Mary Jannotta spent decades slicing meat and cheese behind the deli counters at Acme and Pathmark supermarkets in Philadelphia’s suburbs, developing aches from standing on her feet for long hours. A failed back surgery in 2008 intensified the pain. Her doctor repeatedly prescribed OxyContin, Purdue Pharma’s flagship painkiller—the high-dose opioid the company later admitted to criminally marketing and distributing. Jannotta said she soon became dependent on opioids. No longer prescribed by her doctors, she headed to Kensington—Philadelphia’s notorious open-air drug market—to buy pills. She ultimately lost her car, her home—and her grandson. Tyler Cordeiro first stole Jannotta’s prescription pills as a teenager. He died of an overdose at age 24. When Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019, Jannotta joined nearly 140,000 others in filing claims against the company for the harm allegedly caused by its drugs. Although the money couldn’t restore their losses, the financial settlement offered a chance for justice from the company and its multibillionaire owners, the Sackler family. Then they waited.
