What equals justice for opioid crisis: Help victims or punish Big Pharma?

As hundreds of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retailers chug through the U.S. legal system, a trio of recent decisions gives a hint of what may be coming. On May 2, a Boston jury convicted the onetime billionaire CEO of Insys Therapeutics and four former executives on racketeering charges, in connection with bribing doctors to prescribe opioid medication to patients who didn’t need it and deceiving insurers into paying for it. “Today’s convictions mark the first successful prosecution of top pharmaceutical executives for crimes related to the illicit marketing and prescribing of opioids,” said United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling in a statement.

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