuring others.And in headlines: lawyers unable to find parents of 545 children who were separated under Trump immigration policy, Big Ten mayors ask conference organizers to be COVID-cautious, and another Quick Bites the dust.Show Links:Support protesters in Nigeria:https://feministcoalition2020.com/"These Twelve Elections Could Curb ICE's Power"https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/immigration-in-november-2020/

It's Thursday, October 22nd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, where we are glad that one of our cardinal rules for life is to never be alone in a room with Rudy Giuliani. Yes, it's something I tell myself in the mirror every day, and yesterday was a reminder that I should just never stop doing that. Rudy, listen to me. You are not welcome in either of the respective WOD work-from-home studios. Or like within 500 feet, to be completely honest. On today's show, what's going on with police brutality protests in Nigeria, then some headlines. But first, the latest. Hi, folks.

I'm Mel Brooks. And behind me, you see my son and my grandson. And they can't be with me. Why? Because of this coronavirus. And Donald Trump's not doing a damn thing about it. Wow. He's not wrong. So that was Mel Brooks officially endorsing Joe Biden for president in a very sweet video from his kitchen. We've got Mel making videos. We've got AOC streaming on Twitch. So shout out to Among Us fans. We've got Obama making speeches on the trail all in the last couple of days. So it's very exciting times. And by the way, there is a presidential debate tonight. So if you want to

watch that, don't do it alone. Watch it with us at crooked.com slash debate, where we're going to be streaming the whole thing live with fact checks and commentary. And if you missed that, we're going to have a little recap for you tomorrow morning. It's the last debate, y'all. We made it. We somehow survived, so feel good about that. Yep. But in other news, the Justice Department announced a massive multi-billion dollar settlement with the pharmaceutical company Pardue Pharma yesterday. It also involves them pleading guilty to criminal charges for their role in marketing their painkiller OxyContin. So Gideon, what more do we know about this so far?

Yeah, so to start, the penalties amount to about $8.3 billion, and Purdue is pleading guilty to three separate felony counts related to marketing opioid painkillers, which have wreaked havoc on American lives for years. And so part of this includes marketing opioids to over 100 doctors that Purdue suspected of writing illegal prescriptions for the drugs and then lying to the DEA about it. And if that wasn't enough, Purdue also pleaded guilty

to paying various illegal kickbacks to doctors to boost prescribing and also kickbacks to a health records company called Practice Fusion. So that company then took those kickbacks and did things like send pop-up alerts to physicians to push them into prescribing more opioids. That's the pattern here. Purdue even allegedly had a marketing program called, quote, Evolve to Excellence, in which, quote, Purdue sales representatives intensified their marketing of OxyContin to extreme high volume prescribers who are already writing 25 times as many OxyContin scripts as their peers. And just to pull back for a second here on the human cost of all this,

it's estimated that since 1999, over 450,000 people have died from opioid overdoses, which have come from products like OxyContin itself or from fentanyl or heroin that in some cases were used due to addiction stemming from the use of prescription painkillers. And unfortunately, there's some early evidence that our other current public health crisis, COVID-19, is driving this one up, which has existed for much, much longer. Yeah, it's devastating all around. And there are a few ways in which this settlement actually fell short. You know, there's no jail time, for example, but what else? Yeah, that's right. So even though there was that massive amount of money that's in the settlement

as, you know, the headline here, reports suggest that Purdue is not likely to pay anywhere near close to that because they filed for bankruptcy a year ago due to all the lawsuits they are facing. Also, while the Trump administration might argue that this is a win and trot it out as one, there's another part of this whole thing that's making some state and local officials very unhappy. So the DOJ has backed this approach that was proposed by Purdue to turn the company into a, quote, public benefit corporation, where the proceeds of things like OxyContin sales would actually go towards victims of the crisis. The criticisms include allowing the company to still sell opioids. A lot of AGs don't want that to happen. And one of them, Massachusetts' Maura Healy, recently wrote to AG Barr saying that the idea should be rejected because it lets the company and its

owners, the Sacklers, off the hook. Yesterday, Healy said, quote, the DOJ failed. Justice in this case requires exposing the truth and holding the perpetrators accountable, not rushing a settlement to beat an election. I am not done with Perdue and the Sacklers, and I will never sell out the families who have been calling for justice for so long. That's really great. And I hope that, you know, she doesn't. To that point, what's going to happen next year? Well, there are a couple of things. So according to the AP and other reports, the settlement doesn't protect members of the Sackler family from criminal liability, and there's still a criminal investigation that is happening. And so the

