Consumer Law
Families Write Letters About Addiction as Purdue’s Bankruptcy Nears Approval
Bankruptcy proceedings against Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, have often been opaque and bureaucratic, the outcome of the multi-billion dollar settlement shaped by backroom deal-making.
But woven into the court record are dozens of personal letters written by people who say their families were ravaged by addiction that began with the company’s powerful pain pills.
“Aloha, the honorable Judge Drain,” begins one letter written by Keola Kekuewa, a resident of Honolulu, in December of last year. He went on to describe the “horrors of opioid addiction.”
In an interview with NPR, Kekuewa said he wanted to tell the court about his experience losing more than 20 years to substance use after Oxycontin pills flooded his community.
