01x03 - Blizzard of the Century

[bunniefuu]

This program is based on real events.

However, certain characters,

names, incidents, locations, and dialogue

have been fictionalized

for dramatic purposes.

However, the death of my son, Patrick,

isn't fiction.

He d*ed at age 24

after having ingested

just a single OxyContin.

And I will tell you

that time does not heal all wounds.

Grief is not a process.

It's a lifelong weight on our heart

and on our soul.

- [monitors beeping]

- [indistinct, eerie chatter]

[doctor] You overdosed.

We've got you on methadone now

but in about four hours

we'll start reducing the drip,

and you'll experience some withdrawal.

- [Lily, echoing] Withdrawal?

- [doctor] Nausea, sweats, tremors.

But we'll keep a lookout.

That's the same thing that happened to him

last night when he lost his pills.

- [doctor] OxyContin, right?

- [Tyler] Oxy, yeah.

[doctor] What's his dosage?

[Lily] Um

It's two or three, maybe more.

[doctor] That is a high dosage.

- So if he just stopped

- [man 1] Customer down here.

[man 2] Come on! Come on! Stay with us!

[doctor] We'll get the detox team in here.

[Lily] Detox? Detox?

I don't think you understand,

this is a prescription.

This stuff can really grab hold of you,

even if you're following doctor's orders.

- And he just doubled his dose.

- That was an accident, though.

He's not an addict.

- [doctor] Call it what you like

- [Lily] No, excuse me,

but Dr. Hartman said

that it's only addictive in

uh, like, one percent of people.

Well, I've got an ER

filled with the one percent.

- Could we speak to Dr. Hartman?

- [doctor] I'll find him right away.

[door closes]

[Edie]

There is a long history of government

allowing people to sell you things

that are bad for you.

There's an art

to manipulating that process.

Arthur Sackler didn't invent the practice,

but he had it down to a science.

[smoke detector beeping in distance]

You wrote a shitty story.

He doesn't like your story.

I'm aware.

You know what this means? MICE them.

- Really?

- Absolutely.

MICE the bastard.

[Richard] MICE.

MICE.

I don't see how we would benefit

from additional animal studies.

When the CIA wants to flip someone,

they target one of four things.

M-I-C-E.

M, "money."

How much do they want?

I, "ideology." What do they believe in?

C, "coercion." What scares them?

And E, "ego"

What makes them feel like a real big boy?

[Richard] Curtis Wright

is the medical review officer

who stands between OxyContin and America.

Between suffering and salvation.

Well, we are going

to target Curtis Wright.

Specifically his ego.

[Edie] I don't know what went down

[man] Curtis Wright?

but for sure there was an unusual

amount of contact between Wright

- Sign here please.

- and Purdue.

There are ethical considerations.

Of course.

They're more than considerations.

We should document

every interaction, Howard.

We make sure everything is above board.

- [Edie] An abnormal amount.

- [man] Yes, sir.

- [Edie] Like I've never seen.

- [Richard] I believe what Wright wants

most of all is to feel like he is needed.

Well, lucky for him, it's true.

[modem dialing]

[line ringing]

[modem beeping]

Dr. Wright?

Uh, yes, yes.

- Can you hear me?

- Yes, I can.

Connection okay on your end?

Yeah, you know a phone call

would've been fine

but this is kind of neat actually.

Nonsense, Dr. Wright.

We want to get everything right

on this application,

and we want you

to meet the team working on it.

Okay. All right.

Now, we have a few points that

we'd like to go over in some detail.

That okay with you, Dr. Wright?

- Sure, sure.

- Yes?

Okay, first now, I want you to say

Say good morning to Dr. Wright.

[all] Good morning, Dr. Wright!

Huh. Wow

Wow, uh

I didn't realize there would be

so many of you.

Don't underestimate yourself, Dr. Wright.

You're one of the leading experts

in the field.

There's not a person here

who couldn't learn something from you.

Now, I know that you're a busy man

so let's dive right in, shall we?

Oh, okay. Go ahead.

[Edie] Purdue needed one thing

from Curtis Wright.

They needed him to approve language

that would allow them to say,

with the full approval

of the U.S. government,

that OxyContin was the safest opioid

on the market.

