Report Uncovers Bloomberg’s Helpful PR Role When Billionaire Sackler Family Was Under Fire For Opioid Crisis
The ProPublica report details the friendship between Michael Bloomberg and Mortimer Sackler and efforts taken to kill a Bloomberg Businessweek story on the Sackler's role in the crisis. News on the epidemic is from Pennsylvania, also.
Long celebrated as civic-minded philanthropists, the Sacklers were becoming pariahs. The billionaire family whose company created and pushed the addictive painkiller OxyContin had managed to escape connection with the opioid crisis for years, but now two magazine pieces were portraying them as pain profiteers. Museums that had sought their donations were being asked about giving the money back. Mortimer D.A. Sackler son of a co-founder of the company, Purdue Pharma, and a member of its board was openly furious. (Dreier, 2/28)
Plans to open what could be the nation's first medically supervised injection site in Philadelphia were put on hold Thursday night amid strenuous opposition from a federal prosecutor and residents of the neighborhood where it would have been located. Mayor Jim Kenney said that Safehouse agreed to push back its opening date so it can meet with members of the community and hear their concerns. Meanwhile, the owner of the medical complex in south Philadelphia where Safehouse planned to operate its first injection site abruptly pulled out, leaving the project in limbo. (2/27)
Now that the landlord has decided to not go forward with the lease, we need to do a little regrouping and assess our options, she said. Just a day earlier, a favorable court ruling led Safehouse to announce plans to open its first location next week. The nonprofit has been battling in court with the local U.S. attorneys office, but a federal judge sided with Safehouses argument that its operation wouldnt violate the law. The U.S. attorney has launched an appeal. (Kamp, 2/27)
