How opioid distributors ridiculed West Virginians, even as they pumped millions of pills into Appalachia

Eric Eyre, the Pulitzer Prize winning West Virginia journalist who has been reporting on Appalachia's opioid epidemic for a while now, caught my attention this evening with a tweet about a somewhat scandalous dispatch today from the federal trial charging three major pharmaceutical distributors with fueling the region's opioid crisis.  Today's dispatch is headlined, "As opioid epidemic raged, drug company executives made fun of West Virginians," and it is reported by two of Eyre's colleagues at the Mountain State Spotlight, Lucas Manfield and Lauren Peace.  Here's an excerpt:  

In one [email], shared on Thursday, AmerisourceBergen executive Chris Zimmerman shared a lyrical parody of the theme song for “The Beverly Hillbillies,” making fun of “a poor mountaineer” who purchased pills at a “cash ‘n carry” pain clinic.

Another was titled “OxyContinVille” and included a parody of a Jimmy Buffett song that described driving from Kentucky to buy pills.

In a third email, a member of Zimmerman’s team wrote, “One of the hillbilly’s must have learned how to read :-)” in response to an email detailing Kentucky’s new opioid regulations.

Zimmerman apologized in court for the contents of some of the emails, including the use of the term “pillbillies,” which he said referred to drug dealers, not patients.

“I shouldn’t have sent the email,” he said, but added that he took the attacks upon his credibility “personally.” He said the documents were cherry-picked out of context and defended the corporate culture at AmerisourceBergen, one of the three opioid distributors on trial in Charleston, and said it was of the “highest caliber.”

Eyre was interviewed yesterday on National Public Radio, explaining what's at stake in the criminal case against these corporations.