Project 50 Reflects*
When Wright was Wrong
FDA Officer Who Approved Oxycontin Once a Major Player in Medical Cannabis
Like many people, I have watched the various docu-series on the OxyContin scandal…disaster…epidemic…tragedy. There are so many words that can describe the sorry saga of this deadly, synthetic opioid. There have been numerous presentations ranging from the brilliant Dopesick (Hulu) to The Pharmacist (Netflix), and culminating recently with the almost farcical Painkiller, (also on Netflix). Each has, of course, touched on the corruption involved. The recent Painkiller focused primarily on the Sackler family and the involvement of Rudy Giuliani as their lawyer. Dopesick was more focused on the systemic corruption that included the character of Curtis Wright, an FDA medical review officer.
I say “character,” but Curtis Wright is a real human being. He is not a Hollywood fiction, fashioned from several persons into one member of the cast who moves various elements of the plot forward. Wright was the FDA officer who approved OxyContin after working directly with Purdue Pharma employees to write the required New Drug Application (NDA) that Wright would then give approval to and thus release to the world a new synthetic that would kill thousands. There is no doubt of Wright’s involvement. A Department of Justice internal memo from 2006 spells it out very clearly. (https://www.mass.gov/doc/ogrosky-memo/download) After approving Oxycontin, Wright would leave the FDA, eventually landing a six-figure job with, you guessed it, Purdue Pharma.
Curtis Wright and Medical Cannabis
But I wonder how many people are aware that Curtis Wright once had a pivotal role in the medical cannabis issue?
It was in December 1990 and FDA summoned my late husband, Robert C. Randall, for a meeting. Robert was immediately suspicious. FDA had never exhibited a helpful interest in medical cannabis and in December 1990, the issue was once again on the ascendant having experienced a decline in progress during the mid-1980s, the era of Just Say No.
But the pendulum was swinging back. And it was moving quickly.
Beginning in 1988, Robert and I had managed to steadily increase the number of approved Compassionate IND applications, the only means then available to obtain legal access to cannabis for medical purposes. In 1990 the playing field had changed substantially after we successfully assisted three AIDS patients apply for — and receive — legal cannabis. Using the same approved protocol, we were making plans to launch the Marijuana AIDS Research Service (MARS) which would give hundreds of people with AIDS (PWAs) an easy way to apply for legal, medical cannabis. Had FDA learned of our plans? What could FDA want?
Curtis Wright in an undated photograph from FDA
Robert sensed the meeting was a trap so he asked me to accompany him and also asked for a lawyer from our pro bono law firm, Steptoe & Johnson. The principal organizer of the FDA meeting was the aforementioned Curtis Wright. In our book, Marijuana Rx, The Early Years (1976-1996), Robert described him as “an oafishly rumpled man with unkempt hair and dirty fingernails”. Since each of the docu-series named above have portrayed him in exactly this light it is now obvious that Wright wasn’t just having a bad hair day.
Wright began by talking about the increased number of Compassionate INDs in recent months with Robert’s “paw prints” all over them. Wright wanted Robert to change from Compassionate INDs to “n-of-1 studies”—a slick semantic move that would have removed the caring concept of Compassion from the only legal means of accessing cannabis. Wright even went so far as to suggest that organizing such studies might give Robert “a proprietary interest” in cannabis. When Robert asked directly if Wright was saying Robert could “own” medical cannabis, a dozen or so FDA bureaucrats leaned forward to hear his answer.
It was clever. Appealing to the human frailties of greed and pride, Wright hoped to bring Robert into the government cabal of prohibition by “giving” him cannabis. When Robert declined, Wright laughed and threatened to close down the Compassionate IND program. Now we had gotten to the heart of it.
Any way you look at it, the December 1990 meeting was a straight-on attack of our efforts to help patients get legal access and reform the federal prohibition of cannabis. As we left the FDA, the attorney from Steptoe said, “They were threatening you.”
It was, as Robert had sensed, a trap. If Robert had accepted the suggestion, he would have been rendered mute since “owners” of an investigational new drug cannot speak publicly about a product under development. When Robert refused, the government threatened to close the Compassionate IND program for cannabis, a threat they made good on in March 1992.
Wright would tempt others with his offer. Some agreed but soon realized the path was impossible.
Knowing Wright’s true motives that day is impossible. He was relatively new at FDA (he was hired in 1989), and given the number of FDA officials crowded into that meeting room in December 1990, it seems fair to say that Wright was not acting alone. Clearly, however, this oafish man was staking a claim to thinking outside the box when it came to “new drugs”. Perhaps that is how he rationalized his involvement with Oxycontin seven years later as he huddled in a Silver Spring, Maryland hotel with Purdue representatives to write a New Drug Application which he would then approve on behalf of FDA.
Curtis Wright — whose “paw prints” were all over Oxycontin —will go down in history as a corrupt physician who mindlessly condemned thousands to addiction and, in many cases, death. ❧
The full story of the encounter with Curtis Wright can be found in our book Marijuana Rx, The Early Years (1976-1996), Chapter 29. Available in the Memorabilia Store on this website or your favorite ePub provider including Kindle.
*”Project 50 Reflects” is an occasional blog focusing on medical cannabis events between 1976-1996, offering hindsight that only the passage of time can allow.