And if they could get that,

then it was game over.

But Curtis wouldn't fold easily

because Curtis is a scientist

and the science wasn't there.

I'll say it again.

They found the one guy

who gave a sh*t, so

they had to keep trying

to appeal to his ego.

I didn't have any friends outside of

[Edie] Purdue arranged for Wright

to publish a paper with Dr. Robert Kaiko,

Richard Sackler's head of R&D

and clinical research.

like a Marine

[Edie]

Must have made Curtis feel real special.

It was a whole other thing.

He was holding an U*i

Sneeze out of your butt diarrhea, like

Poof!

You're spitting like you're a ball player.

[Curtis] It's just sweet spit, right?

Good stuff. "A molecule

is the smallest invisible portion

of a pure chemical substance that

has its unique set of chemical properties.

That is, its potential."

Unch, are you listening?

Curtis Wright didn't fold

even after they published the article.

Ego.

- f*cking

- Please.

- Stop, just breathe!

- He says!

- Let's just breathe.

- [Mortimer] He says!

He says it's gonna work, okay?

Ego wasn't working,

so they had to go with Plan B.

[Howard] Boo! [laughing]

- Howard?

- Hey, Curtis.

- How'd you get there?

- What's for lunch? Looks good.

We were wondering thinking,

that it might be more efficient,

more productive,

if we were able to all meet in person.

You know, just hash it out,

be done with it.

- Hash it out?

- Yeah, you know.

Hash it out. [grunting]

[chuckles]

Yeah, yeah. I guess.

We'd like to have

a more informal relationship with you.

Would that be all right, buddy?

[Edie] Curtis agreed

to a more informal relationship.

The Purdue team booked a room

for three days at a hotel

somewhere between Washington D.C.

and Norwalk, Connecticut.

[Brianna]

What do you think happened in that room?

[Edie] Nobody knows.

But sometime after that meeting,

Curtis Wright approved the language

Purdue needed.

Their marketing plan for OxyContin

hinged on a handful of words

from the drug application

signed and sealed by the FDA.

I memorized it, pay attention.

"Delayed absorption,

as provided by OxyContin tablets,

is believed to reduce

the abuse liability of the drug."

What that means

is that the FDA officially said

that OxyContin is believed to be safer

than anything else like it.

It all comes down to those two words:

"is believed."

Is believed.

Let's take a moment to unpack that.

Is believed by who?

The one and only time those words

appeared in a drug application.

Homicidal absurdity.

[neck cracking]

["Hustlin'" playing]

No one can prove

that anything illegal happened,

but I know two things.

Curtis Wright left the FDA

a year after OxyContin was approved.

And eventually,

he went to go work for Purdue.

- You gotta be f*cking kidding me.

- Nope.

Who the f*ck you think you f*ckin' with?

I'm the f*ckin' boss

Seven forty-five, white on white

That's f*ckin' Ross ♪

I cut 'em wide, I cut 'em long ♪

- I cut 'em fat ♪

- What? ♪

- I keep 'em comin' back ♪

- What? ♪

We keep 'em comin' back ♪

Every day I'm hustlin'

Every day I'm hustlin' ♪

Every day I'm hustlin'

Every day I'm hustlin' ♪

Tell 'em that

Mo' cars, mo' hoes ♪

Mo' clothes, mo blows ♪

Every day I'm hustlin'

Every day I'm hustlin' ♪

Every day I'm hustlin'

Every day ♪

[g*nsh*t]

[Edie]

Richard Sackler was now unstoppable.

So he did

what any rational person would do.

He threw himself a party.

[Richard] A few weeks ago,

the entire East Coast

was blanketed in snow.

The Blizzard of the Century,

they called it.

Thank you for coming. Look at this.

I was late tonight

because I was high in the Himalayas.

Deep in Tibet,

high on the flank of Annapurna,

one of the most remote mountains

in the Himalayas,

inside a monastery inhabited by

the Wise One.

[Raymond] Very impressive turnout.

- Thank you.

- You're very welcome.

Did we have to have the tuba?

[band playing "Tusk"]

[Richard] "O Wise One," I incanted.

