The Pharmacist (2020) s01e04 Episode Script
Tunnel of Hope
1 [papers rustling.]
[ambient instrumentals.]
[interviewer.]
Tell me about that day.
[sighs.]
That was probably the most difficult day of my life.
[distant sirens.]
[reporter.]
Today, the State Board of Medical Examiners summarily suspended Dr.
Jacqueline Cleggett.
Cleggett's lawyer tells us he'll be asking for a full hearing tomorrow.
[Cleggett.]
I spent a very, very long time to become a physician.
Too many hardships I had to endure to actually get to where I was to have it snatched away.
My desire to become a physician started when I was eight years old.
I wanted to help people.
Simple as that.
Chronic pain is subjective.
You must rely on the patient's explanation, because often there are no physical signs that you can objectively diagnose.
In other words, your pain is what you say it is.
In seeking to help patients, you try to provide the best possible resource to them.
OxyContin was very effective.
So that's why that drug was selected.
[interviewer.]
Do you remember any of your patients dying? Do you have specific patients in mind? [mechanical clicking and whirring.]
[mellow instrumentals.]
[mellow instrumentals fade.]
[slide clicks.]
[ambient instrumentals.]
[George.]
After Dr.
Cleggett's license was suspended you have to give the physician a due process hearing within 90 days of the time that you summarily suspend.
So the clock is ticking.
In the complaint, there are well over 100 factual allegations.
Fifty, sixty pages.
Family members contacted Dr.
Cleggett and tried to get her to agree to quit treating their son or daughter or husband because they were addicted and impaired, and they were misusing their medications, and they got no, um, response from Dr.
Cleggett.
Or if they got a response, it was negative.
We had affidavits from coroners, uh, DEA people, you know, narcotics agents.
They see young people with foam coming out of their mouths.
[distant sirens whooping.]
OxyContin bottles with Dr.
Cleggett's name on it strewn on the floor.
I had all of that ready to go and I was ready to move.
[cars rushing past.]
[Dan.]
I got a phone call from the medical board, asking me if I might give a deposition against Dr.
Cleggett, who was trying to get her license back.
The deposition was the first time I sat down across from Dr.
Cleggett.
Her attorney was trying to belittle me.
He painted this picture that I wasn't able to catch my son's addiction before he died.
And that I would have done anything to put her out of business to make up for my son's death.
Her attorney says "Mr.
Schneider, what length would you have gone to to put her out of business? What would you have spent to put her out of business?" And I said "What's a life worth?" [George.]
We had a hearing set.
And a few days before the hearing, we get word Dr.
Cleggett has been admitted to DePaul-Tulane Behavioral Center for opiate abuse and cannot attend the hearing.
[Patricia.]
DEA had information from some patients who said that Dr.
Cleggett not only gave out prescription drugs, she used prescriptions.
[car rushes past.]
[Iris.]
On one occasion, while we were conducting observation, I saw Dr.
Cleggett taking pills herself when arriving at the clinic.
We got a search warrant to search her home.
In plain view, there were numerous bottles of prescription medication, some with pills in 'em, some empty.
just laying around in Dr.
Cleggett's home.
[interviewer.]
So you were never self-medicating? [Cleggett.]
Mm-mm.
Mm-mm.
[interviewer.]
You didn't suffer from addiction? No.
I was never addicted.
[ambient instrumentals.]
[George.]
After Dr.
Cleggett was admitted into DePaul and her abuse was well-documented Dr.
Cleggett and her attorney were agreeable to the total termination of her medical license without having to admit any wrongdoing.
[Iris.]
Dr.
Cleggett's license was revoked in 2003.
However, it was years later before the US Attorney indicted her.
[Cleggett.]
When you see your name versus the United States of America if that doesn't strike fear into your heart, I don't know what will.
"So the entire country's against me?" [Patricia.]
She was one of the first doctors the US Attorney's office prosecuted.
[Dan.]
I was given a subpoena.
And they asked me to bring everything I had done, through either the medical board or the FBI or the DEA.
And I was basically told when I got there that I was probably the primary witness.
And shortly after that, I found out that there were other cases against Dr.
Cleggett.
[Chris.]
I was an operative of Purdue Pharma but I was subpoenaed individually.
I don't know if it was a group of patients that got together and they were suing her and somehow or another my name got tangled up in this, or if it was kind of a blanket action to get Purdue reps, to get them to answer questions about the territory in general.
But it wasn't, "Purdue Pharma and Chris.
" So I had to go show up.
The questions revolved around, "What do you know about Dr.
Cleggett? What do you know about the promotion of OxyContin in this territory?" I answered the questions.
I answered honestly.
And I remember being relieved when I walked out.
And I remember having my mind made up when I walked out that I got to get the fuck away from this because I'm not going any deeper than where I am right now.
[Iris.]
Right before the indictment I heard that Dr.
Cleggett was in a car accident.
[tires skidding.]
[crashing and shattering.]
[distant sirens wailing.]
[Cleggett.]
I was asleep on the passenger side.
The driver took out a section of trees, going at approximately 80 miles an hour.
They said I nearly died in that crash.
They were correct.
I had a hangman's fracture, which is what happens when you hang from a noose and break your neck.
I suffered the exact same injury in the car accident.
- [machine beeps faintly.]
- I had two brain hemorrhages five skull fractures.
The reason why I sound different is because I was intubated for six weeks.
My voice is now higher and squeakier.
Following the accident I was prescribed OxyContin.
