Accountability
“[W]e have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible,” he wrote in a confidential email. “They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.” -Richard Sackler
The Sackler family is becoming a household name in the circles in which I now find myself. No, I am not a museum curator or a socialite, just a greiving parent of a child lost to the drug epidemic affecting the United States.
Activism is not something that I had ever given a lot of thought to, or imagined I would become. Some things happen because of the impact of an event. That is the way the transfomation of Mom to activist began for me. Years of seeing what the scourge of the substance use disorder crisis was doing to those around me and those closest to me was the impact that put my activism in motion. How could I sit still when pages of obituaries of young people were pouring in reading “died suddenly at home” and Facebook walls filled with memorials, became the cues that we had lost another one.
Here’s how I became familiar with the Sackler family-their drug robbed my daughter of a full life, turned her bright future into one of hopelessness and pain. They knew when they flooded our country with OxyContin that people would rapidly find themselves addicted and that they could lie to doctors and their patients and get away with it for the sake of the almighty dollar. What they didn’t know is that out of the epidemic they created, would arise thousands of parents out for retribution from Purdue Pharma and the family behind this evil money making scheme. Activists. We didn’t ask for the job, none of us wanted to be burying our children or watch our grandchildren become orphans, but that is exactly what the Sacklers forced us to do. They are being inundated with lawsuits; these lawsuits are what parents like me are hoping will bring accountablity for the actions of this evil empire. We are behind this 100 percent and will continue to be the voices of our lost children, whether in a court of law or out on the streets in front of the museums that carry their name and accept their blood money donations. We aren’t going away!
On August 2, 2019 in Boston Massachusetts at the Suffolk Superior court, hundreds of our childrens oversized photos lined every available space outside creating a sea of beautiful lives lost. Sending a message to the attorneys for the Sacklers that we aren’t backing down! Our children will be seen. Maura Healey, the Attorney General of Massachusetts is representing the state in a lawsuit that has the potential to set the precedent nationwide for holding the family and their board members personally responsible for the carnage they have unleashed. Their hateful rhetoric unredacted for all to see in the emails that churn the insides of the parents who have lost their children, is enough to show what level of evil we are all dealing with.
As the attorneys walked through the sea of oversized photos, I hope they took a good look at all the faces and that they are burned into their memory. While the Sackler family is concerned with bad press and how their own children will be affected when they apply to prestigious high schools, the rest of us are weeding cemetery plots, planting flowers and greiving what could have been, before our lives intersected with the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma. This is the life sentence we received, even though we committed no crime.
We are more than just grieving parents-we are fighters, we are activists, we have a fire in our hearts that cannot be put out by the high powered attorneys or the Sacklers. You see, when these monsters hatched this money making plan, they didn’t foresee that they were unleashing the fury and tireless dedication of an army of parents who will never back down. All of us are here to stay Sacklers, constantly mobilizing on our children’s behalf and for people now and in the future who have been impacted by your sins against humanity.