"What is the meaning of all this snow?"

"All this snow"?

"Where little or no snow should go."

The incense smoke was dense,

the torrid atmosphere was electric

as the Wise One closed his eyes

and, in a trance, asked, "Are you a poet

or are you the leader

of the greatest sales force on Earth?"

- [crowd cheering]

- Yeah!

The application for OxyContin

was the most demanding

for a painkiller ever submitted.

And it was approved by the FDA

in 11 months and 14 days.

This didn't just happen.

It was the unparalleled teamwork

of the product team

and the FDA approval team.

[crowd cheering]

The significance

of the Blizzard of the Century

is that the launch of OxyContin

will be followed by a blizzard

of prescriptions

that will bury the competition.

[crowd cheering]

This prescription blizzard

will be so deep and dense, and so white,

that you will never be able

to see the white flag of their surrender.

[crowd cheering]

Now, now!

Now get out there and sell!

[crowd cheering]

- Yeah!

- Sell, huh?

Sell!

Tusk ♪

[whooping]

[crowd chanting]

OxyContin! OxyContin! OxyContin!

OxyContin! OxyContin! OxyContin!

OxyContin is one of America's

new prescription wonder dr*gs.

[reporter]

It's the fastest-growing drug in America.

[reporter 2] OxyContin or Oxy,

as it's called, is suddenly the rage.

[reporter 3] Doctors say OxyContin

provides unprecedented relief

for acute pain for seriously ill patients.

[reporter 4] Hailed as a breakthrough drug

for people in pain,

it is now the most heavily prescribed

narcotic in the country.

[reporter 5] Its time-release properties

deliver the drug

in controlled amounts

over a period of hours.

[reporter 6] It has a special coating

that works on a special time release.

- So over a 12-hour period

- [reporter 7] OxyContin has taken

a little-known drug company,

Purdue Pharma,

- to the top of the industry.

- I hate you, Mortimer.

[heavy metal music playing]

[crowd applauding]

[man 1] Congratulations, sir.

[woman] Well done, sir.

[man 2] Great job, sir!

[door locks]

[Glen] Okay.

Sweet.

Oh. Oh.

[door closes]

Home.

Do you wanna go lie down?

I'll make you something to eat?

[Glen] Mm

[somber music playing]

- Ty, will you help me with this later?

- [Glen] One second.

- You need to stop

- Can you stop?

- [Lily] What the f*ck?

- [Glen] Move!

You guys want to follow me for a second?

Please.

- [Lily] Need the light? I got it.

- Yeah, thanks.

Ty, would you take this

and take the top off, please?

This is done.

Nothing's getting between this family.

It's over.

[Kaylee] Are you putting those

in the toilet?

- [Glen] Yeah.

- [toilet flushing]

All gone.

Come here.

[Lily] The doctor said

you're supposed to taper off.

The doctor doesn't know me, does he?

Come here.

Hug. It's over, guys.

But Purdue was just getting started.

Any physician

who is not prescribing OxyContin

is practicing inhumane,

backwards, antiquated malpractice.

[Edie] They started filling

every shitty conference room

in every Holiday Inn

in an eight-state area.

[Lorraine]

OxyContin benefits your patients.

When, and only when they are doing well,

can you do well.

[sucking teeth]

- Five steps.

- She's incredible.

- Step 1, you admit you have a problem.

- How much does she make for this?

- 5,500 on this speech.

- Your problem?

- "I'm not selling enough."

- [Britt] They keep her very busy.

[Lorraine] Straight forward enough, right?

- That's a lot of money.

- [Lorraine] Step 2, apologize to patients

- who you did not prescribe OxyContin.

- But it's worth it.

- Last quarter, half my bonus was from her.

- Step 3, acknowledge a higher power

I f*cking love her.

that can lead you

to success and wisdom.

Do you know what that power is? Me.

- [all laughing]

- Do you have a pen?

Britt. Can I ask?

Mm-hm.

- How much?

- Hey, Britt.

["I Want Candy" playing over speakers]

- How much did you make?

- My bonus was 42,000.

Is that possible?

- I made 6,500.

- I know.

