FILE - Purdue Pharma headquarters stands in downtown Stamford, April 2, 2019 in Stamford, Connecticut. RELATED: Texas expects $1.5 billion as part of nationwide opioid settlement with drugmakersThe previous words of Richard Sackler, now 76, are at the heart of lawsuits accusing the Stamford, Connecticut-based company of a major role in sparking a nationwide opioid epidemic.In the 1996 event to launch sales of OxyContin, he told the company’s sales force that there would be "a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition."Five years later, as it was apparent that the powerful prescription pain drug was being misused in some cases, he said in an email that Purdue would have to "hammer on the abusers in every way possible,".