Moira Wyton – A British Columbia-led lawsuit against more than 40 pharmaceutical companies has resulted in a proposed $150-million settlement with Purdue Pharma Canada for health-care costs related to the company’s marketing of opioid pain medications.
But advocates say the lawsuit is also an exercise in distracting the public from the government’s failure to make changes — including introducing safe supply — that would have saved thousands of lives lost to toxic drugs.
“Right now, people are not dying from prescription drugs… they’re dying from the street supply, which is illegal and unregulated,” said Garth Mullins, a board member for the British Columbia Association of People on Methadone.
