Former Big Pharma executive behind Oxycontin now runs a medical marijuana business

John Stewart was at the helm of Purdue Pharma in 2013. He was in the business of making Oxycontin, a prescription opioid painkiller that has addicted an estimated 1.9 million Americans and led to countless overdose deaths. In fact, between 1999 and 2012, accidental overdoses from prescription painkillers quadrupled. In 2015, a gut-wrenching 55,403 lethal drug overdoses were reported.

“There is a lot of anti-opioid sentiment,” says John Stewart. “And certainly based on the social disruption that we’ve seen it’s understandable.”

Stewart still believes that there is a place for powerful opioids in relieving severe and chronic pain, but he now clearly sees how dangerous and addictive these drugs truly are.

In 2013, he left his powerful position with Purdue Pharma, and is now the co-founder of a medical marijuana company called Emblem Cannabis located in Paris, Ontario. Stewart’s shift to the medical marijuana industry is important. It’s a safer medicine...

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