A group of academics has sent an open letter to the Attorney General of Canada and the federal Minister of Health calling for an investigation into opioid manufacturers to see whether they broke any Canadian laws in marketing the drugs here.“The Government of Canada recognizes that an opioid crisis is killing thousands of Canadians each year and that aggressive marketing of opioid products is one important cause of the crisis,” says the letter, sent Friday, and signed by seven doctors, researchers and lawyers. The letter calls for the federal government to probe the marketing of opioids in Canada and to “directly compensate victims of the opioid crisis with funds recovered from opioid manufacturers with new legislation.”“Similar legislation is in place for tobacco companies and the victims of their inappropriate marketing practices,” the letter adds.Canada is the world’s second-highest per-capita user of prescription painkillers behind the United States, according to the International Narcotics Control Board, which tracks countries’ prescribing levels. In December, the Public Health Agency of Canada said the number of opioid-related fatalities was expected to exceed 4,000 for 2017. In 2007 in the United States, Purdue Pharma paid $634.5 million (U.S.) to settle criminal and civil charges for alleging that OxyContin was less addictive than other pain medications. In Canada, victims have pursued a civil suit, and the company has a proposed settlement for $20 million with $2 million going to the provinces and territories.Dr. David Juurlink, a researcher at Sunnybrook Research Institute and a professor at the University of Toronto, and one of the signatories of the open letter, said in an interview Saturday the group is not suggesting Purdue Pharma (Canada) has engaged in illegal tactics, “but we think that the possibility needs to be examined in a systematic way in the courts.”“Our observation is not ...
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