EDITORIAL: Kudos to Raimondo for Donating Sackler Money, Time for Neronha to Step Up

EDITORIAL: Kudos to Raimondo for Donating Sackler Money, Time for Neronha to Step Up

This week, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo donated to a victims group the $12,500 in campaign donations she had received from Jonathan Sacker and his wife Mary Corson — the money dripped with the legacy of hundreds of thousands who have died from opioid overdoses. Sackler and his family own and operate Purdue Pharma and RI-based Rhodes Technology.

The companies and the Sackers — the 19th richest family in America— face more than 1,600 lawsuits. Emails and other documents now emerging in the legal fight paint a gruesome picture of illegal marketing and profiteering and a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives -- and ruined families.

GoLocal wrote more than 20 stories looking at the ties between Sacker and Raimondo. And while it took months for the Governor to do the right thing — she did the right thing.

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Time for Neronha

Now, it is time for others to return Sackler monies — like Achievement First -- and it is critical for Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha to take firm action.

Over the past five years, more than 1,000 have died from opioid-related overdoses in Rhode Island.

In Massachusetts and New York, the respective attorney generals have been aggressive and impactful in taking the fight to those responsible for the biggest public health crisis in America.

In Rhode Island, then-Attorney General Peter Kilmartin had filed suit naming Purdue Pharma, but the new Attorney General seems more interested in other issues — some in his purview and others beyond.

When asked if he would amend the Rhode Island complaint to add the Sacklers individually -- as Massachusetts and New York have done -- or to add additional elements to the suit, Neronha’s office refuses to comment on the suit.