Sacklers Forced To Pay Families Of OxyContin Victims $4.5 Billion In Opioids

NEW YORK—Overturning a prior settlement that largely shielded them from liability, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that members of the Sackler family would now be legally obligated to pay surviving relatives of OxyContin victims $4.5 billion in opioids. “While this decision will not bring back those precious lives lost to the opioid crisis, it is this court’s hope that it will help the families they left behind by giving them a way to numb the pain,” said U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, who faulted the Sacklers for aggressively marketing a drug they knew to be dangerous and ordered them to pay regular installments of OxyContin pills to survivors so they would always have an adequate supply of the highly addictive narcotics. “Our hearts go out to the victims’ loved ones, and we pray that as they search for a way to carry on, they can at least take some solace in these powerful drugs and, perhaps, sleep a bit more soundly at night.” The judge went on to explain that if the families preferred the settlement to be paid out in cash, they could always sell the stuff on the street.