NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A Boston-based artist placed an 800-pound opioid spoon outside the front entrance to Johnson & Johnson's world headquarters in New Brunswick on Wednesday. Anyone trying to enter J&J's office building had to walk around the giant metal spoon, etched with the initials "J&J" on its handle.

The artist, Dominic Esposito, spoke to Patch about his protest performance art, and said he expects to get plenty of push-back for what he did. But he wants to start a conversation about the danger of prescription painkillers and opioid addiction in America. "The balance has been a hard line for us to toe: Even as a group we are not totally against opioids: For example, their use for acute cancer patients or for after an operation. Yes, there is a use for them in society," said Esposito. "But our society has also been handing them out like candy for the past 20 years. Opiate painkillers are very dangerous drugs and should be treated as such."

Esposito kept his ten-foot long spoon up Wednesday until New Brunswick police asked him to move it to a public space near the building. He complied, saying it wasn't worth it for him to have the artwork confiscated or be arrested. "I've gotten hate mail from people after yesterday, telling me that it's addicts' own fault if they are addicted," he told Patch. "Or telling me they need the painkillers. I think some people don't even realize they are addicted .... But to at least spark conversation makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere."

In April of this year, Johnson & Johnson was hit with an unprecedented $572 million fine after it was sued by the state of Oklahoma for downplaying the addiction risks of its opiate painkillers. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter sued the pharmaceutical giant for what he says is their role in causing opiate devastation in that state. Johnson & Johnson is currently appealing the fine. "Johnson & Johnson did not cause the opioid crisis in Oklahoma, or elsewhere," Johnson & Johnson vice president, Ernie Knewitz told NJ.com Wednesday, adding that opioids are regulated by the FDA and the DEA. "At the same time, we recognize that the opioid crisis is a tremendously complex public health issue and have deep sympathy for everyone affected."



"I just feel like there is so much finger pointing in all this: Someone blames Big Pharma, someone blames the DEA, someone blames the CDC," said Esposito. "Meanwhile, you have people literally dying from these drugs. And they are still prescribing this stuff."



According to the New York Times, Johnson & Johnson contracts with poppy farmers in Tasmania and supplies 60 percent of the opiates in drugs such as oxycodone.

In fact, Johnson & Johnson even developed a special strain of poppy, giving it the name "Norman." This is the strain that produces the core pain-blocking derivative found in Oxycontin, said Esposito, who has long researched the company. Johnson & Johnson owns subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, also headquartered in New Jersey and which also makes its own opioids and produces the fentanyl patch.