Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
DEA: Big Pharma Execs Who Called Southerners ‘Pillbillies’ Failed To Stop Suspicious Opioid Orders For A DECADE
James Rafalski claimed the failure to act was "systemic" and "widespread"
by Jack Hadfield
May 30, 2021
James Rafalski, the former investigator with the DEA, made the claims during the fourth week of a trial of the nation’s three biggest pharmaceutical companies, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, and Health Inc, who are defending themselves against Cabell County in West Virginia and the city of Huntington, who allege that they are responsible for fueling the fires of the opioid epidemic.
...
In a third email, one member of Zimmerman’s team responded to the new regulations brought by Kentucky against the distribution of opioids. “One of the hillbilly’s [sic] must have learned how to read
,” the team member wrote, with no sense of irony regarding her own typographical error. Zimmerman apologized in court for the content of the emails, including the term “pillbillies,” but he claimed that that term was meant to refer to the opioid dealers, not the users themselves. He added that he shouldn’t have sent the offending email, but the corporate culture of AmerisourceBergen was of the “highest caliber.”...
At least as high caliber as the Enron traders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOLNWF5QMxY
https://www.esquire.com/news-politic...ris-zimmerman/
The Opioid Crisis Just Got Its Own Grandma Millie Moment
These newly released emails are garishly awful.
By Charles P. Pierce
May 14, 2021
https://www.seattlepi.com/business/a...er-1152548.php
Latest tapes reveal Enron workers chortling over killing salmon
DAN RICHMAN, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Aug. 25, 2004 Updated: March 31, 2011 9:52 a.m.
James Rafalski claimed the failure to act was "systemic" and "widespread"
by Jack Hadfield
May 30, 2021
James Rafalski, the former investigator with the DEA, made the claims during the fourth week of a trial of the nation’s three biggest pharmaceutical companies, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, and Health Inc, who are defending themselves against Cabell County in West Virginia and the city of Huntington, who allege that they are responsible for fueling the fires of the opioid epidemic.
...
In a third email, one member of Zimmerman’s team responded to the new regulations brought by Kentucky against the distribution of opioids. “One of the hillbilly’s [sic] must have learned how to read
,” the team member wrote, with no sense of irony regarding her own typographical error. Zimmerman apologized in court for the content of the emails, including the term “pillbillies,” but he claimed that that term was meant to refer to the opioid dealers, not the users themselves. He added that he shouldn’t have sent the offending email, but the corporate culture of AmerisourceBergen was of the “highest caliber.”...At least as high caliber as the Enron traders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOLNWF5QMxY
https://www.esquire.com/news-politic...ris-zimmerman/
The Opioid Crisis Just Got Its Own Grandma Millie Moment
These newly released emails are garishly awful.
By Charles P. Pierce
May 14, 2021
https://www.seattlepi.com/business/a...er-1152548.php
Latest tapes reveal Enron workers chortling over killing salmon
DAN RICHMAN, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Aug. 25, 2004 Updated: March 31, 2011 9:52 a.m.
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