Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series real time with Bill Maugh.

Okay, all right, here we are. Richard, did you rejoin us? Oh great. Our pharmaceutical

companies to blame for the increased prescription drug overdoses. Sure, let's blame them.

Partly? Yeah, I mean, they're in it for the money, right? I mean, that's...

Exactly. But that's what people don't... Yeah, they're in it to save, no, they're

in it to the money. But it's more like our president and the drugs are,

Botticelli, right? Their souls are good, I think. I think they're good people who

want to do a good job for the American people. And over here you have these heads of

pharmaceutical companies and they feel like quarter over quarter year over year,

their bottom line is like air that they need to breathe. So if you have somebody who wants

to do a good job for the country versus someone who wants to survive, you're not...

Well, wait, let's be... I think we should be clear. The drugs are is an awful person,

it's an awful office that should not exist. Right. We have a drug policy.

Yes. And the entire legal infrastructure is set up to treat us as children. It gives

pharmaceutical companies more power, it gives the FDA more, it makes it more difficult

to come out as an addict or having a substance abuse problem. So the government is

implicated here too. And you know, what we need to do, we've grown up on many issues, I think,

in the country and we're starting to undrugs. And... But it's the carcerial state that

gets in the way of all of this type of stuff. Whether or not... Portugal legalized all drugs.

And... I get what you're saying. And drug abuse rates plummeted, crime,

associated drugs, fell, addiction rates fell, I think legalized all drugs.

Look, I understand, look, I'm not an advocate for jail, an advocate for treatment.

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