There is a lawsuit started up against the Sacklers directly my hopes are not high. kleinbl00 come tell me that I'm being stupid and young and pessimistic and that justice will be done or that these people aren't actually the robber-barons of this century.
If you missed it, this whole article might be something you want to read. It's full of small steps to what I'm hoping might lead to genuine progress.
The New Yorker claims that the company made 35 billion off of Oxycontin alone. According to the NPR article you linked, they paid out 270 million dollars to the state of Oklahoma, for various things, legal fees, treatment, research, etc. I'm bad at math, so I did a quick calculation. 270 million / 35 billion = 0.77% So, again, I'm bad at math. But from what I can tell, they paid less than 1% of their earnings as a weregild to make the rest of that 35 billion.
That part is indeed, definitely lame. The fines placed on companies is often merely another tax for doing business it seems and that's something that I hope changes down the road. However, the silver lining is that this is the first of many lawsuits and it establishes that Purdue and possibly other companies can be held accountable. A judge has said that this trial can be televised, so hopefully more facts will come to light for the public to see. Not only are companies being named defendants, but individuals are as well. Like I said, small steps, but I'm hoping they lead somewhere.