And, no, I didn't have any problems with it.
Actually it helped alleviate a lot of pain.
[Patricia.]
At the time, she was partially paralyzed, but Dr.
Cleggett eventually was brought to trial for the operation of her pain clinic.
[George.]
The criminal prosecution placed Dr.
Cleggett at risk for somewhere around 20 years of incarceration and fines of around a million dollars.
[Iris.]
She was originally charged with 37 counts of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances for no medical purpose.
[Patricia.]
Because she was in this terrible automobile accident, her attorney worked out a plea agreement with the US Attorney's office.
[Iris.]
She was charged with only one count of conspiracy to prescribe a controlled substance without a legitimate medical purpose.
Which, in fact, means she was not practicing medicine, period.
[dramatic instrumentals.]
[Cleggett.]
I pleaded guilty to one count even though I knew that I had not done what they stated I had done.
Due to her impairment from the car accident, she did not do any prison time and was on probation for three years.
She didn't go to jail.
But part of her plea agreement was to agree never to operate a pain clinic ever again.
[Cleggett.]
Sometimes, I actually have dreams about practicing medicine.
And for a few moments, when I wake up it seems that dream is actually real.
But that's a dream about the past.
A dream that I can never get back.
Her punishment did not fit the crime.
And I'll leave it at that.
Yeah.
[birds trilling.]
[Dan.]
After Dr.
Cleggett got shut down I felt like I had accomplished my mission.
And I thought that might be the end of this.
That wasn't the end.
That was the beginning.
[tense instrumentals.]
[Dan.]
It was like a cancer.
It metastasized.
[M.
.]
Pills were just readily available.
Pill mills were, you know, kind of popping up all over the place.
[Dan.]
It seemed like they were replicating Dr.
Cleggett's business model, okay? So many addicts had been created and people knew there was real money to be made off every one of them.
[reporter 1.]
How easy is it to open and run a clinic? According to the DEA, just about anyone who's willing to fill out the paperwork and pay the taxes can do it.
[man.]
You go to the Sheriff's Office and make an application for an occupational license and you agree to pay sales tax and you're issued a license and you can open a clinic.
[Billy.]
I was really disappointed in the doctors.
They had sworn to do no harm.
They had been trained all their lives to help people and here they were killing people.
[reporter 2.]
Every week, the DEA sees one or two applications from people trying to open up new pain clinics in the New Orleans area.
[man.]
We now estimate that there's 60 and the number is growing.
But this problem has reached crisis proportions.
[faint ticking.]
[Dan.]
More than 60 pain clinics had popped up.
And fatal overdoses doubled in St.
Bernard.
- [somber instrumentals.]
- [tape clicking.]
A lot of people felt it was a hopeless situation.
But I saw the drug problem as a dark tunnel that we were in.
And I had a dream that maybe, just maybe, there could be light at the end of the tunnel or somehow we could create some light at the end of the tunnel.
[wind rushing.]
In St.
Bernard Parish, there's a stretch of trees that forms a tunnel.
We call it the tunnel of oaks.
Danny and I would be in the Mustang and we would ride through that beautiful tunnel.
It was always part of a route that we would take, what we called "down the road.
" I saw it as a symbol of hope.
So I started calling this mission that I was on, "The Tunnel of Hope.
" [Annie.]
We never had all the answers we wanted, why Danny got killed that night.
But Danny was still on a mission to help other parents with kids that have drug problems.
'Cause we didn't want that to happen to their families.
[Dan.]
I had a chance to save a bunch of kids.
I wanted to do something for my community.
[water rushing.]
[Dan.]
Apparently, most people are like I was in the past.
And they just let everything slide.
Everything just kind of goes by 'em.
I have a little saying.
Some people watch things happen.
Some people make things happen.
And some people say, "What happened?" And I'm in a "make happen" stage.
I'm speaking out.
I plan to speak at schools.
We gotta try to make a difference against incredible odds again.
And Danny's right by our side.
[Dan.]
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all.
I'm here representing my family, including my son, to deliver this message and see if we can't make a difference.
[Dan.]
I started talking to kids on a regular basis.
And Robbie, many times, would show up in a supportive fashion and be part of the audience.
[Robbie.]
Something had to change.
You had young teenagers just looking to get high.
Now they're starting with something that could kill 'em on the first dose.
[Dan.]
Danny had talked to me about marijuana, saying it was safe and saying, "But, Dad, I wouldn't go any further.
" [stammers.]
And every person And every person that goes further, do you think that any of them think it's going to lead to death or them being in jail? Not one of 'em.
[Annie.]
After he talked at some of the schools he almost became a mentor to some of the kids, 'cause they would call him up on the phone.
I remember, one night, we were sleeping, it was like two o'clock in the morning.
The phone rang and it was this kid that needed to talk to Danny.
[Dan.]
What I want to point out to y'all in the audience is this: If I asked you to look at the ten people around you which of your friends do you think would be the one that would screw up? You might form an opinion on that, but it'd be curious, because if you ask the person you picked they might pick you.
It can happen to any one of you.
We've got to reverse the trend.
[Dan.]
2004, 2005, I was developing a lot of momentum.
People started to know kind of who I was and what was going on.
[dramatic instrumentals.]
I was writing articlesin the newspaper.
[paper rustling.]
I wrote lettersto a number of politicians trying to motivate somebody to try to reduce this problem.
Could we get the pharmaceutical manufacturers at least to maybe pay for some of this carnage? We worked on pain clinic law.
