Cramer’s Health Care Pay-to-Play
(BISMARCK, ND) – North Dakotans have always known that Congressman Cramer will put his own interests above theirs. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that, despite North Dakota struggling with the opioid epidemic, Cramer has taken campaign contributions from a pharmaceutical company at the heart of the epidemic in at least the past two campaign cycles. Cramer “is one of only nine federal candidates to take a contribution from Purdue this cycle.”
Read more on Cramer’s selfish decision to take money for himself on the back of this crisis:
- North Dakota’s attorney general, Wayne Stenehjem, joined a lawsuit against Purdue in May, saying the opioid crisis was “inextricably linked to Purdue’s pervasive and deceptive marketing campaign” and called it “common sense” that drugs that could kill or commit people to a “life of addiction or recovery” did not “‘improve their function and quality of life.’”
- Cramer is one of only nine federal candidates to take a contribution from Purdue this cycle as of Thursday, according to the Federal Election Commission. In past cycles, the company has spent tens of thousands of dollars funding nearly 20 candidates.
- In all, more than 25 states have sued Purdue in recent years over its deceptive marketing practices involving OxyContin, a charge it pleaded guilty to in federal court in 2007.
- In 2016, North Dakota had 54 opioid-related drug overdose deaths, with a rate of 7.6 deaths per 100,000 persons, a spike of nearly 70 percent since 2014, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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