DOPESICK (2021)
~ Background story~ This addictive eight-part mini-series introduces the greedy, scheming Sackler family who own Purdue Pharmaceuticals; they made billions of dollars through malicious, manipulative advertising, and criminal misbranding of the opioid OxyContin.
Sales skyrocketed as theft, child abandonment, dependency, and death rabidly increased. Meanwhile, the Sacklers kept lying about the safety of the time release system, pushing their sales team to SELL SELL SELL via false claims that less than 1% get addicted. Naturally they blamed victims as being drug addicts; the fault of the user, not the drug.
Participants were decieved into participating in the introduction sales video "I Got My Life Back," which was made as a PSA for pain. Text about Oxy was added later. Several participants became addicts or died due to Oxy.
Following the lead of Valium that became a best seller because a medical condition was created called "psychic tension," Purdue created the concepts "pain is the fifth vital sign" and "breakthrough pain," which supposedly happens if people complain of pain within the twelve hour window that Oxy was sold to last for. This justified the company to sell increasing doses up to 160.
They created the smiley-to-sad faced pain chart via Partners Against Pain in order to SELL SELL SELL.
The creation of checkbox pathologies reminds me of the DSM created to sell psych drugs that often boxes healthy people into fake, manufactured diagnoses.
When doctors objected to Purdue pharma reps by saying, "I would never perscribe a pill for moderate pain," the reps countered with propaganda, "Delayed absorption as provided by oxycontin tablets is believed to reduce the abuse liability a drug." They showed manipulated studies. Their campaign began by selling to the labor force in the West Virginia coal mines who often suffer pain and injury.
The FDA under Reagan had only 39 employees responsible for 39,000 promotional items. Curtis Wright, the guy who approved the label saying Oxy is less addictive than other narcotics, ended up as an exective at Purdue Pharma. Imagine that, a revolving door. I mean drug companies are suppossed to be honest, right? So how did people leave the government and go to work (for five times the money) for the people they had been regulating? Hmm, it's a mystery.
~The cool part about the mini-series~ Along comes a DEA agent and a team of Department of Health Investigators who worked for years to prove that Purdue IS the cartel. The series is gripping and ultimately satisfying to watch due to their fight. The interwoven storylines dance beautifully around each other; this script is very well written.
The cast is stellar:
Michael Keaton (never better than in this) plays the kind hearted doctor in Appalachia who gets sucked into perscribing Oxy by Billy, a zealous sales rep (Will Poulter). The head of the DOH investigative team, Rick Mountcast, is played by Peter Sarsgaard. He nailed it, as did his partner, John Hoogenakker.
Kaitlyn Dever is compelling as a young miner who gets injured, and then addicted to Oxy as she struggles with coming out as a lesbian to religous parents in a judgenental community. Rosario Dawson hits just the right notes as the steadfast DEA agent. Michael Stulhbarg was perfectly creepy as Richard Sackler.
A moving and important series.
RECOMMEND RECOMMEND RECOMMEND.
~ Background story~ This addictive eight-part mini-series introduces the greedy, scheming Sackler family who own Purdue Pharmaceuticals; they made billions of dollars through malicious, manipulative advertising, and criminal misbranding of the opioid OxyContin.
Sales skyrocketed as theft, child abandonment, dependency, and death rabidly increased. Meanwhile, the Sacklers kept lying about the safety of the time release system, pushing their sales team to SELL SELL SELL via false claims that less than 1% get addicted. Naturally they blamed victims as being drug addicts; the fault of the user, not the drug.
Participants were decieved into participating in the introduction sales video "I Got My Life Back," which was made as a PSA for pain. Text about Oxy was added later. Several participants became addicts or died due to Oxy.
Following the lead of Valium that became a best seller because a medical condition was created called "psychic tension," Purdue created the concepts "pain is the fifth vital sign" and "breakthrough pain," which supposedly happens if people complain of pain within the twelve hour window that Oxy was sold to last for. This justified the company to sell increasing doses up to 160.
They created the smiley-to-sad faced pain chart via Partners Against Pain in order to SELL SELL SELL.
The creation of checkbox pathologies reminds me of the DSM created to sell psych drugs that often boxes healthy people into fake, manufactured diagnoses.
When doctors objected to Purdue pharma reps by saying, "I would never perscribe a pill for moderate pain," the reps countered with propaganda, "Delayed absorption as provided by oxycontin tablets is believed to reduce the abuse liability a drug." They showed manipulated studies. Their campaign began by selling to the labor force in the West Virginia coal mines who often suffer pain and injury.
The FDA under Reagan had only 39 employees responsible for 39,000 promotional items. Curtis Wright, the guy who approved the label saying Oxy is less addictive than other narcotics, ended up as an exective at Purdue Pharma. Imagine that, a revolving door. I mean drug companies are suppossed to be honest, right? So how did people leave the government and go to work (for five times the money) for the people they had been regulating? Hmm, it's a mystery.
~The cool part about the mini-series~ Along comes a DEA agent and a team of Department of Health Investigators who worked for years to prove that Purdue IS the cartel. The series is gripping and ultimately satisfying to watch due to their fight. The interwoven storylines dance beautifully around each other; this script is very well written.
The cast is stellar:
Michael Keaton (never better than in this) plays the kind hearted doctor in Appalachia who gets sucked into perscribing Oxy by Billy, a zealous sales rep (Will Poulter). The head of the DOH investigative team, Rick Mountcast, is played by Peter Sarsgaard. He nailed it, as did his partner, John Hoogenakker.
Kaitlyn Dever is compelling as a young miner who gets injured, and then addicted to Oxy as she struggles with coming out as a lesbian to religous parents in a judgenental community. Rosario Dawson hits just the right notes as the steadfast DEA agent. Michael Stulhbarg was perfectly creepy as Richard Sackler.
A moving and important series.
RECOMMEND RECOMMEND RECOMMEND.