We worked on pain clinic moratoriums.
I not only wanted to change St.
Bernard, I wanted to change the country.
That was my dream.
I was feeling good about where I was going with my mission, and so I scheduled a town hall meeting.
We were getting very, very close, uh, to that meeting.
We had a date scheduled, I'd already printed materials on it.
And then we heard about a hurricane that was out in the Gulf.
[droning instrumentals.]
[reporter 1.]
There's been a subtle change in the track of this, which may mean [reporter 2.]
Hurricane Katrina continues to move west, taking aim at southeast Louisiana.
[Jack.]
My cell phone rings, "Is this Sheriff Stephens?" I say, "Yes.
" He says, "I'm with the National Hurricane Center.
I'm sorry to have to make this call.
" He said, "But you're gonna have a 30-foot wall of water hit your parish tomorrow.
You're gonna flood levy to levy and there's not going to be a structure spared.
And you're gonna have significant loss of life.
God bless you and good luck," and they hung the phone up.
[reporter 3.]
If persons haven't evacuated by now they need to leave immediately.
[reporter 4.]
It is a 100% probability.
For God's sake, if you're listening to this broadcast right now, get out.
[Dan.]
The news people had kind of warned some major damage might happen.
- [wind whipping.]
- But we just could not envision the entire St.
Bernard [water rushes.]
[reporter 5.]
The levy breach has occurred along the industrial canal.
[reporter 6.]
There's gotta be a break in the levy somewhere 'cause the water's still coming up.
- [man 1.]
Oh, no! - [water splashes.]
Here it comes, up the front door.
It broke the front door.
[woman 1.]
Oh, God.
I can't believe this.
[wind and water roaring.]
[man 2.]
There were four houses over there.
Now they're gone.
All four of them.
Oh, Jesus Christ! Moving right down the Bayou.
[woman 2.]
Oh, God, please let it stop.
[helicopter propeller thumping.]
[somber instrumentals.]
[Jack.]
Look at that car.
You see? It was halfway on the roof.
- [Dan.]
Was it? Okay.
- Yeah.
Come back, you might see it.
[Dan.]
Entering St.
Bernard Parish for the first time.
[Kristi.]
Hopefully entering St.
Bernard Parish.
[Dan.]
Unbelievable.
Never realized how much I cared for this community until this happened.
Everything has been destroyed.
Totally destroyed.
[Jack.]
It was the largest natural disaster in the country's history at that point.
[Annie.]
Here's our house.
There's Kristi, with her boots, going in.
[water sloshes.]
[Kristi.]
Holy crap.
I'm going down.
[Dan.]
Good Lord.
Look at that! Came right through the ceiling.
- [Annie.]
What? - [Dan.]
Yeah.
[Annie.]
Kristi's trying to go upstairs.
[crackling.]
[Annie.]
Okay, wait a minute.
[all.]
Merry Christmas! [Dan.]
It's Danny.
He's up.
[Kristi.]
That was the only house I ever lived in my entire life.
Ta-da! All the memories with my brother were there and [footsteps crunch on rubble.]
[plastic wheels rattle.]
[indistinct chatter.]
[group.]
Happy birthday to you [Dan.]
All of St.
Bernard had pain and anguish, just like us.
And, unfortunately, a lot of people turned to OxyContin to cope.
[cars rumbling.]
[Jack.]
When we were starting to rebuild this place, the melancholy and the grief and the depression after Katrina was unbelievable.
They had more people turn to drugs and alcohol after that storm than you could ever imagine.
People you would never assume would take pills to survive were doing it.
[Chris.]
St.
Bernard is blue collar.
A lot of 'em got hurt doing manual labor.
[machinery beeps.]
So, the demand was there.
There were doctors that were willing to supply that demand.
It's a perfect storm.
- [dramatic instrumentals.]
- [statistics ticking.]
[Dan.]
After Katrina, it was amazing that the hundred-year oak trees survived.
The Tunnel of Hope survived.
I knew my mission had to go on.
[Annie.]
When Katrina came, almost all of Danny's documents and everything was upstairs in the attic.
Everything in the attic got saved.
And it was amazing, 'cause everything else pretty much was destroyed.
[Dan.]
And so I felt God wanted me to do something beyond Cleggett.
- [rustles papers.]
- OxyContin was still out there.
The only way we could make a serious dent in this was to go at the source.
Something had to be done about Purdue Pharma.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
In 2007, Purdue Pharma was convicted of misrepresenting the abuse liability, or the addictive potential of OxyContin.
[Brownlee.]
Purdue's marketing of OxyContin was deceptive and criminal.
It is important to note that most of the people never claimed that Purdue was solely responsible for their loved one's death.
They just wanted Purdue to tell the truth about the drug.
[Chris.]
The patients were told, "This has lower addictive qualities.
" Compared to fucking what? You know, I mean, that's a serious question.
Compared to what? [Dan.]
Their executives were slapped on the wrist, okay? The company had to pay 600 million dollars in fines, but these guys never really accepted responsibility for the opiate epidemic that they helped create.
Even after the Purdue executives plead guilty in 2007, they didn't stop promoting OxyContin.
They promoted it harder than ever.
[dramatic instrumentals continue.]
[Chris.]
Somebody should have said, "Whoa.
" Somebody should have pumped the fucking brakes and said "Whoa, we got problems.
" You know? "We got problems, Houston.
We're leaking oil.
" [Dan.]
I finally came to the conclusion that Purdue Pharma was not gonna stop what they were doing.
