美国国家公共电台 NPR Partisan Divide Grows Over Opioid Settlement Plan

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

There's a struggle still going on over an opioid settlement worth billions of dollars. It's being offered by Purdue Pharma, the company that makes Oxycontin. As North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann reports, a growing partisan¹ divide has added to the controversy² surrounding the deal.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE³: For much of the last decade, the response to the opioid crisis has been pretty bipartisan. But when Purdue Pharma came forward with a bankruptcy⁴ plan last month, that changed. It requires members of the Sackler family to give up control of their company and forfeit⁵ up to $3 billion of their personal wealth. Democratic attorneys general mostly rejected the deal. Joel Stein (ph), the AG in North Carolina, says the Sacklers should pay a lot more.

JOSH STEIN: They are more responsible than any for all the death and destruction that our nation has experienced. And they have to make a meaningful and certain contribution to clean up the mess that they helped to create.

MANN: The Republican AGs, meanwhile, mostly embrace the bankruptcy plan. They say the deal isn't perfect, but it gets money flowing to communities fast. Dave Yost is AG in Ohio, one of the states hardest hit by the addiction⁶ crisis.

DAVE YOST: It's I think the best deal that can be obtained, and it's going to put money on the street to help get treatment and do all the other things that we need.

MANN: There are different theories for why this partisan divide emerged over the Purdue-Sackler settlement. Richard Ausness is an expert on opioid litigation at the University of Kentucky. He says there have always been cultural differences in the way Republican and Democratic AGs view the opioid fight.

RICHARD AUSNESS: Some of the Democratic politicians more so than the Republicans are on a crusade. They want to punish the drug companies for what they did and not simply make a deal with them.

MANN: Ausness says some Republican AGs are eager to put the opioid fight behind them. They tend to have much closer ties to the drug industry and in general have been more reluctant to sue corporations. And some Republican AGs who take on companies like Purdue Pharma have risked a political backlash from fellow conservatives.

MIKE HUNTER: It's been tough.

MANN: Mike Hunter, Oklahoma's Republican AG, sued Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson. He barely survived a bitter primary fight last year after a conservative challenger attacked him over his decision to hire trial attorneys to help with opioid lawsuits⁸. He described the pushback he faced speaking to a gathering⁹ of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

HUNTER: The extent to which this lawsuit⁷ was part of the discussion during the election was certainly regrettable. That was something that certainly gave me pause.

MANN: Much of the political pressure faced by Republican AGs has come from one highly influential¹⁰ conservative - Luther Strange. He's a former U.S. senator from Alabama who served as that state's Republican attorney general. He also led the Republican Attorneys General Association until 2017. Over the last year, Strange has emerged as a prominent critic of opioid lawsuits, arguing that AGs who use the courts to tackle the opioid epidemic¹¹ set a dangerous precedent¹², expanding potential liability for companies accused of harming the public.

LUTHER STRANGE: It'll also be used against almost any other broad social issue that lawyers either - they're either frustrated¹³ at the legislature or the executive branch won't actually address, so they take it to the court system.

MANN: Strange didn't respond to NPR's repeated requests for an interview. He spoke¹⁴ there at a gathering of the conservative Federalist Society in June. NPR has learned that while Luther Strange was building an influential conservative argument against opioid lawsuits, he was also working behind the scenes as a paid attorney for members of the Sackler family. According to a source with detailed¹⁵ knowledge of the matter, Strange represented his clients at a gathering of the Republican Attorneys General Association over the summer, where he worked to convince AGs to accept Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy plan.

It's clear other factors shaped how individual AGs reacted to this deal. Some states are desperate for quick cash, others have laws that make it hard to pursue the Sacklers individually in court. But this partisan divide over the Purdue-Sackler settlement is now a big sticking point. To get the deal finalized¹⁶ and approved by a bankruptcy court, Purdue Pharma will likely need more Democratic attorneys general on board. Those negotiations¹⁷ are under way.

Brian Mann, NPR news

1 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

2 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

5 forfeit   

vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物

参考例句：

• If you continue to tell lies,you will forfeit the good opinion of everyone.你如果继续撒谎，就会失掉大家对你的好感。
• Please pay for the forfeit before you borrow book.在你借书之前请先付清罚款。

6 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

7 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

8 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

9 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

10 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

11 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

12 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

13 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

16 finalized   

vt.完成（finalize的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The draft of this article has been finalized [done]. 这篇文章已经定稿。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The draft was revised several times before it was finalized. 稿子几经删改才定下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

17 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。