lawyer who took on tobacco industry turns to opioids fight cbs news

Who is the lawyer who took down Big Tobacco?

May 07, 2021 · He took on tobacco companies in the 1990s and won a $246 billion settlement. Mark Strassmann reports. Mike Moore calls himself a "country lawyer from Mississippi," but …

Who's the lawyer taking on Big Pharma?

May 21, 2018 · The lawyer who took down Big Tobacco 20 years ago has another intimidating foe in his sights. His opponent this time — Big Pharma. In the 1990s, as Mississippi's attorney general, Mike Moore ...

Are prescription drug companies responsible for nation's opioid addiction crisis?

Oct 05, 2017 · The opioid epidemic cost the U.S. economy $78.5 billion in 2013, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a quarter of which was paid by taxpayers through increased public costs for health care, criminal justice, and treatment. The industry, the suits contend, should bear the financial burden of this wreckage.

Are pharmaceutical companies lying about opioids?

Oct 05, 2017 · The Lawyer Who Beat Big Tobacco Takes On the Opioid Industry Mike Moore made cigarette companies pay for the high cost of treating smokers. Here he comes again.

Who is Chip Robertson?

Chip Robertson, a former chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court , said that many have tried to do what Moore is doing and given up. "Mike's not afraid of anybody because Mike believes that he's doing the right thing," said Robertson. A veteran of Moore's winning fight against Big Tobacco, he has now joined Moore's team ...

What does Dr. Moore call pharmaceutical companies?

May 8, 201800:58. Moore calls pharmaceutical companies "pretty evil" and claims that they intentionally lied about the addictive properities of their drugs. Since 2014, he and his cohorts have filed multiple suits against manufacturers of prescription opioids.

How many state attorney generals has Michael Moore recruited?

He's recruited 23 state attorney generals so far.

Is Oxycontin a flawed drug?

Purdue told NBC that Moore's assessment is "deeply flawed," claiming that its drug oxycontin represents less than two percent of current opioid prescriptions. According to Purdue, "illegal trafficking and abuse of heroin and illicit fentanyl" is the real culprit inAmerica's opioid epidemic.

Where was Mike Moore's nephew killed?

Seven years ago, Mike Moore stepped from the 2 a.m. darkness into the light of a small home off Lakeland Drive in Jackson, Miss., to find his nephew close to death. The 250-pound 30-year-old was slumped on the living room couch, his face pale, breath shallow, and chest wet with vomit. It was his fiancée who’d called Moore, waking him in a panic. Now they were both screaming in the man’s ears, dousing him with ice cubes and water, and pinching him as his respiratory system began to collapse.

What happened in 1997?

On June 20, 1997, a coalition of state AGs stood behind a podium in the grand ballroom of the ANA Hotel in Washington to announce the culmination of a four-year effort. They’d filed so many individual, expensive lawsuits that tobacco companies were cornered into negotiating a collective settlement instead of fighting each one separately. The agreement punished the industry for past misconduct, created a fund to pay for tobacco- related medical costs, and banned using Joe Camel in advertisements. “We wanted this industry to have to change the way they do business—and we have done that,” a youthful Moore said to the roomful of journalists and cameras.

Who was the first state AG to sue tobacco companies for lying about nicotine addiction?

Moore, who’s 65, served as Mississippi’s attorney general from 1988 to 2004. In 1994, using an untested and widely derided legal strategy, he became the first state AG to sue tobacco companies for lying about nicotine addiction and hold them accountable for sick smokers’ health-care costs.

Who made cigarette companies pay for the high cost of treating smokers?

Mike Moore made cigarette companies pay for the high cost of treating smokers. Here he comes again. Seven years ago, Mike Moore stepped from the 2 a.m. darkness into the light of a small home off Lakeland Drive in Jackson, Miss., to find his nephew close to death.

How much did Moore settle for?

The effort ended in 2007 when claimants, represented by lawyers including Hanly, the Manhattan attorney, settled for $75 million.

How many detailers did Purdue have in 2002?

The company doubled the number of detailers devoted to the drug, from 318 in 1996 to 767 in 2002. Total annual cash bonuses tied to sales soared from $1 million to $40 million. Purdue directed its reps to call on primary care physicians, despite their scant training in the treatment of serious pain.

What drug killed Prince?

Another synthetic analog to the opium poppy, fentanyl —the drug that killed Prince—is as much as 100 times stronger than morphine. The night of the overdose, Moore’s nephew had been wearing a fentanyl patch on his arm and sucking on another.

How many people died from opioids in 2015?

The most recent data, from 2015, show the opioid death toll exceeded 33,000 that year. The goal, according to Moore, isn’t to simply win a pile of money to be allocated haphazardly into government coffers. One of his regrets from the cigarette windfall is that some of the money didn’t go where intended.

How many states will Moore corral?

Moore and his allies hope to corral at least 25 states to exert enough pressure, collect enough evidence, and drive potential damages so high that it will be cheaper for opioid manufacturers to back down. They’re confident that the epic scale of the crisis ravaging the country has gotten too big to dodge.