But maybe we could stop the prescription problem, which was producing addicts.
What can we do to curb pill-mill doctors? [radio DJ.]
This hour, we're talking about Are these pain control clinics out of control? These are prescriptions that are filled at pharmacies.
[Dan.]
Exactly.
And we're not in a position to know whether or not these people are seeing more than one doctor.
[DJ.]
What do they call it? Drug shopping? [Dan.]
Drug shopping, doctor shopping.
- [DJ.]
Doctor shopping.
Yeah.
- Correct.
[Dan.]
I was advocating for a prescription monitoring program.
I didn't invent this thing, but I saw it in some other states and on the news.
And I started saying, "God, this is a great idea.
" I wrote a letter to the pharmacy board.
And it was just weeks later, they came back and said, "We have listened to your proposition, we agree with you and we're gonna do it.
" [Iris.]
With the prescription monitoring program, we didn't have to go to pharmacies.
We could see it on one computer-generated print-out.
The PMP made it a lot easier to prosecute doctors.
[reporter 1.]
Two pain management clinics are the targets of raids by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
[reporter 2.]
Dr.
Richard Paolino was charged with more than 1,000 counts of fraud associated with OxyContin prescriptions.
[Dan.]
We finally started curtailing doctors a little bit to reduce the OxyContin that they wrote.
[reporter 3.]
The 61-year-old physician was basically a drug dealer with a medical license.
[M.
.]
OxyContin began getting restricted.
Pharmacies were refusing to fill certain prescriptions.
It was just getting harder for people that were addicted to get those opioids prescribed.
So people moved to heroin.
[Chris.]
People get addicted and then the supply goes away.
So what happens when the supply goes away? People find a new supply, because they're addicted and they don't have any other options.
[Jack.]
The drug cartels saw an opportunity to fill an enormous vacuum with the interruption of the pill mills.
Then, all of a sudden, we've got as bad a drug problem as we've ever had.
[Diane Sawyer.]
We want to tell you about a skyrocketing threat in suburban communities across the country tonight.
[reporter 4.]
The explosion of heroin isn't by accident.
The prescription monitoring program has turned opiate addicts who can't get their fix in a pill form to heroin.
[reporter 5.]
Cheaper than prescription pills, heroin gives users the same fix, but at a significantly lower cost.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
Prescription opioids became the gateway to heroin addiction.
Seventy-five percentof heroin users said the first opioid they ever used was a prescription opioid.
[M.
.]
When you're getting something legal from a doctor with a legitimate prescription it's not like, you know, going into the city and buying heroin on the street, which is illegal.
[stammers.]
It's dirtierto people.
[indistinct chatter.]
But an addict is an addict, and if you put a heroin addict and an OxyContin addict in a room for a few days, using, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart, because it does the same exact thing.
[gurney rattles.]
[indistinct radio chatter.]
[Dan.]
Just when I thought I was getting everything maybe resolved I saw so many unintended consequences.
Now they're going to heroin! It was almost like "Did I do the right thing?" [sirens whooping.]
Prescription drugs, at least they know what they're getting.
[indistinct dispatch chatter.]
[Jack.]
There was unfamiliarity with the drug and our overdose episodes just went through the roof.
[officer 1.]
Get him on the ground.
[Jack.]
It was alarming.
It was It was a shock.
[officer 2.]
Come on, buddy.
Come on.
[Jack.]
We're losing more people every year.
[officer 3.]
Jay, wake up.
[Iris.]
Drugs come in seasons.
First, it was OxyContin season.
Heroin season.
And now we have fentanyl season.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin or morphine and so extremely lethal.
People think they're getting one thing and they're actually getting a mixture of that drug and fentanyl.
Which means that the heroin on the street is much more potent than it had been.
[Walter.]
Here in St.
Bernard Parish, every one of us knows someone who's lost a child or a relative to addiction of prescription opioids and heroin.
We have innocent Americans who have become addicted to a drug that was designed to relieve them of pain.
This was so devastating in St.
Bernard Parish.
It makes me think of another addictive drug.
Tobacco.
During the national litigation against the cigarette industry, I was representing St.
Bernard Parish, to investigate and eventually prosecute the tobacco industry for addicting smokers and causing death.
The tobacco industry had denied the addictive properties of cigarettes and hired doctors to teach the public that cigarette smoking was really a choice.
That it was a matter of free will and it was not addictive.
Let me ask you first, and I'd like to just go down the row, uh, whether each of you believes that nicotine is not addictive? When the chief executive officers of the major tobacco companies stood and raised their hands I believe nicotine is not addictive, yes.
I believe nicotine is not addictive.
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
When we discovered in litigation later, every one of them had tremendous amounts of information in-house that proved that the drug was addictive and that many of them were engineering their product to make it more addictive.
[ambient instrumentals.]
[Dr.
Lembke.]
The same thing happened in medicine.
That's essentially what Purdue did with OxyContin.
OxyContin, from a molecular level, is pretty much identical to heroin or any other opioid you can get on the street.
You know, Purdue Pharma, they knew that.
And they just didn't care.
None of the people working for Purdue, from the very top people, all the way down to little territory reps like myself.
Nobody was dumb.
I'm not dumb.
Uh, the people above me weren't dumb.
The people above them weren't dumb.
All the way into Connecticut, nobody's dumb.
But we all acted dumb.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
And opioid addiction spread all across the country.
[Dan.]
Purdue Pharma set the stage for this to happen.
