For the past couple of years, there has been an opioid crisis and as the investigation into how it evolved became clearer, it was obvious that companies such as Purdue Pharma knew taking opioids to deal with pain was very addictive and downplayed their knowledge to doctors. They rewarded doctors who issued more and more opioids which generated billions in dollars to the company and the family that owned it.

Purdue Pharma was not the only Pharma company in the business, but they were the leaders. In an article by Karen Howlett the company will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and dissolve the company as it now exists. In addition, the family which owns the company would contribute $3 billion in cash to the settlement over 7 years. The settlement means a case in federal court in Cleveland will not take place. Appoxipately 2,300 lawyers were in the group against Purdue Pharma.

Over the past decade, Purdue Pharma has sold over $30 billion in sales of OxyContin. Purdue promoted the drug as safer and less addictive than the other opioids, encouraging doctors to prescribe the drug more widely for everything from back pain to fibromyaligia.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the overuse of the drug has caused many lives to be damaged in the pursuit of profit. In all likelihood the stock would have been worthwhile to on until in crashed. In buying profitable companies that pay a dividend, one hopes that the reason the companies make profits are they satisfy needs in the marketplace and there is some balance it terms of right and wrong. We all can make judgements whether you want to own certain stocks, that is a good thing, hopefully you make good judgements.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.