What about?

[Britt] Who, Jen?

- 27,000. And, Phil?

- Hey.

- How much did you make in your bonus?

- [whispering] 32.

[mouthing] Thousand?

- [woman] Hi, Britt.

- Am I?

Am I terrible at this job?

No, it's a process and you're growing.

You're building. It takes time.

Um, do you work here

or are you just standing there?

- I work here, what do you need? Okay.

- I need you to clean this sh*t up.

Oh, my gosh, you were amazing up there.

I loved your speech.

- You're cute, how old are you?

- Coffee?

- Hey, how are you? How's it going?

- Hey.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

I have every doctor

on my circuit prescribing.

They all should be prescribing.

But your bonus

is not determined by prescriptions.

It's based on the number of milligrams.

Hey. I f*cking love you.

See you in Pittsburgh.

- Dr. T! It's been so long.

- How nice to see you again. I missed you.

Meet Shannon Shaeffer, our newest recruit.

- Shannon Shaeffer.

- Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

I look forward to doing

a lot of business with you.

- You're so sweet. Have a good day.

- Thank you so much. Have a nice day.

- You too.

- [Britt] Why is this a f*cking mess?

Get your doctors to titrate up.

If you wanna make some money,

you gotta get your doctors

to prescribe a higher dosage.

- Why would they do that?

- [Britt] Got you a hat.

Why don't you cuddle up with this guy,

get your numbers up.

Seems like we should get paid more

the more pills we sell.

It's all about the margins.

Oxycodone is generic and they already have

the time-release capsules from MS Contin,

so they had to pay, like, nothing

to make OxyContin.

But they charge insurance

by the milligrams,

- so twice as much for a 40 as a 20

- Those are beauties.

and twice as much for an 80.

The higher the dosage, the more they make.

The more they make, the more we make.

You want to make some money?

- Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.

- [doctor] Hey, Britt.

Kansas City!

[Britt & doctor] Kansas City! [laughing]

- Shannon Shaeffer, our newest recruit.

- Hi. Shannon Shaeffer.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too!

This drug is the one to start with

and the one to stay with,

and you're gonna sell and sell and sell

and f*cking sell!

[inaudible dialogue]

You have three motorbikes in Kansas City?

Why are you not there right now?

- What stays in Kansas City

- Yeah.

- Sorry.

- [Britt] Don't worry about it.

Isn't it the doctor's job to set the dose?

Yes, it is.

Who are the doctors listening to?

Me.

- Terrific.

- You wanna f*cking sell?

You wanna make money?

Why don't you stop following me

and go get some doctors to listen to you.

f*cking make some money!

Sell! Sell! Sell! Win! Win!

You've heard the success stories.

Wouldn't you like to be

the one responsible for them?

OxyContin is the one to start with

and the one to stay with.

Did you write that?

No, Richard Sackler wrote that.

- Oh.

- Staying with it means titrating up.

See, you're here

and I'm trying to get you

here.

The more you prescribe

the more you'll help, Tim.

- Oh, we're on a first name basis?

- I think so.

- Let me think about it.

- Do you wanna think about it over lunch?

- Lunch when?

- Now.

Do you think

you're the best doctor you can be?

What does that mean?

Are you the best drug rep you can be?

Try to do my best.

Okay.

- Thank you.

- There you go. Thank you.

I just mean I'm literally showing you

a way to be better at your job and

you don't seem all that receptive to it.

- Better by prescribing more opioids?

- Yes.

You and I

have different definitions of "better."

A lot of what you do is pretty antiquated.

Ouch. Now you're calling me old?

No. But

old-fashioned maybe.

So, the more you prescribe,

the more you help, that right?

- Yes.

- Well, that is not always the case

and only one of us

went to medical school.

[Shannon] Right, you got me there.

At the end of the day, you run a business

and there is a lot more money to be made.

- Yeah, for you.

- No.

For both of us.

It was a very good time

for Richard Sackler.

Sales were rolling, cash was flowing,

and from a law enforcement perspective,

they were off the radar.

But I finally had a new boss.

He was a U.S. attorney from Virginia

named John Brownlee.