They made opioids acceptable to a whole bunch more people.
[Jack.]
The wake of destruction that this one company leaves behind them is extraordinary.
I don't know how they can live with themselves.
This is corporate crime.
This is big business America.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
Today, Purdue Pharma is facing a reckoning.
[Walter.]
Cases were beginning to be filed all over the country.
It'll be a titanic confrontation.
DeKalb County is joining a growing number of local governments suing opioid manufacturers.
[reporter 2.]
Florida, heading to court today to take on opioid drug makers and distributors.
[representative 1.]
It is a new day in Oklahoma in our battle against the opioid epidemic.
[representative 2.]
In Michigan, over 1,600 people died of opioid overdoses last year.
One thousand three hundred and seventy-five Texans died.
Opioid addiction is a public health menace to South Carolina.
The gross misconduct enabled countless New Yorkers to obtain prescriptions that were not medically necessary.
Their strategy was simple.
The more drugs they sold, the more money they made.
[reporter 3.]
Nearly 2,000 lawsuits have been filed against Purdue Pharma.
[Walter.]
I'm one of the senior lawyers involved in representing most of the local governments in south Louisiana, including St.
Bernard, against the opioid industry.
[Dan.]
After this tremendous journey that I've been on I've become aware that Walter Leger, my good high school buddy, okay, is is the attorney that's representing St.
Bernard Parish.
And it relieved my burden.
I finally had somebody that could make something happen.
Walter was a guy that could make these guys pay.
But how do you deal with people that have more money than the United States Department of Justice has to fight this issue? [Dr.
Lembke.]
The Sackler family, which is the family behind Purdue Pharmaceuticals, is worth $13 billion dollars, and they essentially made that money on the backs of OxyContin.
And they have been able to evade any kind of personal responsibility for the opioid epidemic until now.
For the first time, the Sacklers have been named in multiple lawsuits.
Today, the Attorney General of Massachusetts pushed for the release of more documents from Purdue Pharma.
[reporter 4.]
Newly-obtained emails and memos from then-president Richard Sackler, writing in a confidential email, "We have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible.
" [Dr.
Lembke.]
What these lawsuits have meant is that we've had access to these private emails, showing that the Sackler family was totally and completely in it for the money.
It's not about helping people, whatever they might say to the contrary.
[reporter 5.]
A new report based on secret parts of a lawsuit filed by the State of Massachusetts claims the drug company considered expanding into addiction treatment.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
Even more egregiously, the Sacklers decided to get into the addiction treatment business.
When they were promoting OxyContin, they would repeatedly say that addiction and pain have nothing to do with each other.
Then when they got into the addiction treatment business, they said, "Addiction and pain are inextricably intertwined.
" [Chris.]
Purdue trying to get into the treatment business? Didn't make sense.
Right? There again ding! Red flag.
[council.]
Sitting here today after all you've come to learn as a witness do you believe Purdue's conduct in marketing and promoting OxyContin caused any of the prescription drug addiction problems now plaguing the commonwealth? I don't believe so.
[council.]
Sitting here today, after all you've come to learn as a witness, do you believe that Purdue's conduct has led to an excessive or unnecessary amount of opioids being located throughout the commonwealth? I don't believe so.
[council.]
Do you believe that any of Purdue's conduct has led to an increase in people being addicted? No.
[pills rattling.]
[somber instrumentals.]
- [indistinct chatter and cheering.]
- [flame roars.]
[kids scream excitedly.]
[indistinct intercom chatter.]
[teens scream joyfully.]
[cages rattling.]
[Robbie.]
I drive a cab now.
I see people, uh You know, I know I'm dropping 'em off in the 9th Ward.
I know what's going on.
I know what's happening.
If you're coming here, you're only coming here for one reason.
And one after the other, like a McDonald's drive-thru, they'll they'll score their dope.
You know, that's one of the reasons why I carry Narcan in my glove box.
You never know who you're gonna pick up or when you're gonna need it.
- Crack destroyed New Orleans in the '80s.
- [pipe bubbling.]
- But with the opioid epidemic - [pills rattling.]
I see total destruction.
There's no end to the damage this opioid situation has caused.
[M.
.]
The addiction just doesn't discriminate.
It doesn't matter who you are, how much money you have, what color your skin is.
Addiction, [stammers.]
it just doesn't discriminate.
[Chris.]
Is there some way in the future that we can stop people from having pain? I don't know what the answer is.
But we're in a hell of a pickle.
This is a hell of a mess.
When I see young lives destroyed by this disease, you know, I wonder where do I fit? [seagulls caw.]
I do believe that everybody not just me as a sales rep, not just Purdue but doctors the FDA Congress, right? Everybody's got a bit of blood.
We've all got skin in the game.
[Walter.]
Danny was on the front line in terms of the opioid epidemic.
As we look back at what Dan went through, and what he was recognizing, what he was saying, uh, contributes to our understanding of the opioid crisis and hopefully how to deal with it.
Uh, not just how to litigate it, but how to solve it.
There may not be a more important case than this one.
And your dedication could be incredibly helpful.
This is a copy of the lawsuit that was filed here - in St.
Bernard Parish.
- Right.
It's like my crazy dream of Tunnel of Hope that I could maybe make a difference or or be a part of something that can make a difference may very well become a reality.
[somber instrumentals fade.]
[tranquil instrumentals.]
What do you say, Danny boy? Decent job? [statue scrapes on table.]
[Jack.]
Dan's life will never be the same.
