Dopesick

[crypticandsober]

Just watched episode 7 of this series. Can't explain how much this has got in my head for some reason. I know it's a dramatisation. Is there an alternate point of view?

I can't believe the utter moral depravity of the sackler family, and Purdue pharma execs. I'm sure it's not isolated to that pharma company either but not getting into big pharma conspiracy land.

Just horrific how far reaching and devastating the opioid crisis is in the US (and presumably other non European countries?)

@succession

The documentary is even more jaw dropping

Yes I know - that guy pushing fentanyl for aches and pains and then getting a system to bamboozle the Insurance companies so they approve it.

A fucking call centre working around the insurance providers' questions. For FENTANYL. Unbelievable

Season finale is on Disney now

Dh and I are really "enjoying" this too. Shocking.

Apparently Michael Keaton really wanted to do it as he had a nephew that died of addiction.

@crypticandsober

Just watched episode 7 of this series. Can't explain how much this has got in my head for some reason. I know it's a dramatisation. Is there an alternate point of view?

I can't believe the utter moral depravity of the sackler family, and Purdue pharma execs. I'm sure it's not isolated to that pharma company either but not getting into big pharma conspiracy land.

Just horrific how far reaching and devastating the opioid crisis is in the US (and presumably other non European countries?)

Just watched the series and it was totally heartbreaking to see how hard working, kind people suffered so much. I found the regulator (FDA?) is equally disgusting as it is their duty to supervise and protect the people.

You think that's bad, watch the actual HBO documentary on it - The Crime of the Century. I don't think there is an alternative viewpoint tbh. The pharmaceutical companies involved were morally bankrupt and its end of days in parts of the US. Also Johnson and Johnson when you watch the actual documentary!! There's also a book on it called "Empire of Pain".

One of the best series I watched in ages. So many lives lost and destroyed by the greed of the Purdue and the Sackler family.
I’m glad their name was removed from all the art galleries and places they had donated there blood money
They should have been made to put there money in drug rehabilitation to help all the people who became addicts because of them.

Watched the final episode last night. I cried listening to the parents’ testimonies- so many young lives lost. I also cried when Dr Finnix found his path back to healing people again.

The settlement Purdue made was challenged last week - it was in the news on 18th December that the Sacklers might be held accountable after all. Let’s hope.

Do we know if the characters are real or composite characters?

I read the book the series is based on and the attorneys trying to prosecute Purdue were all real, as is Dr Fennex's addiction Dr (I think he's called Dr Van Dee?) and the nun, Sister Beth (and obviously the Sacklers were real people). Not sure about Rosario Dawson's character though.

The rest are composites from real life situations, although the woman who shows the court her son's ashes in the last ep was drawn from real life.

It's been a brilliant series, absolutely eye opening and horrifying, with some stellar performances. I could see some parallels with what happened with heroin in this country in the 80's when all our industries closed down.

Worth a rewatch methinks.

@Huckleberries73

There are scary similarities to this and the current big pharmaceutical money going into puberty blockers and cross sex hormones, and anyone who asks questions is shot down in much the same way.

We don’t learn
The next big pharma story will be the medicalisation of our kids.

That’s exactly what I thought. The way that the only thing that motivated the drug company was £££ and the way they tried to expand the conditions it could be used for and inverted conditions such as breakthrough pain really chimed with me.

Invented

This series absolutely blew my minds. The utter depravity and evilness of those bastards is incomprehensible. The poor people at the bottom having their lives ruined for minor conditions. It's heartbreaking.

Watching the series is the first time I have been able to really understand how addiction develops and hooks people, and how they can end up on this slippery slope which destroys their life in front of their eyes.

A few years ago when I was a doctor on trauma ward (England) we routinely prescribed OxyContin for our post-op patients. (A tiny dose- 5mg twice daily with oxynorm as needed for breakthrough pain) Although a completely different kettle of fish (inpatient only usually and highly monitored) I genuinely feel unsettled about this and would not want to prescribe it again. This is will make me rethink my prescribing of opioids (although I have always been more cautious than most of my colleagues in this regard) for the rest of my career.

Strip Dame Dopesick of her title, Sackler opioid victims demand

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3b81b0bc-65a5-11ec-b5e6-0d64a8c5ca0d?shareToken=05485bd0458c4dcbb5ef4b2feb5eefdc

@geniebwany as someone with ongoing pain issues I have often been prescribed opioids. Luckily for me they don't really work. I feel woozy, a bit sick and can still feel the pain. So they are pointless for me. I did notice the woozy feeling reduced pretty quickly. I suspect that woozy feeling is pleasant for some people?

I have a friend now in a lot of pain (same pain source as mine,) and using opioids. I have recommended everything I have used that has helped me (tens machine etc...) and he won't try any of it. He keeps taking the opioids. Not as strong as oxy but still I worry for him. Wish there was more research into pain.

Agreed Huckleberries the amount of assorted pharma doled out to children in the USA as -a matter of course is bloody mind-boggling. It helps me understand why anti-vaxxers in the USA are so wary of trusting them. Not one myself though, 3 jabs in.