At first, his prosecutorial lethalness

wasn't readily apparent to me.

I'm working on a medical supply scam

out of Blacksburg. Wheelchairs.

Very exciting. And your fun fact?

Oh, gosh.

Um, I'm double-jointed in my left elbow.

[John] Wow. Just the left?

Uh-huh.

How about that.

Uh, seemed like a nice enough guy,

but he also seemed like

a big goofy loaf of Wonder Bread.

And you are?

- [man] Ed Bukowski.

- Hi, Ed.

I'm currently working on a chemotherapy

malpractice case out of Roanoke.

- Great. Fun fact?

- I can sing underwater.

That's a good one.

And what is your name?

Edie Flowers.

Fun fact?

It was a big moment for me.

- I don't have a fun fact.

- Everybody has a fun fact, Ms. Flowers.

I don't.

[John] Okay.

And I wanted to make an impression on him

and tell him exactly

what I was working on.

- And what are you working on?

- OxyContin.

- Oxy what?

- [Edie] A Schedule 2 narcotic.

It's being massively over-prescribed.

I'm not sure to what extent yet,

but it is highly popular.

I witnessed a robbery attempt

at a local pharmacy.

You witnessed a robbery.

Did you take it to law enforcement?

No, sir. I'm gonna stay the course.

I want to play this one through

With a robbery, you have to refer it

back to law enforcement, right?

We gotta use proper channels.

What he was saying was

"The FDA doesn't have a problem with it,

but you do."

And that's when I realized

I had to approach this another way.

I mean,

how can something legally prescribed

be k*lling so many people?

There must be a crime.

I just couldn't figure it out.

[pharmacist]

These are the doctors and patients

for prescription for OxyContin.

- Oxy what?

- [Edie] A Schedule 2 narcotic.

It's being massively over-prescribed.

[pharmacist]

If they go in for pain, they get it.

[coroner] He was DOA this morning

at Johnson Memorial.

27 years old.

- It's a shame. All these kids.

- Do you know how this feels?

[coroner] This is not the first time

you saw a body, is it?

Okay. There we are.

[coroner groans]

We're seeing it for all kinds of stuff

like back pain,

hip pain, knee pain, anything.

[coroner]

Here's something I bet you haven't seen.

There.

[Edie] What am I looking at?

[coroner] One, two, three, four, five

Oh, six. That's nothing.

Guy yesterday had 11.

- Oxy what?

- [coroner] Frost Funeral Home,

they have the record, like 18,

something scary like that.

Everybody has a fun fact, Ms. Flowers.

May I?

Mm-hm.

May I take this?

- Sure thing.

- Thanks.

That's a 60 milligram.

[coroner] Yeah.

Oxy what?

[door opens]

Two more for you, Tina.

What is this? Is this more of the same?

[coroner] Yeah.

This is this, is this, is this.

My God.

- OxyContin.

- Oxy what?

- Excuse me, sheriff?

- Ma'am.

[Edie] I'm Edie Flowers,

I'm an investigator with

the U.S. attorney's office in Roanoke.

- Do you have a second?

- Yeah. How can I help?

Could you tell me

everything you know about OxyContin?

You You like horror movies?

[hip-hop music playing faintly

over stereo]

- [car turns off]

- [music stops]

- I will.

- [doctor] Thank you!

You're really pretty, by the way.

[snorting]

[Shannon] Hey.

Hey! You all right?

Hey! You okay?

- Is your friend okay? Hey, it's okay.

- Drive, drive!

- Are you okay? Don't drive.

- Oh, sh*t.

- sh*t.

- Hey! Hey!

- [car starting]

- Tell your friend Hey, excuse me!

What are you doing? Stop!

[tires screeching]

[car horn honking]

["Kickstart My Heart"

playing over headphones]

Top fuel funny car's a drug for me

My heart, my heart ♪

Kick start my heart ♪

I need to talk to you.

Hey, hey.

- Britt.

- What's up?

I saw one of Dr. Cooper's patients,

a teenager, in the parking lot.

She walks into the office,

hobbling on crutches,

then comes out sprinting,

waving her crutches.

Bitch is totally faking it.