No Christmas, no Thanksgiving, no birthday, no anything will ever be the same.
He will make the best of where he is, but he will always have his son in his mind and his heart, and it will never go away.
And that's the same for his entire family.
[Annie sobbing.]
It's alright, baby.
He's with us.
He's with us and we're gonna see him again, okay? [sighs deeply.]
[Jack.]
He is burdened with the type of grief and loss that we all hope we never have to go through.
But as a result of his attention being called to this enormous problem he saved a lot of lives and he can always give his son credit for that.
[Dan.]
Right now, God, I have to pause.
I've got things in the real world I have to keep up with.
[Annie sniffles.]
[Dan.]
This is a poem he wrote.
"Reflections upon life seem like a dream.
Although very real in the eyes of the beholder the time will come when his life is done and he will live in the distant dreams of everyone.
Living the dream, living life both the same.
Both two different portraits in two different frames.
" - That was good.
- [sniffles, exhales.]
[Annie sniffles.]
Here, give me that.
[laughs.]
I don't care.
It's got mascara on it.
[both chuckle.]
[Dan.]
Everything I did, I did for Danny.
[tranquil instrumentals fade.]
[mechanical clicking.]
[somber instrumentals.]
[ambient instrumentals.]
[interviewer.]
Tell me about that day.
[sighs.]
That was probably the most difficult day of my life.
[distant sirens.]
[reporter.]
Today, the State Board of Medical Examiners summarily suspended Dr.
Jacqueline Cleggett.
Cleggett's lawyer tells us he'll be asking for a full hearing tomorrow.
[Cleggett.]
I spent a very, very long time to become a physician.
Too many hardships I had to endure to actually get to where I was to have it snatched away.
My desire to become a physician started when I was eight years old.
I wanted to help people.
Simple as that.
Chronic pain is subjective.
You must rely on the patient's explanation, because often there are no physical signs that you can objectively diagnose.
In other words, your pain is what you say it is.
In seeking to help patients, you try to provide the best possible resource to them.
OxyContin was very effective.
So that's why that drug was selected.
[interviewer.]
Do you remember any of your patients dying? Do you have specific patients in mind? [mechanical clicking and whirring.]
[mellow instrumentals.]
[mellow instrumentals fade.]
[slide clicks.]
[ambient instrumentals.]
[George.]
After Dr.
Cleggett's license was suspended you have to give the physician a due process hearing within 90 days of the time that you summarily suspend.
So the clock is ticking.
In the complaint, there are well over 100 factual allegations.
Fifty, sixty pages.
Family members contacted Dr.
Cleggett and tried to get her to agree to quit treating their son or daughter or husband because they were addicted and impaired, and they were misusing their medications, and they got no, um, response from Dr.
Cleggett.
Or if they got a response, it was negative.
We had affidavits from coroners, uh, DEA people, you know, narcotics agents.
They see young people with foam coming out of their mouths.
[distant sirens whooping.]
OxyContin bottles with Dr.
Cleggett's name on it strewn on the floor.
I had all of that ready to go and I was ready to move.
[cars rushing past.]
[Dan.]
I got a phone call from the medical board, asking me if I might give a deposition against Dr.
Cleggett, who was trying to get her license back.
The deposition was the first time I sat down across from Dr.
Cleggett.
Her attorney was trying to belittle me.
He painted this picture that I wasn't able to catch my son's addiction before he died.
And that I would have done anything to put her out of business to make up for my son's death.
Her attorney says "Mr.
Schneider, what length would you have gone to to put her out of business? What would you have spent to put her out of business?" And I said "What's a life worth?" [George.]
We had a hearing set.
And a few days before the hearing, we get word Dr.
Cleggett has been admitted to DePaul-Tulane Behavioral Center for opiate abuse and cannot attend the hearing.
[Patricia.]
DEA had information from some patients who said that Dr.
Cleggett not only gave out prescription drugs, she used prescriptions.
[car rushes past.]
[Iris.]
On one occasion, while we were conducting observation, I saw Dr.
Cleggett taking pills herself when arriving at the clinic.
We got a search warrant to search her home.
In plain view, there were numerous bottles of prescription medication, some with pills in 'em, some empty.
just laying around in Dr.
Cleggett's home.
[interviewer.]
So you were never self-medicating? [Cleggett.]
Mm-mm.
Mm-mm.
[interviewer.]
You didn't suffer from addiction? No.
I was never addicted.
[ambient instrumentals.]
[George.]
After Dr.
Cleggett was admitted into DePaul and her abuse was well-documented Dr.
Cleggett and her attorney were agreeable to the total termination of her medical license without having to admit any wrongdoing.
[Iris.]
Dr.
Cleggett's license was revoked in 2003.
However, it was years later before the US Attorney indicted her.
[Cleggett.]
When you see your name versus the United States of America if that doesn't strike fear into your heart, I don't know what will.
"So the entire country's against me?" [Patricia.]
She was one of the first doctors the US Attorney's office prosecuted.
[Dan.]
I was given a subpoena.
And they asked me to bring everything I had done, through either the medical board or the FBI or the DEA.
And I was basically told when I got there that I was probably the primary witness.
And shortly after that, I found out that there were other cases against Dr.
Cleggett.
[Chris.]
I was an operative of Purdue Pharma but I was subpoenaed individually.
I don't know if it was a group of patients that got together and they were suing her and somehow or another my name got tangled up in this, or if it was kind of a blanket action to get Purdue reps, to get them to answer questions about the territory in general.
