Amicus Curiae Brief — William K. Harrington, United States Trustee, Region 2, Petitioner v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al.

i

NO. 23-124

In the Supreme Court of the United States

________________

WILLIAM K. HARRINGTON, UNITED STATES TRUSTEE,

REGION 2,

Petitioner,

v.

PURDUE PHARMA L.P., ET AL.,

Respondents.

________________

On Writ of Certiorari

to the United States Court of Appeals

for the Second Circuit

________________

BRIEF FOR AMICUS CURIAE FEDERATION OF SOVEREIGN

INDIGENEOUS NATIONS IN SUPPORT OF THE RESPONDANTS SUPPORTING PETITIONER

Timothy Cornell

Counsel of Record

Patrick Dolan

CORNELL DOLAN, P.C.

E8

Ten

OO SPost

OUTHOffice Square, Suite

Boston, MA 02109

(617) 850-9036

tcornell@cornelldolan.com

Counsel for Amicus Curiae

September 20, 2023

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents…………………………………………………………ii

Table of Authorities……………………………………………………...iii

Interest of Amicus Curiae……………………………………………..1

Argument……………………………………………………………………1

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..7

iii

Table of Authorities

Alberta Opioid Response Surveillance Report: First Nations People in Alberta………………………………………………3

Lisa Belzak and Jessica Halverson, Evidence

Synthesis: The Opioid Crisis in Canada: a National

Perspective, Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can.

(June2018)………………………………………………………………5

First Nations Health Authority, First Nations Toxic Drug

Death

Doubled

During

the

Pandemic………………….……………………………...……………………3

Mack KA, Jones CM, Ballesteros MF. Illicit drug use, illicit

drug use disorders, and drug overdose deaths in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas—United States. Am J

Transplant

(2017)…………………………………………………………….…….4, 7

Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, Opioid Use, Related Harms, and Access to Treatment among First Nations in Ontario; and Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic

on opioid-related poisoning among First Nations in Ontario (2022)……………………………………………………………...4

Opioid- and Stimulant-related Harms in Canada (Sept.

2022)………………………………………………………………….……5

Saskatchewan Coroners Service, Drug Toxicity Deaths,

2016 to 2023……………………...…………………………………….4

iv

Meghan Thumath, et al., , Overdose among mothers:

The association between child removal and

unintentional drug overdose in a longitudinal

cohort of marginalised women in Canada,

Int. J. Drug Policy (May 2022)……………………………………5

Paul Webster, Indigenous Canadians confront

prescription opioid misuse, The Lancet

(April 27, 2013)…………………………………………………..……6

INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE

Amicus curiae The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (“FSIN”) represents 74 First Nations in

Saskachawan, Canada. FSIN is committed to fostering the economic, educational and social growth of the

people in these nations. To that end, it promotes education, health, and economic development among its

members.

The nations of FSIN have been shattered by the

opioid crisis, and by addiction to oxycodone in particular. Accordingly, Amicus here submits this brief to illustrate firsthand the ravages of Purdue Pharma’s

product, from which the Sackler family has profited so

immensely.1

ARGUMENT

Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare recalls a time

just a few years ago when his community would have

no murders at all, and deaths from drugs were scarce.

But in the last five years, he has attended 25 funerals

a year because of opioids - some of them for children

as young as ten years old.

In one community about 800 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Chief Hare has seen two or three funerals a week. And now his community has five murder cases on its hands due to drug abuse.

“It’s not the liquor anymore – that’s like water

now,” said Chief Hare, a member of the M'Chigeeng

1

Counsel for FSIN authored this brief in conjunction with

FSIN and paid for the submission of this brief.

3

First Nation on Manitoulin Island. “Now it’s the opioids; it’s the pills.”

From shore to shore, the health crisis has hit First

Nations communities across Canada all at once, fueled

by the rapid spread of opioids into the drug supply.

Indeed, numbers from the First Nations Health

Authority in British Columbia show that Indigenous

people are five times more likely to experience an overdose and three times more likely to die than other residents.2 In 2020, 254 First Nations people died due to

toxic drugs, a 119 per cent increase from 2019 and the

highest number of toxic drug deaths recorded for First

Nations since 2016 when the province of BC first declared a public health emergency. First Nations people

died at 5.3 times the rate of other BC residents in

2020, up from 3.9 times in 2019. 3

Alberta has similarly grim numbers. There, First

Nations people accounted for 22 percent of all opioid

poisoning deaths, even while they represent only six

per cent of the province’s population. That is an in-

2

First Nations Health Authority, First Nations Toxic Drug

Deaths Doubled During the Pandemic in 2020, avail. at:

<https://www.fnha.ca/about/news-andevents/news/first-nations-toxic-drug-deaths-doubledduring-the-pandemic-in-2020>

3

Ibid.

