Although a decade later Portenoy conceded to Wall Street Journal reporters that he and other pain doctors had mistakenly overstated the benefits of opioids while discounting their risks, back then Van Zee was the doctor whose judgment was questioned and even mocked. “A lot of people discounted Art as a rabble-rouser and a kook,” a prominent Virginia health care administrator explained. Another parent activist suggested that Van Zee’s uncomfortable and slightly disheveled appearance helped Purdue cast him as a kook rather than the groundbreaking physician he was. “He should’ve gotten the Nobel
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