The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

This is the discussion thread for the Fall 2023 Group Read Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty in the category Non-Fiction - Medicine. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

I had read Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America previously so though this book was on my TBR I wasn't expecting to learn as much as I did from this book which is why I think I had put it off. I was wrong though! I learned a lot more from this book. It is quite stunning to see how much evidence there actually is about how much many of the Sacklers knew exactly what was going on with the aggressive marketing of Oxycontin. It is frustrating how our system is set up so that corporations are "people" when it suits yet no one is really held accountable when things go so wrong. Perdue Pharma is not the only example of this, but it is an unsettling one. It is messed up that many people do jail time for selling baggies of drugs while those knowingly addicting thousands walk free. I am not a fan of incarceration - but if we aren't going to use it for that then what are we doing?

i've read this one previously so not reading again - but we use the Sackler's and how they manipulated ppl in the influence warfare and strategy class that my master's students have to take - because what they did is very reiniscent of what the military calls psyops or information warfare.

every time i walk past the one museum in DC with the huge sackler name on it - i feel ill - although i did just see that in Germany (I think) - they took the sackler name off a museum - so maybe there is hope

I think its fustrating to me that so many ppl have become addicted to legal drugs (i.e. oxy) and yet we continue to prosecute minor drugs like marajuana because "ohhh they're illegal"

I work for a UK museum, and we had a named room from Sackler money (accepted way before the reality of their actions became clear). It was deeply uncomfortable for a period, but thankfully the vast majority of the UK museums that formerly had Sackler rooms / galleries / etc have removed the names 12 months or so ago, including at my own.
Hopefully the American museums (and hospitals) will follow suit soon.

I know some American institutions have removed it.

The fictional Demon Copperhead shows the effect of cynically targeting the Appalachian population in particular. The author, Barbara Kingsolver, talked about that in a recent interview - how the area was treated like a colonial conquest.

I also read this earlier but will be following the discussion.

Here is a part of my review:

If you worked for Purdue, you were expected to support and shield the family name. Doing these 2 things gave you a job for life. The culture of the work place reminded me of a cult. So many employees knew what the Sackler's were doing was wrong. It floors me that no one became a whistle blower. There are many who still say "The Sacklers and Purdue are separate things. The family did nothing wrong." Don't believe this. The Sacklers with as many as 8 or 9 family on the Board of Directors were Purdue. They made the decision to market OxyContin, which by the way was the only drug they made, as not being addictive. When they finally caved a bit, they altered the pill to have a coating on it. The coating would, supposedly, stop people from dissolving the pills to get more of the OxyContin into their system, at a quicker rate. The Sackler's did not re-fashion the drug to aid in the crisis. They reformulated it so they could extend the patent on the drug. Thus, stopping any competitors from making a generic. As I said, all they cared about was the money.

As I also say in my full review Being a chronic pain sufferer, my emotions during this read went from anger, to sadness to just plain stupefied. my full review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've had this on my TBR for a while so when it was selected as a group read I finally borrowed it from the library. I knew the author from a previous book of his - Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, which I recommend to anyone who hasn't already read it. Patrick Radden Keefe has a way of writing non-fiction that really keeps up the pace and gives me that "one more chapter" feeling, even when the subject matter is bleak.

Like Joanne, I am a chronic pain sufferer so reading this book made me feel horrified and disgusted about how the pain of my fellow sufferers was used to make billions for a family who had so little compassion for their customers, let alone for those who became addicted via black market supplies. The book makes it clear the Sacklers only cared about themselves and their bottom line. Before reading this book I knew a little about the opioid addiction crisis in the US, but I had no idea so much of it was linked to one pharmaceutical company run by one family. It's really quite sickening.
I have a few chapters left which I'm hoping to finish off tomorrow but somehow I don't feel like the Sacklers are going to end up facing justice and atoning for their faults, sadly.

Aimee wrote: "I've had this on my TBR for a while so when it was selected as a group read I finally borrowed it from the library. I knew the author from a previous book of his - [book:Say Nothing: A True Story o..."
I didn't even realize that this book was by the same author as Say Nothing! I thought that book was fantastic too. I agree with you that his writing style is very engaging even when the subject is dismal.

This book, wow! I'm so glad there is a comprehensive account of how terrible the Sacklers are. The death and destruction their product has spread is almost incomprehensible and the author does an excellent job of showing how easy it is to corrupt people with lots of money. I'd have to guess this is the same story playing out in the gun industry.

I do believe I was the one who recommended this book for the Group Read, was thrilled when it won and am even more happy that some of you are reading it. I read it when it first came out and still recommend it when talking books with people.

I didn't even realize that this book was by the same author as Say Nothing! I thought that book was fantastic too. I agree with you that his writing style is very engaging even when the subject is dismal."

you might also like his one about chinese people smuggling - The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream

Thanks for that one Dee, I had not heard of it and added it

Wow. This was an adventurous read. Not only the length and the painstaking detail, but the emotional rendering of what might be monstrous people and the devestating fallout of the situation in the third part of the book.

That third part affected me the most, as I have known several friends and family members who have fallen victim to addiction to these products. Southeast Kentucky is a particularly hard-hit region for opiod addiction., possibly because of its halfway point on the Florida to Detroit pipeline. In the 70s that was always a reason given for a great deal of hard drug addiction, and I think that probably bled over into over-the-counter stuff also.

The first parts, about the Sacklers and their rise to power through the manipulation of the capitalist market and the drug business, almost made me want to find a sympathetic thread for them. They were trying to exist within a "get-ahead" society, but were doing so with blinders on as to the devastation that could come from their product. I want to think that they had some motives that had a tinge of the worthwhile to them. But in the end, we have to call them monsters for the wide devestation their product caused, and is still causing.

Amy B
I finished the book this morning, had also read Say Nothing by the same author. I'm not normally a big fan of non-fiction, but this author does a really good job of researching the topic and presenting it in an engaging way. It is thorough to the point of worrisome (500+ page book and he started a couple of generations back in the Sackler history - I was thinking, "what does this have to do with it?") But, he does a great job of showing the family history, ego, hubris as a way to lay the groundwork for the tragedy to come.
I was pounding the countertop this morning while finishing the book, reading parts of it to my husband, frustrated that the family did not get their comeuppance in the court of law. That being said, I think Keefe did a great job in finishing with the thought that, for this family, removing their names from institutions they'd donated to and preventing them from donating again really did hit them where it hurt. Sadly, that doesn't help the millions of victims of their crimes.
Well written book, engaging subject - highly recommended.

I've been watching the TV shows, Dopesick and Painkiller, so I wanted to read the book about this. This kind of stuff always made me feel so bleak afterward, why are humans like this. Greed really knows no bound