Dopesick is a terrifying look at the opioid epidemic. Based on Beth Macy’s non-fiction book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America, this miniseries explores the psychology behind Purdue Pharma’s desire for the next blockbuster drug and how that led to well-meaning doctors – like Dr. Samuel Finnix (Michael Keaton, Batman) – unwittingly encouraging opioid dependency.
At times Dopesick is infuriating; it moves slowly to show the people of rural America, specifically of a small Pennsylvania mining town, and their lives before Oxycontin induced a descent into addiction. These scenes are interspersed with those of the Saklers’ plight as the owners of the largest privately-owned pharmaceutical company with a popular drug about to lose its patent and no new drugs in the pipeline.
If the opioid epidemic wasn’t acutely felt to this day, the Saklers would have all the characteristics of a good Bond villain. Instead, the family’s gross indifference toward people is appalling. Initially, there are hints that Richard Sackler (Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name) thinks he is the good guy in the battle against chronic pain. By the middle of the second episode, it becomes clear that he knows that his actions are evil when he decides that they need to create a new condition to convince doctors to prescribe Oxycontin. Purdue Pharma decides to brand this condition “breakthrough pain,” which is the sensation felt when a pain killer wears off before the next dose. Richard Sackler conveniently decides that the solution is to double a patient’s Oxycontin dose every time their drug tolerance increases.
The worst part is that the DEA knows the Sacklers’ actions are suspicious. Even the FDA, which approved the drug, suspects quid pro quo in the approval of a special label for Oxycontin that says it was a less addictive opioid. The Sacklers use this to convince skeptical doctors that Oxycontin is safer than traditional opioids because it is time-released, making it non-addictive because less than 1% of patients become addicted. Later, we find out that the Saklers’ knew this was patently untrue.
While the doctors are suspicious, Purdue Pharma wines and dines them so much that doctors’ defensive mechanisms get worn down through constant interaction with sales reps. Once Purdue’s sales reps get these doctors to conferences on pain management, they flatter unsuspecting doctors with spur-of-the-moment invitations to speak on stage about the wonders of Oxycontin and all the good Purdue Pharma has done for the chronic pain epidemic.
The entire miniseries unfolds over the course of decades. However, every few minutes the writers jump back and forth between Dopesick’s present, past, and somewhere in between. Despite the attempt to create the illusion of action, the mini-series meanders because there is nothing exciting about a real-life company lying to doctors and slowly killing people through addiction, or about the billionaires behind the problem getting away with their crime through settlements.
To be fair to everyone involved in Dopesick, the series should be viewed in business ethics classes and will probably be an easier watch in a decade from now, when Purdue Pharma’s actions are part of history.
