The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharma, the company that has made billions of dollars off of OxyContin and is accused of pressuring doctors to prescribe the opioid while also misleading the public about its dangerous addictive qualities.

“The Sacklers are major donors to museums, galleries and theaters in the U.S. and Europe,” NPR’s Elizabeth Blair reports. “Artists and activists are putting pressure on those institutions to stop taking their money.”

Purdue Pharma has previously admitted to committing a felony and paid millions of dollars in fines, and it’s currently facing numerous lawsuits. But one suit in particular, from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, seeks to implicate eight members of the Sackler family, accusing them of trying to maximize their profits even as they knew the painkiller was causing deadly overdoses.

…Oxycodone — the semi-synthetic opiate whose forms include OxyContin and other brand names — was the No. 1 cause of overdose deaths in 2011, in cases where at least one specific drug was mentioned. Since then, heroin and fentanyl have become the top overdose threats in the ongoing opioid crisis. But through at least 2016, oxycodone’s overdose rate also rose slightly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sackler Family’s Donation To British Museum Is Quashed Over Opioid Fallout : NPR

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