But it wasn't, "Purdue Pharma and Chris.
" So I had to go show up.
The questions revolved around, "What do you know about Dr.
Cleggett? What do you know about the promotion of OxyContin in this territory?" I answered the questions.
I answered honestly.
And I remember being relieved when I walked out.
And I remember having my mind made up when I walked out that I got to get the fuck away from this because I'm not going any deeper than where I am right now.
[Iris.]
Right before the indictment I heard that Dr.
Cleggett was in a car accident.
[tires skidding.]
[crashing and shattering.]
[distant sirens wailing.]
[Cleggett.]
I was asleep on the passenger side.
The driver took out a section of trees, going at approximately 80 miles an hour.
They said I nearly died in that crash.
They were correct.
I had a hangman's fracture, which is what happens when you hang from a noose and break your neck.
I suffered the exact same injury in the car accident.
- [machine beeps faintly.]
- I had two brain hemorrhages five skull fractures.
The reason why I sound different is because I was intubated for six weeks.
My voice is now higher and squeakier.
Following the accident I was prescribed OxyContin.
And, no, I didn't have any problems with it.
Actually it helped alleviate a lot of pain.
[Patricia.]
At the time, she was partially paralyzed, but Dr.
Cleggett eventually was brought to trial for the operation of her pain clinic.
[George.]
The criminal prosecution placed Dr.
Cleggett at risk for somewhere around 20 years of incarceration and fines of around a million dollars.
[Iris.]
She was originally charged with 37 counts of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances for no medical purpose.
[Patricia.]
Because she was in this terrible automobile accident, her attorney worked out a plea agreement with the US Attorney's office.
[Iris.]
She was charged with only one count of conspiracy to prescribe a controlled substance without a legitimate medical purpose.
Which, in fact, means she was not practicing medicine, period.
[dramatic instrumentals.]
[Cleggett.]
I pleaded guilty to one count even though I knew that I had not done what they stated I had done.
Due to her impairment from the car accident, she did not do any prison time and was on probation for three years.
She didn't go to jail.
But part of her plea agreement was to agree never to operate a pain clinic ever again.
[Cleggett.]
Sometimes, I actually have dreams about practicing medicine.
And for a few moments, when I wake up it seems that dream is actually real.
But that's a dream about the past.
A dream that I can never get back.
Her punishment did not fit the crime.
And I'll leave it at that.
Yeah.
[birds trilling.]
[Dan.]
After Dr.
Cleggett got shut down I felt like I had accomplished my mission.
And I thought that might be the end of this.
That wasn't the end.
That was the beginning.
[tense instrumentals.]
[Dan.]
It was like a cancer.
It metastasized.
[M.
.]
Pills were just readily available.
Pill mills were, you know, kind of popping up all over the place.
[Dan.]
It seemed like they were replicating Dr.
Cleggett's business model, okay? So many addicts had been created and people knew there was real money to be made off every one of them.
[reporter 1.]
How easy is it to open and run a clinic? According to the DEA, just about anyone who's willing to fill out the paperwork and pay the taxes can do it.
[man.]
You go to the Sheriff's Office and make an application for an occupational license and you agree to pay sales tax and you're issued a license and you can open a clinic.
[Billy.]
I was really disappointed in the doctors.
They had sworn to do no harm.
They had been trained all their lives to help people and here they were killing people.
[reporter 2.]
Every week, the DEA sees one or two applications from people trying to open up new pain clinics in the New Orleans area.
[man.]
We now estimate that there's 60 and the number is growing.
But this problem has reached crisis proportions.
[faint ticking.]
[Dan.]
More than 60 pain clinics had popped up.
And fatal overdoses doubled in St.
Bernard.
- [somber instrumentals.]
- [tape clicking.]
A lot of people felt it was a hopeless situation.
But I saw the drug problem as a dark tunnel that we were in.
And I had a dream that maybe, just maybe, there could be light at the end of the tunnel or somehow we could create some light at the end of the tunnel.
[wind rushing.]
In St.
Bernard Parish, there's a stretch of trees that forms a tunnel.
We call it the tunnel of oaks.
Danny and I would be in the Mustang and we would ride through that beautiful tunnel.
It was always part of a route that we would take, what we called "down the road.
" I saw it as a symbol of hope.
So I started calling this mission that I was on, "The Tunnel of Hope.
" [Annie.]
We never had all the answers we wanted, why Danny got killed that night.
But Danny was still on a mission to help other parents with kids that have drug problems.
'Cause we didn't want that to happen to their families.
[Dan.]
I had a chance to save a bunch of kids.
I wanted to do something for my community.
[water rushing.]
[Dan.]
Apparently, most people are like I was in the past.
And they just let everything slide.
Everything just kind of goes by 'em.
I have a little saying.
Some people watch things happen.
Some people make things happen.
And some people say, "What happened?" And I'm in a "make happen" stage.
I'm speaking out.
I plan to speak at schools.
We gotta try to make a difference against incredible odds again.
And Danny's right by our side.
[Dan.]
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all.
I'm here representing my family, including my son, to deliver this message and see if we can't make a difference.
[Dan.]
I started talking to kids on a regular basis.
And Robbie, many times, would show up in a supportive fashion and be part of the audience.
[Robbie.]
Something had to change.
You had young teenagers just looking to get high.
Now they're starting with something that could kill 'em on the first dose.
[Dan.]
