Hillbilly Heroin: The Killer Addiction
Hello everybody! Welcome back to my blog!! This week I watched the first part of the documentary, THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY, and learned a lot of new information. This week’s blog will focus on the information presented in this documentary. Did you know opium has been used since 3,400 B.C. and in 1839 it was the world’s most traded commodity?
Opium became a major problem in the 2000s due to the company Purdue Pharma, which is owned by the Sackler family. The family consisted of three brothers, Arthur, Raymond, and Mortimer, who were doctors and were searching for an alternative treatment to electrotherapy. They began to push the drug Valium, which treated anxiety and seizures, and bought a medical advertisement company in order to advertise their product. Their company hired fake doctors and bought off FDA officials in order to promote their drug and became rich. The brothers would die before the invention of OxyContin but had created the world where the drug could be successful.
MsContin is basically morphine but Contin, short for continuous, allows the chemical to enter slowly, continuously, and for a long period of time. OxyCodone is much stronger than morphine as well as highly addictive and Purdue Pharma’s patent on OxyCodone was about to expire meaning other companies could create generic brands and their profits would decrease. The company decided to make OxyCodone with the Contin system, creating OxyContin or “hillbilly heroin,” its street name. Purdue Pharma would take an aggressive promotion tactic and constantly be sending out representatives, who had no medical knowledge, to talk to doctors and would always promote the fact that its slow continuous release wouldn’t get users addicted, which is a lie. The representatives were encouraged to sell as much OxyContin as possible as they got bonuses depending on how much they sold. They were very well prepared and had video tapes, manuals, posters, and would push the narrative that physicians were bad doctors if they didn’t prescribe this drug. The company began to get reports that users were becoming addicted, prompting them to make up the term “pseudoaddiction” which describes a person whose pain is untreated and their behavior resembles someone who is addicted. To “fix” pseudoaddiction Purdue recommended doctors prescribe a higher dosage and continue to up the quantity until their patients were satisfied. The company was fined by the government but never took responsibility for their actions and continued to argue that the drug did not cause addiction.
While watching this documentary, I was disgusted as this company and their representatives could blatantly lie about how harmful a drug was for money. It is estimated that since 2000 more than 500,000 Americans have died of opioid overdose and it’s crazy how greed can have such a monumental effect. This week I will be watching part two, continuing my readings, and meeting with a sergeant from the Goodyear Police Department to discuss my project. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week!
THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY. (2021). HBO Documentary Films.