USA. Opioid Crisis: Filmmaker Details The Medical System's 'Crime Of The Century'
USA. Opioid Crisis: Filmmaker Details The Medical System's 'Crime Of The Century'
The opioid crisis in the U.S. has never gone away.
Almost every year, more people die of opioid overdoses than in the year before. More than a half-million people have died from prescription painkillers, heroin and illicit fentanyl since 1999. Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 66,000 people died of an opioid overdose in the U.S. in the 12 months to September 2020, a huge jump from the previous 12 months.
It's not just a crisis destroying communities and plunging countless people into addiction, but is also a crime, says documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney. His new documentary on HBO is called The Crime of the Century.
It's a crime, he says, that was committed by pharmaceutical companies, distributors, pharmacists and doctors, all looking to profit. (npr – National Public Radio, USA, 10.05.2021)
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/10/994833938/opioid-crisis-filmmaker-details-the-medical-systems-crime-of-the-century