Sacklers are facing $225 million in civil penalties from the settlement, which is tiny compared to their $13 billion in estimated net worth. Also, there's a controversial part of the settlement where the DOJ is asking the judge to protect the company and the Sacklers, that's the bankruptcy judge, from having to disclose some of the information they gave the federal government during the investigation leading to this settlement. According to NPR, that is similar to a prior deal between Purdue and DOJ in 2007, where they had to pay over $600 million for illegal opioid marketing practices. But because of the structure of that older deal, details and company practices were never fully unveiled, and Purdue was able to continue

aggressively marketing and selling its drugs in the years following. So hopefully this is not the end of the story, and we will keep on it. But let's turn our attention to some international news, specifically police brutality in Nigeria. Yeah, so we've covered police brutality protests here in America and the uprisings happening worldwide for months now, but it's time to zero in on Nigeria. So since early October, protesters there have taken to the streets to hold the police unit SARS, or the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, accountable for brutality and violence after a video surfaced of a SARS officer shooting a man during a routine traffic stop and then driving off. Nigeria is the largest Black

country on the planet, so while the protests do mirror the Black Lives Matter protests here in America, the distinction should be made that the violence there has been linked more with corruption and extortion than racial injustice. Yeah, and there's a history and pattern here that goes back for years, so let's get into that a little bit. Yeah. So Amnesty International and other civil rights groups have documented the SARS unit's alleged abuse of civilians, including extortion, rape, extrajudicial killings. Many Nigerians complain that SARS frequently extorted young people who appeared to have disposable income. In a really great op-ed for the New York Times, novelist Shimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes

police stopping people on the bus with nice phones or tattoos or just stopping people driving nice cars, arresting them, and then demanding exorbitant amounts of money for bail. She also writes about how her cousin was harassed just like this. The hashtag InSars began trending this week with celebrities like Beyonce, Rihanna, John Boyega, and Trevor Noah, and a lot more than that, calling for an end to the police violence. That hashtag and the protests led to officials in Nigeria claiming they'd hold unruly officers accountable. And even though last week President Mohamedou Buhari pledged to disband SARS and create a new police force, protesters worry that would allow the officers to escape accountability and potentially continue on in the new force.

One interesting note is that the SARS unit is not universally despised in Nigeria. In the Northeast, for example, they've been instrumental in fighting terrorism from Bogo Haram. It just seems that when they're dealing with regular non-terrorist citizens, they haven't respected their human rights. Yeah, and even after SARS was disbanded, protests have continued to grow in size across the country. Because as you mentioned, it's bigger than just a quick fix like that. Yeah, and there was a huge escalation of violence this week by security forces in Lagos, which is the largest city in Nigeria and the largest city on the entire continent. On Tuesday, the state governor called for a 24-hour curfew, which doesn't really make any sense because it's not a curfew if you can't leave your house at any point. Later that night, security forces fired on a crowd of protesters, reportedly killing several of them and injuring dozens. Videos have been going viral on Twitter since Tuesday of that attack and the aftermath.

According to a spokesman for the state government, an investigation into the incident has been ordered and security agents have been advised, quote, not to arrest anyone on account of the curfew. Vice President Joe Biden released a statement calling for an end to violence against peaceful protesters and words of condolences to the families of those who'd been killed. No word from Trump, but who's surprised? Well, you know, the whole world is watching. We're definitely going to keep tracking this. And if you'd like to support the protesters there, we will post a few good links in the show notes, and that's the latest. It's Thursday WOD Squad, and for today's Tim Check, we're talking about a celebrity that will not be messed with. Grey's Anatomy creator and general TV legend Shonda Rhimes gave an interview recently where she went into the details of why she left her old network ABC for her new one Netflix and one moment

stands out. Disney owns ABC so working for them gets you free all-inclusive passes to Disneyland. When Rhimes tried to get one for her sister though though, she had to push super hard. And even once she got it, it didn't work when her sister and her sister's kids got to the park. Apparently, she called up an exec to work it out. And he said, quote, Don't you have enough? That was enough for Rhymes to take her talents to Netflix instead of continuing to make ABC literal billions of dollars. So giddy. This is the type of backbone we're trying to have. Are you good or bad at advocating for yourself when somebody like ABC or Disney does you wrong? I probably am not good enough about it.

I feel like when I hear it from other people, that's when I get the fire in my belly, and I'm like, yeah, you give them a call, and you tell them to shut up, you dumb bastards. But when it happens to me i just uh send a lot of texts about it to people that don't have power in the situation and then sort of go on with my day so you just build like like a like a whole group of anxiety that can feel upset about it and yet yes maybe never address the people who could change it yes me and the

other people who are powerless to do anything should all have to gripe to each other about a situation that we could take action on, but we are not taking action on it. That's sort of the approach is to complain and let the resentment linger. But yeah, when I hear these things, I feel like I have better advice for other people than myself. Yeah, I mean, I get it. I love that these temp checks

have just like illustrated the differences in our personality because I know you're going to ask me the same question and I can't wait to answer. Yes. I mean, so put yourself in the situation. What is happening here, Akilah?