Gets a prescription, gets back in the car

where her 15-year-old friend is,

and they crush it and snort it,

and pass out.

I'm watching the whole thing.

I'm thinking they're dead,

then I walk over and see them,

and they were just

They were so high, and then they leave,

but they shouldn't be driving.

They go, two cars are coming

and they smash,

- and I saw it right in front of me.

- Wow!

You saw two drug addicts doing dr*gs,

that's exciting.

It was f*cking wild.

And they got it from Cooper.

Who cares? They're drug addicts.

They existed long before OxyContin

and they'll exist long after.

- His waiting room was packed.

- Good.

- You're doing your job. Congratulations.

- Yeah.

Some of them really looked

like they didn't need OxyContin.

- So, I put that in my notes.

- What?

You put it in your notes?

- Yeah.

- Did you send them in yet?

No. Why?

You did the right thing telling me.

Just give me your notes.

- Are you sure?

- Yeah, I'll handle it.

- It's not a big deal.

- Okay.

Here. Thanks. I got you.

Your job is to sell

and there are always gonna be addicts.

- That was wild.

- I'm proud of you, Shan!

You're doing great!

The genius of "is believed"

is that you don't have to prove anything.

The fact was

most people don't kick an Oxy habit

by flushing it down the toilet.

[ominous music playing]

- [Glen] Ty, what'd you just say?

- I didn't say anything.

- Can you stop?

- Can you stop for

Here we go.

[screams]

What?

All right, so,

I'll be home in like four or five hours.

- [Lily] Okay.

- Bye.

[Lily] Uh, give me a kiss.

Jesus, I gotta beg for it?

- Bye.

- Okay. See you. Love you.

- Glen. I need you to be more careful.

- [Glen] Mm-hm.

Everyone is overreacting

just a little, Doc.

I understand what happened.

What happened was, I woke up,

took the pill like it tells you.

We had a late breakfast,

the kids wouldn't get in the truck,

so there was time there, then it hit me.

- Blindsided me while I was eating

- I gotcha.

- Where are you at with the pain?

- [Glen] I mean, uh

It's gotta be like a 9, 9 and a half.

It's sh**ting up, not going anywhere.

I can't sit and drive the truck

more than a minute without just moving.

- I always have to shift

- I hear you.

- The pain is through my back.

- I hear you.

But you gotta be smart.

They say that people are starting

to chop this stuff up and snort it.

- You can get tangled up in this.

- I know.

- I'm fine.

- Okay.

But we don't want any more accidents now.

Do we?

[Glen] Only get 40?

- Forty.

- Thank you.

- Say hi to Lily.

- Will do.

[phone ringing]

- Hello?

- [Deborah] Hello, Ms. Shaeffer?

Deborah Marlowe

from Howard Udell's office.

Yes, he'd like to fly you to Connecticut

to meet with him.

I'm sorry. Mr. Udell wants to see me?

Yes, we'll take care of the flight,

arrange a car to pick you up.

- Everything will be taken care of.

- Okay.

- Is everything?

- [dial tone humming]

m*therf*ckers.

[clears throat]

Hello?

f*ck.

[video game g*nshots]

[g*nshots continue on TV]

[sighs]

[Shawn] What do you wanna say?

You changed his mind.

That's my job.

[Edie] How much did you get paid for that?

- None of your business.

- Sorry.

[Edie] When you were dealing,

when someone would

come up to you on the street to buy

[Shawn] I don't wanna talk about that.

You knew. You knew what you were selling

was gonna k*ll someone.

Who do you think you are?

How much do I make? How much do you make?

I didn't think about it.

- Why not?

- I don't know, I was a kid.

- I just wanted money.

- Money? Sure.

But how did you make peace

with what you were doing?

Are you serious now?

sh*t.

On some level, you knew

that when you handed them that bag,

someone was gonna be k*lled.

- This is cr*ck cocaine.

- [woman] cr*ck abuse.

- A national epidemic.

- I didn't k*ll anyone.

[Edie] You sold to Mom.

Mom was a crackhead

before I knew what that was.

[Bush]

It's as innocent looking as candy

but it's turning our cities

into battle zones.

You think that kid is who I am now?

