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Post by stu77 on Dec 19, 2021 17:28:00 GMT
Drama portraying the deeds of the criminal big pharma Sackler family starring Michael Keaton.
Really enjoying this though it will probably make you very angry.
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Post by Billy Idle on Dec 20, 2021 7:25:20 GMT
thanks STu .
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Dec 20, 2021 10:25:00 GMT
I've got this recent book about the Sacklers which I plan to read early in 2022 
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions—Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis.
Empire of Pain begins with the story of three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and the incalculably energetic Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur saw a better way and conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments. He also had a genius for marketing, especially for pharmaceuticals, and bought a small ad firm.
Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of America’s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world’s great fortunes.
Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, as well as two previous critically-acclaimed books, The Snakehead, and Chatter. He is the recipient of the 2014 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He grew up in Boston and now lives in New York He is also the creator and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change which is set to be adapted into a TV series for Hulu.
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Post by stu77 on Dec 21, 2021 3:59:17 GMT
Didn't know that the Sackler family was involved with Trump's lawyer Guiliani.
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Dec 30, 2021 13:36:40 GMT
Didn't know that the Sackler family was involved with Trump's lawyer Guiliani.
Yes indeed
Purdue Pharma hired him after he resigned as Mayor of New York
It was common Purdue practice to hire establishment figures and former regulatory personnel to give them more of an air of respectability
Another example, an officer at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted OxyContin its approvals in an astonishingly short time – 11 months – and then quit the agency. A year later, he was working at Purdue, earning $400,000 a year.
I've now read over half of Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty and it's brilliant
The list of things Purdue Pharma knew is jaw dropping...
They knew that OxyContin was twice as potent as morphine, and they cynically exploited the fact that doctors thought the reverse to be true
They claimed OxyContin posed little risk of addiction, even though Purdue had carried out no tests to that effect at all - it's highly addictive
They were using flimsy non-peer reviewed marketing literature to reassure physicians about OxyContin’s safety
They knew the drug could be injected, but they didn’t let on
They argued that OxyContin’s slow-release mechanism was a barrier to abuse - it wasn't
They maintained a secret list of doctors who overprescribed OxyContin (often via so called Pill Mills) – yet did not alert the authorities preferring to grow rich off the proceeds
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Post by stu77 on Dec 30, 2021 14:35:02 GMT
They should all be in prison absolute scum.
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Dec 30, 2021 20:24:44 GMT
I've also started watching Dopesick the Hulu mini-series (Disney +)
Very good it is too - and a great accompaniment to the book.
It covers the same story from a different angle.
Michael Keaton is superb as a small town Appalachian doctor, Michael Stuhlbarg is convincing as the driven, single minded Richard Sackler, and Will Poulter works well as a conflicted Purdue sales rep.
There's loads of other narrative strands, possibly too many, but so far I'm as engrossed in it as the book. It is very dark, as befits the story.
It's been criticised because you need to be familiar with the Sackler story and the opioid crisis to fully appreciate what's going on. I agree, however that's why the book and the dramatised series work so well together.
Trailer here...
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jan 2, 2022 19:03:37 GMT
I've got this recent book about the Sacklers which I plan to read early in 2022
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions—Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis.
Empire of Pain begins with the story of three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and the incalculably energetic Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur saw a better way and conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments. He also had a genius for marketing, especially for pharmaceuticals, and bought a small ad firm.
Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of America’s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world’s great fortunes.
From start to finish I was already absolutely gripped by Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (2021).
Patrick Radden Keefe really knows how to tell a complicated story. Something I already knew having been blown away by Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (2018), another of his books.
Empire of Pain is richly researched yet Patrick Radden Keefe manages to distil it down to something that is both forensic and compelling. Quite a skill.
The book is a powerful expose of The Sacklers, a venal and revolting bunch once dubbed the most evil family in America. Their crime? The family are associated with the marketing of Valium, and, more infamously, with the production and aggressive marketing of OxyContin, the pill considered the prime culprit in the opioid epidemic which devastated America and many other countries.
It's another reminder how wealthy individuals (and their companies) distort, bend and corrupt, the safeguards and public bodies which exist for the greater good. Empire of Pain is a truly shocking story of greed and ruthlessness that will make you feel anger and disgust. Millions of people have died and suffered just so the Sacklers could rapaciously and cynically acquire billions of dollars full in the knowledge of the pain and misery they were inflicting. Not for nothing is this called Empire of Pain.
Whilst the family's carefully cultivated reputation as benign philanthropists now lies in tatters attempts to bring the Sacklers to justice proved unsuccessful and they have evaded any personal responsibility for the misery they wrought. Despite that frustration, this is an essential read, for lots of reasons, but most importantly as a reminder of what happens when regulators and justice officials are as money motivated and corruptable as drug dealers.
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Post by wardance on Apr 28, 2022 17:13:44 GMT
I've also started watching Dopesick the Hulu mini-series (Disney +) Very good it is too - and a great accompaniment to the book. It covers the same story from a different angle. Michael Keaton is superb as a small town Appalachian doctor, Michael Stuhlbarg is convincing as the driven, single minded Richard Sackler, and Will Poulter works well as a conflicted Purdue sales rep. There's loads of other narrative strands, possibly too many, but so far I'm as engrossed in it as the book. It is very dark, as befits the story. It's been criticised because you need to be familiar with the Sackler story and the opioid crisis to fully appreciate what's going on. I agree, however that's why the book and the dramatised series work so well together. Trailer here... Having watched and enjoyed Dopesick, I can recommend the podcast 'Hooked' as it brings the addiction into the real world. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/hooked/id1592401710 |
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Post by stu77 on May 19, 2022 20:25:43 GMT
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Post by stu77 on Jun 5, 2022 18:56:32 GMT
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Post by wardance on Aug 14, 2022 20:09:57 GMT
Interesting that Disney+ has overtaken Netflix as the number one streaming site.
I've just finished the first series of NYPD Blue ( on Disney + ), and I'd thoroughly recommend it. I remember my dad loved it, and although I watched a few episodes at the time, it's only now I fully appreciate how good it is, and how ground-breaking it was at the time.
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Aug 15, 2022 9:37:40 GMT
Interesting that Disney+ has overtaken Netflix as the number one streaming site. I've just finished the first series of NYPD Blue ( on Disney + ), and I'd thoroughly recommend it. I remember my dad loved it, and although I watched a few episodes at the time, it's only now I fully appreciate how good it is, and how ground-breaking it was at the time. NYPD Blue is an old favourite of mine - loved it back in the day |
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Post by stu77 on Jan 5, 2023 6:18:08 GMT
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, directed by Laura Poitras, caused a stir earlier this year when it became only the second documentary to win the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. It's a film that combines art and politics, explaining how a campaign led by photographer Nan Goldin prompted the world's leading museums and galleries to drop financial ties with the Sackler family, because of their link with the opioid drug OxyContin. Poitras, who won a best documentary Oscar in 2014 for Citizenfour, about ex-CIA contractor Edward Snowden, thanked the Venice Film Festival jury at the time for "recognising that documentary is cinema". Speaking more generally about her work, Poitras has said: "I do make films about political issues that I care about, but I want them to work as films. I'm passionate about cinema and every time a documentary is successful, it's successful for all of us who make them." More: www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64056872 |
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jan 5, 2023 7:52:38 GMT
Looks good stu - thanks
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