ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a nationwide opioid settlement involving Purdue Pharma, in a narrow vote of 5 to 4, an Alaskan mother is speaking out about the decision. Sandy Snodgrass lost her 22-year-old son, Bruce Snodgrass, to fentanyl poisoning in October 2021. Since then, she has been fighting Alaska’s opioid crisis and hoping to bring awareness on impacts of taking the illicit drugs.

In late June, Supreme Court justices ruled against a bankruptcy settlement for Purdue Pharma, valued at roughly 6 billion dollars, which manufactures the painkiller OxyContin. Others involved in the court case include roughly 60,000 family members who lost loved ones to opioids, particularly OxyContin, who sued Purdue Pharma.

Snodgrass was happy with the Supreme Court’s ruling, as she believes the settlement would have shielded Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.

“It got watered down over the years that it ended up to become only 6 billion and the shield that would protect them forever from any future litigation,” Snodgrass said. “So the families were not supportive of that lawsuit any longer and we’re very, very grateful and pleased that the lawsuit was rejected from the Supreme Court.”

She believes in the beginning the lawsuit was good, but became less powerful the years which caused her to lose support for it.

“The $6 billion on the surface, sounds like a lot of money, it is a lot of money,” Snodgrass said. “But when we look at the devastation that millions and millions of people were effected by OxyContin, $6 billion is nothing.”

Snodgrass says her son Bruce was prescribed OxyContin, when he got his wisdom teeth out at 17 years old, which she believes led him to becoming involved with drugs and eventually led to his death. She holds the Sackler family culpable for the fentanyl crisis the nation is in today.

“I administered those pills to my son,” Snodgrass said. “I believe that started the train wreck of his life and my life and his ultimate poisoning by fentanyl, because of that OxyContin.”

Snodgrass feels the amount of money is insulting, especially from a large company like Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. She knows some families were ready to receive money from the settlement, but for her it was not enough.

Snodgrass says she and other families who have lost loved ones want to see the Sackler family members involved with Purdue Pharma and OxyContin go to prison. If that doesn’t happen, she emphasized there will likely be lawsuits coming forward, where Purdue Pharma will be paying much more than the $6 billion.

“If the DOJ or the Department of Justice does not imprison the Sacklers, we want every single dime that they ever made to go towards the families and go towards prevention and go towards treatment,” Snodgrass said.

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