Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup Originally published as The Hard Sell

by Evan Hughes

In the ritualistic theater of trial testimony, it is really the questioner who runs the show, in the sense that the witness is supposed to be limited to answering what is asked. The attorney posing the questions, who knows in advance roughly what the witness has to say, carefully weaves through the material, swerving to avoid land mines, in order to create the picture most favorable to his position. That picture, of course, is utterly incomplete and badly skewed—a problem that is theoretically remedied when the other side gets its turn and engages in the same routine. This can be a highly frustrating exercise for the witness. It is a natural instinct, for example, that when you are asked a yes-or-no question and a simple “yes” would create a misleading impression, you want to elaborate: “Well, technically yes, but that leaves out something important…” Instead of saying that, you’re supposed to suffer through being misrepresented and hope that the other side gives you a chance to explain, which may never come to pass.