Podcasts about pain killer an empire

The author of “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic” joins us to discuss how Oxycontin fueled the opioid crisis. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.

Welcome back to DMR  Painkiller is an American drama limited series made for Netflix. The six-episode series, which is based on Patrick Radden Keefe's New Yorker article "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain" and Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic by Barry Meier, focuses on the birth of the opioid crisis, with an emphasis on Purdue Pharma, a company owned by Richard Sackler and his family that was the manufacturer of OxyContin. The Sackler family have been described as the "most evil family in America" and "the worst drug dealers in history.This show was highly addictive, just like the drug the series makes reference to.Enjoy - DMRSupport the showMen's Suits, Tuxedos & Shirts | Men's Fashion | M.J. Bale (mjbale.com)

Barry Meier author of Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Barry Meier is a former investigative reporter at The New York Times and the author of the book, Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic, which explores how the Sackler family's greed catalyzed a plague of addiction and death that has destroyed families and whole communities across the country. Between 1999 and 2000, 564,000 Americans died from an opioid overdose. In 2020, the most recent year for which statistics are available, there were over 68,000 opioid overdoses in the U.S. That's 188 per day and each one of these deaths represents a son or daughter, a brother or sister or a mother or father, who is not coming back. People died of opioid overdoses before the 1996 launch of OxyContin, but it's clear that Oxy and Purdue Pharma's (owned by the Sacklers) aggressive and deceptive marketing practices threw gasoline on a spark that has turned into a raging wildfire. In 2023, Netflix will launch a miniseries based on Pain Killer. In our conversation today, Barry and I discuss the Sacklers' family legacy of ethically dubious marketing of pharmaceuticals and how they made tens of billions of dollars selling OxyContin using the same techniques, like pushing free samples, knowing that the drug was quite addictive. We discuss how and why the FDA approved claims that OxyContin was less prone to addiction in the complete absence of evidence proving that it actually was. And lastly, we discuss the extent to which OxyContin kicked off this opioid epidemic for which there is no clear way out.

Drug companies are facing thousands of lawsuits over their alleged roles in the nation's opioid crisis. According to government data, opioid overdoses have claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people since 1999.Joining Nancy Grace to discuss:Dr. William Morrone: Medical Examiner in Bay County Michigan, Chief Medical Officer for Recovery Pathways; created NEW portable treatment center Dr. Judith Joseph: Psychiatrist, Principal Investigator at Manhattan Behavioral Medicine Mark Tate: Represents Chatham County, South Carolina; suing opioid manufacturers Jeff Cortese: Former Special Agent FBI, former acting Chief of the FBI's Public Corruption Unit,Barry Meier: Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter for The New York Times, author of "Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the origin of America's Opioid Epidemic"

The episode discusses the origins of the opioid crisis, and the role played by the Sackler family (now worth multi-billions), the FDA, and bad actors in the medical and pharmacy professions. References: Keefe, Patrick Radden. "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain Macy, Beth. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America. https://www.amazon.com/Dopesick-Dealers-Doctors-Company-Addicted/dp/0316551244 Meier, Barry. Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic. https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Killer-Empire-Americas-Epidemic/dp/0525511105 National Geographic. "This Is What Happens to Your Brain on Opioids." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDVV_M__CSI

The family that built its fortune on the opioid painkiller OxyContin has never been held legally accountable for the epidemic that the drug helped unleash. Here’s why that could change. Guest: Barry Meier, the author of “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic,” who has reported on the opioid crisis for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Barry Meier on the addictive nature of opioids and narcotics ~ "The fact is that any type of opioid or narcotic, once you begin to take it, your body physically adjusts to it. It's a very natural process called tolerance, so if you're getting say a specific level of pain relief from, let's say, 40 milligrams of the drug, you're going to soon need more of the drug to get the same level of pain relief, so doctors kept having to ramp up and ramp up their patients' dosages." Barry Meier - New York Times Reporter and Author of "Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic" in studio with host, Brian Wilson Brian Wilson Few people have devoted as much time to studying the origins of the opioid crisis as Barry Meier. As the author of "Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic" Meier initially explored this as a reporter for the New York Times. His book came out in 2003. Still some 15 years later he found there was much more to the story. This led Meier to revisit his work and update more than a decade of developments in a riveting rewrite. Barry Meier: In the early going it was quite remarkable, because when I first started on the story I knew nothing about opioids; I knew nothing about pain treatment. I had done some stories about the pharmaceutical industry, and this whole story came to light with the emergence and appearance of the drug OxyContin. OxyContin was very much the seed that launched this whole opioid epidemic, and back in 2001 there was an outbreak of abuse of this new drug OxyContin. Brian Wilson Where was it coming from? Barry Meier: Well, the drug was made in Connecticut by a small company named Purdue Pharma, and marketed very aggressively by the company: Male Speaker 1: I got my life back now. Now I can enjoy every day that I live. I can really enjoy myself. Female Speaker 1: Since I've been on this new pain medication I've not missed one day of work and my boss really appreciates that. Lauren is there every day. Female Speaker 2: Life is wonderful again. I've found life again, and it's worth living now, and I'm so grateful. Barry Meier: But the abuse was turning up in places like Maine and Appalachia and very rural parts of the United States. Brian Wilson I have seen maps that suggest there is a huge problem throughout the Appalachians. Barry Meier: Well, in the early 2000s I would say that was part of the epicenter of the opioid epidemic or what was then basically an opioid crisis, and you had what we would refer to as hot spots, where you had these outbreaks of OxyContin abuse, so I remember when I was starting to report on the story you'd see local newspapers, and I mean small town newspapers in tiny little towns and cities throughout Virginia and West Virginia and Kentucky, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, there'd be stories about scattered arrests of drug dealers or drug users, and maybe the occasional arrest of a doctor for running a so-called pill mill, essentially like a medical practice where you could come in and say, "Boy, my shoulder hurts me," or, "My back hurts me, and I heard about this drug called OxyContin. My friend told me it really works great for pain," and the doctor would write you a prescription for it. Brian Wilson Were there other ways that it was making its way into the public? Barry Meier: Essentially OxyContin was a very unique drug. It was a drug that was marketed as a long-acting pain reliever. Most traditional narcotic pain relievers last four hours. OxyContin was promoted as lasting 10-12 hours, but what was remarkable about OxyContin is that it's manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, was able to get a claim from the FDA that because it was a so-called long-acting drug it was less likely to be abused than shorter acting drugs like Percocet and Vicodin. The sales reps for this company went out to doctors, to pharmacists, to whomever, and were promoting this drug as a drug that couldn't be...

Prosecutors, seeking to hold someone accountable for the opioid epidemic, have been targeting doctors, dealers and users themselves. But those who made billions of dollars from sales of OxyContin, a painkiller at the center of the crisis, have gone largely unpunished. Guest: Barry Meier, the author of “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic,” who has reported on Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.