Opioid addiction is a major public health crisis facing the United States today and the leading cause of death in people under the age of 50. While the reasons are manifold, there are powerful and influential forces at play propelling it to a significant status epidemic. Enter the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical company that makes OxyContin. This hard-hitting documentary exposes her guilt for perpetuating the crisis.
The family has gained almost immeasurably from the pain. Drugs such as OxyContin and its alternatives promise to provide a more comfortable and productive quality of life when patients suffer trauma or debilitating conditions that lead to chronic pain. Serious risks associated with the use of these opioids have been overlooked. When overdoses and deaths started to rise, it didn’t take long for addiction to become widespread. For many of these users, OxyContin is a legitimate gateway drug. When they can no longer obtain expensive drugs, they often turn to cheaper alternatives, such as heroin.
Big Pharma—especially the Sackler family—has been the most obvious benefactor of all this human despair and decline. They laid the groundwork by hiring legions of sales reps, enlisting physician accomplices, launching disinformation campaigns, and lobbying Washington, D.C., for more favorable regulations.
The filmmakers provide a brief but comprehensive account of the founding of Sackler Corporation, the rise of their top-selling opioid product, and their strategy to legalize abuse. The film also portrays the Sacklers trying to maintain a public attractive face, even as their companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars in individual lawsuits. Today, the company faces even more significant lawsuits from nearly every state in the U.S.
The Sacklers: The Mysterious Billion-Dollar Opioid Empire Tells an Annoying Story. It shows how ruthless decisions made in most royal boards lead to the disruption of everyday life and social norms.
