Yesterday I wrote about the risk to gun manufacturers created by the lawsuits against Purdue Pharma. But the shakedown also shows just how government makes other people pay for its own failures.
Consider that Purdue never dispensed OxyContin. It wasn't allowed to. Politicians told us that opioids, like many other drugs, are dangerous enough that we can't trust private companies to dispense them. They're probably right. So the politicians created a two-step process to use such "controlled substances," requiring the involvement of licensed physicians and licensed pharmacists. Government actually paid for a lot of the drugs through programs like Medicaid, Medicare and TriCare. In some cases, government-employed doctors handed them out.
Usually when you assume control, you also assume responsibility. But such a common sense proposition is for the rest of us. Government interposed itself and others between Purdue and the public. Government established the rules within which Purdue operated. Government even paid for and dispensed some of the OxyContin pills that were ultimately abused. And now government lawyers are extracting about $270 million from Purdue because, well, the company advertised its product. And, perhaps more to the point, it has a lot of money. So much for justice.