From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American Scandal.

Between 1999 and 2020, more than a half a million Americans died from drug overdoses involving

an opioid. The number of deaths continued to rise year after year, with about 80,000 people

dying in 2021 alone. The origin of the crisis can be traced back to the 1990s, when doctors

increasingly began prescribing opioids like oxycontin. Purdue Pharma, the company behind

oxycontin, claimed their drug was less addictive than other opioids, and that because their

painkiller had a lower potential for abuse, it could be prescribed widely, offering a revolution

in the treatment of pain. What those promises ignored a troubling reality emerging across

the country. Americans were becoming addicted to oxycontin and using the drug to get high.

And when Purdue Pharma reformulated their painkiller, making it harder to abuse, many users

turned to heroin in order to feed their addiction. According to the CDC, this second wave

of the epidemic began in 2010, with more and more Americans losing their lives to the

powerful street drug. Only three years later, in 2013, the epidemic took another turn.

Americans began dying from synthetic opioids like fentanyl, a drug that according to my

guest, reporter Julie Werner, has turned into a widespread catastrophe. Werner was a reporter

at the Wall Street Journal. She writes about health policy and medicine, and her stories

have looked closely at the evolution of America's opioid epidemic. In our conversation, we'll

discuss why fentanyl has found its way into a variety of black market drugs, and will

trace the drug's global spread from its production in China to its increasing manufacturer by

cartels in Mexico. A conversation is next.

Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could hang out with celebrities living a penthouse above

the crystal clear ocean with all your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder

...