DOPESICK
THE STORY OF HOW A RICH FAMILY BECAME
BILLIONAIRES AS LEGAL DRUG PUSHERS
By armen pandola
Addiction. It’s something that happens to other people, right? You do what your doctor tells you and don’t take anything illegal and you’ll be alright. OK, maybe you’ll be ‘addicted’ to chocolate or ice cream or watching football, but that won’t kill you.
Last year, 100,000 Americans died from a drug overdose. In Europe, less than 5 per 100000 die of overdoses. In the US, over 21 per 100000 die. And the reason isn’t because we are differently made than Europeans - the reason is the story told in the HULU limited series, Dopesick.
In the mid-1990s, Purdue Pharma, owned privately by the Sackler Family, released a powerful opioid pain killer, Oxycontin (for a closer look at this company and the Sacklers, take a look at my review of the excellent book, Empire of Pain). Twice as powerful as morphine, the Sacklers maneuvered to get the FDA not only to approve the drug but to label it as non-addictive. While meant to be used only for extreme pain (as morphine is), the FDA label saying it was non-addictive and the Purdue Pharma marketing campaign made oxycontin one of the most popular drugs in America. And while it was easy to abuse Oxycontin, even those who used it as prescribed ended up addicted to it and many died.
Created by Danny Strong (Recount, Empire), and based on a book by Beth Macy, Dopesick features a great cast headed by Michael Keaton who plays a small town doctor in Appalachia. The story has four threads - Keaton and his patients who work mostly in the coal mining industry, Rosario Dawson who leads the push within the various governmental agencies to get oxycontin properly labeled and prescribed for very serious pain only, Peter Sarsgaard and John Hoogenakker who lead the legal battle to get the Sacklers to pay for what they did and Michael Stuhlbarg who plays Richard Sackler and heads the Sackler Family-owned Purdue Pharma.
The series starts slowly, weaving all its various stories together and firmly establishing the central theme - addiction not only destroys lives, it destroys communities too. There is a clunky device of a new scene starting and the years flying by on the screen to the new time in which it takes place. In fact, the timeline doesn’t matter to the basic story so don’t worry if you lose track of the year - it’s almost impossible to keep track. There’s an attempt to go back to the ‘beginning’ when Richard Sackler’s uncle, the family’s founder and the man who bought Purdue Pharma when it was a small company making laxatives, Arthur Sackler appeared before a Senate Committee to defend his marketing of valium in the 1960s. It’s a segment that doesn’t fit into the four-part story being told since Dopesick isn’t concerned with the Sackler family per se, but only the branch of it that created and marketed oxycontin and in the process made themselves billionaires.
There are so many excellent performances that it is difficult to pick out any one standout, but in addition to the main players named above, Will Poulter and Phillipa Soo, play Purdue pharmaceutical reps in the series with different outlooks on what is acceptable in the pursuit of riches and Kaitlyn Dever gives an excellent performance as a coal miner who gets injured on the job and is prescribed Oxycontin by Keaton then becomes addicted, while her parents, played by Ray McKinnon and Mare Winningham, desperately try to save her the only way they know how - prayer. And seeing that name, Mare, I have to say this - this is sooooo much better than the over-hyped and simple-minded Mare of Easttown - read my review of that turkey to spice up your holiday - and watch Dopesick.
Genre: Drama
Network: Hulu
All episodes now available
Executive producers: Beth Macy, Warren Littlefield, Danny Strong, John Goldwyn, Karen Rosenfelt, Barry Levinson, Michael Keaton
11/20/2022