Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is currently facing a multi-billion dollar lawsuit in the state of Oklahoma. In the ongoing case, the company have failed to adequately explain their irresponsible marketing strategies which seemed to totally ignore the risks associated with addiction to the commonly prescribed drug. Over the past two decades, it is thought the drug has claimed almost half a million lives.
Johnson & Johnson have profited massively over the years by buying up poppy growing companies in Australia which were to supply the raw active ingredient for their own opioid products as well as other pharmaceutical producers.
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a key witness in the case told the court:
“I think it’s fair to characterize Johnson & Johnson as a kingpin in our opioid crisis,”
The case was started by Oklahoma’s attorney general, Mike Hunter who claims the company are responsible in part for an epidemic in opioid addiction and overdoses in the state.
Johnson & Johnson though are not the only drug pushers under fire, as the case had developed its exposed many other companies involvement in this drug ring and how they collude together to drive up sales by lobbying politics and financially persuading doctors. Hunter said that the entire industry was motivated by “greed” as profits surged.
Hunter accuses Johnson & Johnson of joining with other companies to create a false narrative of an epidemic of untreated pain in the US to which opioids were the solution, in part by funding front organizations such as the American Pain Society. The strategy helped drive a surge in opioid prescribing as narcotic painkillers ballooned into a multibillion-dollar-a-year market. [source]
This isn’t the first time Johnson & Johnson have been under fire for its behaviour in the Pharmaceutical industry, the company is already facing compensation payments amounting to billions of dollars for asbestos in its baby powder products which is alleged to of caused cancer in many of its users.
These companies care little for your safety and focus primarily on profits, this fact is sure clear to most by now – and yet the same media which reports on their foul play of these companies still pushes much of the narratives these companies push. The Pharmaceutical industry is nothing more than a drug cartel, profiteering on the back of its products through fear, addiction and power. The science community, health authorities, medical academia, government and doctors are all compromised at this point.
So when faith is placed in these companies and the institutions it finances over claims that something is ‘Safe & Effective’, just keep stories like this one in mind!
