A new piece of the opioid crisis origin story, revealed

The Uncertain Hour

Marketplace

Government, News

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2019

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We just found the answer to a really big question that’s been bugging us for years, about why the opioid crisis has hit some places so hard while other places have been relatively protected. The answer comes in the form of new academic research, that builds upon our reporting. Specifically, a secret internal marketing document from Purdue Pharma that senior producer Caitlin Esch discovered in the bowels of a county court house. She’s on this bonus episode to talk about it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Roman Mars, host of 99% Invisible.
0:03.8	It's a podcast about all the thought that goes into things most people don't even think about.
0:08.2	You're going to see stories everywhere.
0:10.3	Follow and listen to 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts.
0:14.4	Hey, uncertain hour,ight.
0:17.7	Chrissy here.
0:18.8	We are in between seasons, hard at work on season four, but we're dropping this bonus episode
0:24.7	into your ears because we just found out something fascinating that we really want to tell you
0:29.6	about.
0:30.6	It's the answer to a really big question that's been bugging us for literally years here
0:35.2	on the uncertain hour.
0:36.8	And to get you in the mood for this question, I want to play you just a little tape from
0:40.9	our reporting last season, which was of course about America's very long war on drugs.
0:46.8	One of the places we went back then was Wise County, Virginia.
0:50.2	It's a place that has been hit so, so hard by the opioid crisis.
0:54.8	The Palacho where Wise County is has for many years had some of the highest rates of opioid
1:00.0	overdose deaths in the country.
1:01.8	It's just same like one person right after the other started getting addicted.
1:07.1	My oldest brother, Donnie, passed away in 2013 from a drug overdose.
1:13.3	That's Glima Walker who lives in Wise County.
1:15.9	It wasn't just Glima's brother who struggled with opioid use.
1:19.2	Her daughter did, so did her son, and lots and lots of neighbors.
	...

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