The Sackler's company bribed and "financially encouraged" doctors into over-prescribing opioids to millions of people who weren't necessarily mortally ill and with lesser individual risk of those people dying from these prescriptions.
It's a largely different clinical and treatment situation from specific cases in which people are genuinely, terminally ill and a genuine though dangerous treatment option exists that might save their very lives. The Sackler case is a valid and powerful criticism of medical/pharma dishonesty, but it's extremely unfair to desperate patients that it be used to prevent them from having the autonomy over their own bodies and literal chance at life that they might legally be allowed to pursue.
Also worth noting that even in the market for prescription opioids, the Sackler case has more recently been used to wrongfully prevent patients who are in deep pain from obtaining a drug that provides needed relief despite its addiction dangers. So even here, obsessions about malpractice are hurting legitimate use.
It's a largely different clinical and treatment situation from specific cases in which people are genuinely, terminally ill and a genuine though dangerous treatment option exists that might save their very lives. The Sackler case is a valid and powerful criticism of medical/pharma dishonesty, but it's extremely unfair to desperate patients that it be used to prevent them from having the autonomy over their own bodies and literal chance at life that they might legally be allowed to pursue.
Also worth noting that even in the market for prescription opioids, the Sackler case has more recently been used to wrongfully prevent patients who are in deep pain from obtaining a drug that provides needed relief despite its addiction dangers. So even here, obsessions about malpractice are hurting legitimate use.