That's not me.

[Edie] That is you.

And until you take responsibility

- [Shawn] What you think I'm doing in here?

- No idea.

- [Shawn] I write you letters.

- [Edie] Goodbye.

[Shawn] One day, you have to look past

my mistakes. You really gonna blame me?

[man] We have to look comprehensively

at what's happening in our nation

and our cities as it relates to crime,

v*olence, and dr*gs.

Who put the rocks in my hand?

Who gave it to them? Who made the money?

Police knew, nobody tried to stop it.

The mayor knew, everybody knew.

- You blame a teenager?

- [Edie] Doesn't make you an innocent.

- It makes you stupid.

- f*ck you.

[reporter 1 on TV] There are some

16,000 known drug addicts in Washington,

250 of them dying each year from overdose.

A friend of mine works at the morgue,

and it's a veritable conveyor belt.

[reporter 2] Because of cr*ck cocaine,

Blacks are being k*lled

and losing their families and property

in a way that,

were it done by any other

than Black people themselves,

could be called genocide.

The police can't cope,

the jails are overflowing.

It's fair to say many of the ordinary,

decent people of the inner-city

are now living in terror

- f*ck!

- and don't know where to turn.

This is gassed up, Richard.

- Okay.

- Okay?

Okay, because this is not lithium

or Valium or Percocet or Xanax.

This is This is another level.

Okay? This

This OxyContin,

this is some real big boy sh*t.

[smoke detector beeps]

And I could see it, and I could see it,

and I could see it.

And as I recognized patterns

in all that data,

in all those graphs and numbers,

I realized I had seen this before.

- [John] What is it?

- We need to talk.

If you want to fire me,

you can after 45 seconds.

- But you need to see this.

- Jesus, hell.

- This is a crime rate of 32 percent.

- [reporter 1] 156 arrests this year.

Unemployment.

[reporter 2]

plans to lay off 14,000 employees

at plants throughout the country.

[reporter 3] OxyContin, or Oxy

as it's called, is suddenly the rage.

[Edie] Overdoses.

[reporter 4] More and more patients

overdosing on OxyContin.

[Edie] Home break-ins.

[reporter 5] With a string of robberies

in the past few weeks.

[reporter 6]

It's the fastest growing drug in America.

- Grand theft auto.

- [reporter 7] 212 cars were recovered.

[reporter 8] OxyContin has become

one of America's top pain prescriptions.

Disability, insurance claims,

all on the same escalating arc.

Are you follow? Don't touch that.

- [John] Okay.

- [Edie] You following me?

- I think so.

- Now, you see this?

OxyContin sales.

[reporter 9] OxyContin has been

a multi-billion dollar product for Purdue.

[Edie] All in the state of Virginia,

and I am sure it's happening

all over the other 49.

This

is Compton, Los Angeles, 1985,

the rise of cr*ck cocaine.

Newark, the neighborhood I grew up in,

in Washington, D.C.

It is identical to where we are today.

I had lived it, we had lived it.

This was cr*ck cocaine all over again,

maybe even worse.

[Arthur] I don't like it.

- It's okay.

- I don't like it.

It's okay.

[sniffling]

This is where we are.

Okay?

This is where we are going.

We are on the verge of an epidemic.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah.

["I Put a Spell On You" playing]

[tires screeching]

[dog whimpering]

Stop the things you do ♪

Watch out, I ain't lyin' ♪

Edie, I'm an attorney.

I can't prosecute an epidemic.

So who am I supposed to go after?

I can't stand no runnin' around ♪

I can't stand no puttin' me down ♪

Let's go!

[car horn honking]

I put a spell on you ♪

[squeaks]

Because you're mine ♪

What the hell is this?

[Fitzgibbons] Jess!

Jess.

Hey! Jess!

Jess, you're cold, baby. Jess!

Jess!

Purdue f*cking Pharma.

I love you ♪

I love you ♪

I love you, yeah ♪

[Fitzgibbons] I just Jesus. Oh, my God.

[exclaims]

Call 911, Mary!

Purdue f*cking Pharma?

You're g*dd*mn right.

[sighs]

Because you're mine ♪

[tense music playing]