Empire of pain: The Sacklers and the opioid crisis
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2021
⏱️ 39 minutes
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Summary
Once hailed as a pain obliterating wonder drug, OxyContin helped give birth to one of the most devastating public health crises in the developed world.
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Guests: Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker staff writer and author of Empire of Pain.
Host: David Aaronovitch.
Clips used: CBS News, CNN, C-Span, France 24, Kentucky Attorney General, KSBY, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, MSNBC, NBC News, Newsy, PBS, Purdue Pharma, Reuters, Tylenol, Vice, WAVY TV, WMUR TV.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Between 1999 and 2018, some 450,000 people died in the US from an opioid overdose involving |
| 0:15.0 | prescription drugs like Oxycontin or illicit opioids. |
| 0:19.8 | Before ever the coronavirus killed nearly 600,000 Americans, |
| 0:24.6 | there was another epidemic sweeping through the country. |
| 0:27.6 | It's important to recognize that today we are seeing more people killed |
| 0:34.6 | because of opioid overdose, then traffic accidents. |
| 0:40.8 | Every 19 minutes, someone dies from an accidental drug overdose. |
| 0:45.0 | Most of the time, it's from prescription drugs like oxycodone or hydrocodone. |
| 0:49.2 | Once hailed as a pain-obliterating wonder drug, |
| 0:53.1 | Oxycontin helped give birth to one of the most devastating |
| 0:56.9 | public health crises in the developed world. |
| 1:00.2 | To me, this is a story. It's a kind of a family saga about the Sacklers. It's a crime story |
| 1:05.9 | about their company, which committed federal crimes for years. But it's also a story about |
| 1:10.5 | systemic failure. |
| 1:12.2 | A new book on America's opioid catastrophe tells the story of the family behind the |
| 1:18.0 | pharmaceutical company that created OxyContin and their culpability for the carnage their product |
| 1:24.7 | wrought. |
| 1:26.1 | You're listening to stories of our Times, |
| 1:28.0 | from the Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 1:29.6 | I'm David O'Ronovich. |
| 1:31.2 | Today, Empire of Pain, |
| 1:34.1 | the Sacklers and the Opioid Crisis. |
... |
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