What's That? $1 Million Per Memory?

The NYPost reports:

Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones co-founder and lead guitarist, will soon be touring publishing houses to score a little satisfaction - and cart away a $5 million-plus deal for his autobiography.

Like the headline says, that'll be about $1 million per memory, given the holes gnawed through Richards' brain by a life of drug abuse.

And each of those memories will probably be worth about two cents.

Note: Ask.com helpfully suggests more refined searches, so when I put in "Keith Richards" in search of the photo above, it kindly offered up this search suggestion: Keith Richards drugs. Got that right!

An Outstanding Definition Of Evil

My wife is (Muslims cover your ears!) a bit of a crusader. She crusades so kids will make better choices when it comes to drugs, and through her work, she's met many, many families who have lost children and siblings to drug addiction and deaths.

So I knew she'd be gleeful when I passed this news along to her ... and she was:

ROANOKE, Va. (AP)- The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin and three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday to misleading the public about the drug's risk of addiction, a federal prosecutor and the company said.

Purdue Pharma L.P., its president, top lawyer and former chief medical officer will pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said.

The plea agreement settled a national case and came two days after the Stamford, Conn.-based company agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and the District of Columbia to settle complaints that it encouraged physicians to overprescribe OxyContin.

"With its OxyContin, Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unknowing public," Brownlee said. "For these misrepresentations and crimes, Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice."

Privately held Purdue learned from focus groups with physicians in 1995 that doctors were worried about the abuse potential of OxyContin. The company then gave false information to its sales representatives that the drug had less potential for addiction and abuse than other painkillers, the U.S. attorney said.

There is an entire internet community of people who hate Purdue for creating a drug that gave them a huge market of addicts they could exploit and ruin so they could get fabulously rich. For years, this desperate and deeply hurt community has been crying for justice and they are finally getting it.

But justice won't bring back dead kids and it won't free addicts from addiction.

If ever there were three men deserving of the hottest circle of Hell, they are Purdue chief executive officer Michael Friedman, general counsel Howard Udell and former chief medical officer Paul Goldenheim. Burn for eternity. [OK, commenter Pam, you're right. I pray for their salvation. But if they're not saved, then burn for eternity.]

Purdue still is in business and said in a news release today, "During the past six years, we have implemented changes to our internal training, compliance and monitoring systems that seek to assure that similar events do not occur again."

This was not about training, compliance or monitoring. It was about willful action and deliberate cover-up. Purdue will not survive because today's guilty pleas opened the floodgate, and the lawsuits will follow, with settlements of tobacco-esque proportions.

But settlements won't bring back dead kids and free addicts from addition.

Mexico, China And Meth

A $200 million -- $200 million! -- drug bust in Mexico of a naturalized Mexican citizen from China who's been importing meth-making compounds from China and selling the finished product to the U.S. -- what's going on here?

It's "Super-Mex Meth Labs," and you can read about it here.

Troubling stuff.