Million percent the exact same thing. In fact, one year I was at South by Southwest and YouTube always has like this huge building on a corner and really exclusive like musicians come. And so that particular year, everybody was trying to go to the salon show and I had done all

of this consulting for YouTube. Not only had I been on the, like, you know, I'd been on their website for a decade and I was literally wearing a pin that they gave me when they created YouTube black after I complained about their lack of representation. So I wasn't about to wait in line in Austin to go see Solange. So I was just like, great. Me and like whoever friends I have right now in Austin, we're marching up to the front and I'm like, you need to let us in. Like that's it's important. And it totally worked like all the way to VIP.

Like I took off a pin with my face on it. I'm like, I'm not saying you have to know who I am, but I am saying that like, I've done enough for YouTube to go to this damn concert. And they were like, I don't want to fight you. Yeah. Which is great. I think that it's really good to push how conflict diverse people can be

because like when you're in those situations and you're just like, I will not be denied. And I know that like at a certain point, you're not going to come to the gunfight. It's like, yeah, I win. So that's sick.

That's really good. Thank you. I feel like I remember that fondly forever because I kept thinking the whole time. I'm like, if I don't do this, like I'm going to regret it. And I would have regretted it.

Cause it was a great show. Like Solange really puts on a sick show. And, and think about it. South by Southwest. Will we have that again? Who knows? not yeah zoom call it could be a zoom call and that person is not invited the person who said you're not allowed in initially there you go bam well just like that we've checked our temps stay safe Solange if you're listening I love you and

we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Immigration lawyers are still struggling to find the parents of 545 children who were separated under the Trump administration. That's according to new legal documents filed by the ACLU this week that track the consequences of Trump's 2018 zero tolerance policy at the border. Under that policy, the federal government separated thousands of children from their parents, the majority of whom were deported back to Central America while their children remained in U.S. custody. Even though the ACLU successfully sued to end the practice and ended up reuniting many of those families,

over 500 families who were subject to an earlier pilot policy remained separated. The locations of the parents were not reported, and three years later, they're still unknown. Local elections, and especially sheriff's elections, had a huge impact on ISIS power across the country. We put a link in our show notes to some of the most important ones to vote on this year. Just a few days away from the upcoming football season, mayors of cities that are home to Big Ten universities called on conference organizers to be more COVID cautious. Eleven mayors signed a letter on Tuesday asking organizers to work with public health officials to set standards for things like community positivity rates

to decide whether or not it's safe to play a game. Even though fans aren't allowed inside the stadiums, health officials are worried about things happening outside the games like tailgating and general football-based debauchery. The mayors also want game schedules to be released as early as possible and for there to be fewer evening and nighttime games because, as we know, in October, nighttime is when pumpkins and goblins come outside.

I don't, yeah, The pumpkins come out at night. Conference organizers have not publicly responded to the mayor's request. As of now, the first game of the season is tomorrow in Madison, Wisconsin. Yikes. The director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, announced at a press conference last night that Iran and Russia have obtained voter information that they could use to undermine confidence in our election system. This came after voters in Florida, Alaska, and Arizona got emails that appeared to come from the Proud Boys, a far-right hate group, which threatened to, quote, come after them if they didn't vote for Trump. The Department of Homeland Security now says these emails actually came from hackers in Iran who had taken advantage of an unsecured Proud Boys domain address. The hackers also accessed voter registration information, and the FBI says Yeah, we're just trying to chill.

All right, well, another quick bites the dust. The widely mocked streaming app Quibi announced yesterday that it's shutting down after raising $1.75 billion and releasing a slate of sub-10-minute shows that celebrities thought of as they were driving to the pitch meeting really fast. Quibi was made to entertain viewers who were on the go, but it came out six months ago when we were mostly on the stay. That led to weak subscription numbers. And at the time, Quibi founder and Ants advocate Jeffrey Katzenberg said, quote, I attribute everything that's gone wrong to coronavirus everything. Mr. Katzenberg, if you're trying to make me stand up for COVID, I won't do it. And frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Following the great Quibi shutdown, it will attempt to sell its shows and will return its remaining $350 million to investors. If you get money back from Quibi, please give it to a loved one to bury in a secret hiding spot because you've honestly lost your investing privileges. Honestly, the return on the investment will be as high in that secret hiding spot. Yeah, I mean, if you just set that money on fire, more people would see it. And those are the headlines. I'm Akili Hughes. And if you're into reading and not just major election security updates like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akili Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick.

And don't let Disney push you around. If you're making Grey's Anatomy and Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, the least you can do is get on the dumbos for free. That's right. You could get away with murder for making all those shows for Disney. That's right. Thank you.