Somerville looks to alleviate opioid crisis through safe injection sites see FEATURES / PAGE 3
WOMEN’S CREW
Top boat finishes 6th at Head of the Charles
Boston Palestine Film Festival celebrates Palestinian culture, amplifies voices see WEEKENDER / PAGE 4
SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXVIII, ISSUE 34
Thursday, October 24, 2019
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
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Medford, Somerville lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, Sacklers on hold by Anton Shenk
Assistant News Editor
Lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, who own the company, have been paused until next month to provide the opportunity for the company to work out settlements for the nearly 2,600 suits against them, according to Associated Press reporting. Among the suits paused, hundreds of local governments, including Medford and Somerville, were plaintiffs. Medford sued the Sackler family, while Somerville sued Purdue, alleging that the company and the family used false advertising which claimed opioids were not addictive, violated racketeering laws and created a public nuisance. A federal judicial panel consolidated hundreds of local lawsuits around the country into one in the Northern District of Ohio last January, after which hundreds of municipalities, including Medford and Somerville, joined the suit. Somerville’s 169-page complaint against the Connecticut-based drug manufacturer is signed by City Solicitor Francis Wright. Wright alleges that Purdue used deceptive marketing to push its marquee opioid painkiller Oxycontin, and that the city is still paying for the consequences. Somerville sued 18 other drug makers and distributors, some of which, including McKesson and Teva, two manufacturers, and Cardinal Health, a distributor, reached a separate settlement with cities earlier this month. In a February press conference, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone said that
the drug makers and distributors needed to be held accountable for the epidemic they created and enumerated the costs the city had incurred responding to the crisis. The City of Somerville declined to comment on ongoing litigation, as the details of the settlements are still ongoing and some of the suits, like the one against Walgreens, are still scheduled for trial. “It shouldn’t be this way,” Curtatone said. “Limited city, and school, and public safety and time shouldn’t have to be diverted to combat a health crisis that we believe could have been avoided, or at least significantly reduced.” Medford Mayor Stephanie Burke echoed Curtatone in a statement following her city’s filing. “We are determined to stop this epidemic from further destroying the lives of the people in our community. This lawsuit is one part of the collaborative effort that is needed by municipal, state and federal leaders along with lawmakers, doctors, law enforcement and health officials to join forces to find workable solutions,” Burke said in a statement at the time. In the background of these recent developments of accountability against the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma remains Tufts’ own long-standing relationship with the Sackler family. As reported by the Daily, the university has received significant gifts from the Sackler family including an endowment establishing the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Studies, the Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education and funding the master’s degree in Pain Research,
ALEXANDER THOMPSON / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education is pictured. Education & Policy (PREP) degree program offered by the Sackler school. In the wake of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s suit against Purdue Pharma in the middle of 2018, Tufts announced a review of its relationship to the Sacklers, overseen by Donald Stern, a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Although the review was launched last spring, Tufts’ Executive Director of Public Relations Patrick Collins refrained from commenting on the progress of the report, telling the Daily that the review is ongoing.
As the review now drags into its eighth month, students and alumni have become increasingly frustrated with the universities slow pace. One alumna, Julia Zubiago (LA’18, M’19), who holds a master’s degree in public health, expressed her frustrations. “I think that the administration has been very slow to act. There has been a ton of evidence about the Sacklers’ undue and criminal influence on medical prescribing, and Tufts has chosen to play a waiting game,” she said. see SACKLERS, page 2
The Rez Cafe raises prices in response to increasing minimum wage by Rhys Empey Staff Writer
The Rez Cafe has raised the prices of some of its coffee drinks due to the recent minimum wage increase in the state of Massachusetts. The student-run coffee shop, located in the Mayer Campus Center, serves as a social hub and has not seen a raise in prices since the ’90s, according to its Facebook page. Massachusetts passed legislation in 2018 that will increase the state-wide minimum wage by $1 per year over a five-year period until reaching $15 in 2023. Because of increasing wages, Rez operations manager Talia Smith was faced with a decision at the
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advice of the Office for Campus Life (OCL) — if she and the other managers Niamh Doyle and Chloe Weiner didn’t increase their prices, the Rez would have to close. Director of the OCL Joe Golia said in an interview with the Daily that he and Annie Wong, the business manager at the campus life financial office, forecasted the future financial viability of the Rez by examining increases in minimum wage as well as increasing operations costs for the business. Golia emphasized that the increasing minimum wage and increasing day-today costs, such as the Rez obtaining a new refrigerator, meant that prices would need to increase. According to Golia, For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily
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he and Wong suggested several different paths the Rez could take aside from increasing prices, including cutting staff and changing their hours. Both Smith and Golia said that the Rez needs to break even but doesn’t need to operate on a for-profit basis. Smith and other Rez managers are working this semester on making the budgeting process more transparent to both the employees and students. In addition, Smith said that OCL was working with the Rez to make it more financially independent from the university. Tufts students are largely unfazed by the change. Rez regular Gerard Frasca said that he is willing to spend more on specialty drinks.
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“If there is a product they need to raise prices on, it makes sense that it is the specialty drinks,” Frasca said. The up-charge on specialty drinks is 50 cents, and there will be no additional costs on drip coffee after prices increased at the beginning of the semester, according to Smith. Despite the increase, Massachusetts residents are still unable to live in any county just on the minimum wage alone, according to CNBC. Rez employee Nina Chukwura agrees, saying that there is still room for improvement with the new minimum wage.
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 WEEKENDER..........................4
see MINIMUM WAGE, page 2
FUN & GAMES.........................6 SPORTS............................ BACK