4

crease from 14 per cent in 2016, while the rate decreased among non-First Nation people.4

Likewise, in Saskatchewan, deaths from drugs

spiked from five in 2021 to 225 in the first part of

2023.5 And in 2021, the Ontario First Nations saw:

•

116 opioid-related deaths in Ontario First Nations

(a 132% increase compared to a 68% increase in

non-First Nations people); 6

•

816 hospital visits for opioid-related poisonings

among First Nations people (36% increase compared to 16% increase in non-First Nations people).7

4

Alberta Opioid Response Surveillance Report: First Nations People in Alberta, avail. at <https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/ef2d3579-499d-4fac-8cc594da088e3b73/resource/1d3c4477-7a5b-40a8-90f0a802dbfd7748/download/health-alberta-opioid-response-surveillance-report-first-nations-people-202106.pdf>

5

See Saskatchewan Coroners Service, Drug Toxicity

Deaths, 2016 to 2023, avail. at <https://publications.saskatchewan.ca/#/products/90505>

6

Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, Opioid Use, Related Harms, and Access to Treatment among First Nations

in Ontario; and Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on opioid-related poisoning among First Nations in Ontario

(2022).

7

Ibid.

5

But even these bleak numbers may be a gross underestimate of the reality of the crisis. By some estimates, because of racial misclassifications on death

certificates, drug overdose rates may be as much as 35

percent higher than what is reported.8

As Purdue Canada, controlled by MNP Consulting,

LTd., which is in turn, controlled by the Sackler family, engaged in the same aggressive and deceptive tactics that caused Purdue U.S. to drug sales, addictions,

and deaths in the United States to spike, addiction,

overdose and death soared in Canada as well. Opioid

deaths are now around 21 people per day, exceeding

deaths from car accidents.9 In 2016, over 20 million

prescriptions for opioids were dispensed in Canada, or

one prescription for every adult.10 That makes Canada

the second-largest consumer of prescription opioids in

the world, after the USA. The deadly result is predictable. For the first time in four decades, in 2019, life

8

Mack KA, Jones CM, Ballesteros MF. Illicit drug use, illicit

drug use disorders, and drug overdose deaths in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas—United States. Am J

Transplant. 2017;17:3241–3252. doi: 10.1111/ajt.14555.

9

Opioid- and Stimulant-related Harms in Canada

(Sept. 2022), https://bit.ly/3CVtYOL.

10

Lisa Belzak and Jessica Halverson, Evidence synthesis The Opioid Crisis in Canada: a National Perspective, Health

Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can. 2018 Jun; 38(6): 224–233.

6

expectancy rates stopped increasing due to opioid-related overdose deaths.11

The opioid crisis has also been particularly devastating for the native Canadian First Nations and

Metis People. Across Canada, prescription opioid use

appears to have been the early driver of the current

crisis, but the illegal drug market has since become

the main supplier.12

Opioid use is particularly rampant among First

Nations teenagers. A few years ago, Mae Katts, a

nurse–practitioner in Thunder Bay, began seeing students returning from their summer holidays agitated,

anxious, and complaining of headaches and sore muscles, common symptoms of opioid withdrawal.13

As it turned out, many of these students admitted

they were abusing prescription opioid drugs, especially oxycodone, a highly addictive painkiller that has

been widely prescribed and heavily misused in Canada over the past decade.14

Surveying the remote First Nations communities,

11

Meghan Thumath, et al., , Overdose among mothers: The

association between child removal and unintentional drug

overdose in a longitudinal cohort of marginalised women

in Canada, Int. J. Drug Policy, May 2022

12

Ibid.

13

Paul Webster, Indigenous Canadians confront prescription opioid misuse, The Lancet (April 27, 2013)

14

Ibid.

7

Ms. Katts informally found that “around 40% of Aboriginal teens in the school in Thunder Bay had opioid

dependencies,” while the communities they came from

had even higher rates.15 Even worse, a 2010 study by

the Northern Ontario School of Medicine found that

17% of 482 pregnant Aboriginal women from northwestern Ontario misused prescription opioid drugs

during pregnancy, with a substantial percentage of exposed newborns experiencing opioid withdrawal

symptoms.16

Opioid addiction has also wrought immense damage to indigenous culture, as addicts care more about

accessing the drugs than living in the communities,

carrying on the culture and ancient practices, or

simply caring for one another. This social erosion and

isolation, in turn, creates a vicious cycle leading to

deeper vulnerability to opioid addiction.17

Thus, ridding themselves of the rampant addiction

to opioids is critical to the First Nations’ ability to

thrive as independent, self-sustaining communities.

As Chief Bobby Cameron, head of FSIN, summed

up the crisis:

“We are losing our First Nation people at an

alarming rate. We are burying our young people far

15

Ibid.

16

Ibid.

17

Mack KA, Jones CM, Ballesteros MF, Illicit drug use, illicit drug use

disorders, and drug overdose deaths in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas—United States. Am J Transplant. 2017;17:3241–3252.

doi: 10.1111/ajt.14555.

8

too early in their lives. It’s going to take all authorities

involved to resolve this crisis.”

CONCLUSION

Purdue Pharma, L.P. and the Sackler family have

wrought a devastating trail of opioid destruction among

the First Nations, hitting the people in the FSIN particularly

hard, in ways that will be difficult to repair.

Respectfully submitted,

Timothy Cornell

Counsel of Record

Patrick Dolan

CORNELL DOLAN, P.C.

Ten Post Office Square, Suite

E 8oo South

Boston, MA 02109

(617) 850-9036

tcornell@cornelldolan.com

Counsel for Amicus Curiae

September 27, 2023