Danny had talked to me about marijuana, saying it was safe and saying, "But, Dad, I wouldn't go any further.
" [stammers.]
And every person And every person that goes further, do you think that any of them think it's going to lead to death or them being in jail? Not one of 'em.
[Annie.]
After he talked at some of the schools he almost became a mentor to some of the kids, 'cause they would call him up on the phone.
I remember, one night, we were sleeping, it was like two o'clock in the morning.
The phone rang and it was this kid that needed to talk to Danny.
[Dan.]
What I want to point out to y'all in the audience is this: If I asked you to look at the ten people around you which of your friends do you think would be the one that would screw up? You might form an opinion on that, but it'd be curious, because if you ask the person you picked they might pick you.
It can happen to any one of you.
We've got to reverse the trend.
[Dan.]
2004, 2005, I was developing a lot of momentum.
People started to know kind of who I was and what was going on.
[dramatic instrumentals.]
I was writing articlesin the newspaper.
[paper rustling.]
I wrote lettersto a number of politicians trying to motivate somebody to try to reduce this problem.
Could we get the pharmaceutical manufacturers at least to maybe pay for some of this carnage? We worked on pain clinic law.
We worked on pain clinic moratoriums.
I not only wanted to change St.
Bernard, I wanted to change the country.
That was my dream.
I was feeling good about where I was going with my mission, and so I scheduled a town hall meeting.
We were getting very, very close, uh, to that meeting.
We had a date scheduled, I'd already printed materials on it.
And then we heard about a hurricane that was out in the Gulf.
[droning instrumentals.]
[reporter 1.]
There's been a subtle change in the track of this, which may mean [reporter 2.]
Hurricane Katrina continues to move west, taking aim at southeast Louisiana.
[Jack.]
My cell phone rings, "Is this Sheriff Stephens?" I say, "Yes.
" He says, "I'm with the National Hurricane Center.
I'm sorry to have to make this call.
" He said, "But you're gonna have a 30-foot wall of water hit your parish tomorrow.
You're gonna flood levy to levy and there's not going to be a structure spared.
And you're gonna have significant loss of life.
God bless you and good luck," and they hung the phone up.
[reporter 3.]
If persons haven't evacuated by now they need to leave immediately.
[reporter 4.]
It is a 100% probability.
For God's sake, if you're listening to this broadcast right now, get out.
[Dan.]
The news people had kind of warned some major damage might happen.
- [wind whipping.]
- But we just could not envision the entire St.
Bernard [water rushes.]
[reporter 5.]
The levy breach has occurred along the industrial canal.
[reporter 6.]
There's gotta be a break in the levy somewhere 'cause the water's still coming up.
- [man 1.]
Oh, no! - [water splashes.]
Here it comes, up the front door.
It broke the front door.
[woman 1.]
Oh, God.
I can't believe this.
[wind and water roaring.]
[man 2.]
There were four houses over there.
Now they're gone.
All four of them.
Oh, Jesus Christ! Moving right down the Bayou.
[woman 2.]
Oh, God, please let it stop.
[helicopter propeller thumping.]
[somber instrumentals.]
[Jack.]
Look at that car.
You see? It was halfway on the roof.
- [Dan.]
Was it? Okay.
- Yeah.
Come back, you might see it.
[Dan.]
Entering St.
Bernard Parish for the first time.
[Kristi.]
Hopefully entering St.
Bernard Parish.
[Dan.]
Unbelievable.
Never realized how much I cared for this community until this happened.
Everything has been destroyed.
Totally destroyed.
[Jack.]
It was the largest natural disaster in the country's history at that point.
[Annie.]
Here's our house.
There's Kristi, with her boots, going in.
[water sloshes.]
[Kristi.]
Holy crap.
I'm going down.
[Dan.]
Good Lord.
Look at that! Came right through the ceiling.
- [Annie.]
What? - [Dan.]
Yeah.
[Annie.]
Kristi's trying to go upstairs.
[crackling.]
[Annie.]
Okay, wait a minute.
[all.]
Merry Christmas! [Dan.]
It's Danny.
He's up.
[Kristi.]
That was the only house I ever lived in my entire life.
Ta-da! All the memories with my brother were there and [footsteps crunch on rubble.]
[plastic wheels rattle.]
[indistinct chatter.]
[group.]
Happy birthday to you [Dan.]
All of St.
Bernard had pain and anguish, just like us.
And, unfortunately, a lot of people turned to OxyContin to cope.
[cars rumbling.]
[Jack.]
When we were starting to rebuild this place, the melancholy and the grief and the depression after Katrina was unbelievable.
They had more people turn to drugs and alcohol after that storm than you could ever imagine.
People you would never assume would take pills to survive were doing it.
[Chris.]
St.
Bernard is blue collar.
A lot of 'em got hurt doing manual labor.
[machinery beeps.]
So, the demand was there.
There were doctors that were willing to supply that demand.
It's a perfect storm.
- [dramatic instrumentals.]
- [statistics ticking.]
[Dan.]
After Katrina, it was amazing that the hundred-year oak trees survived.
The Tunnel of Hope survived.
I knew my mission had to go on.
[Annie.]
When Katrina came, almost all of Danny's documents and everything was upstairs in the attic.
Everything in the attic got saved.
And it was amazing, 'cause everything else pretty much was destroyed.
[Dan.]
And so I felt God wanted me to do something beyond Cleggett.
- [rustles papers.]
- OxyContin was still out there.
The only way we could make a serious dent in this was to go at the source.
Something had to be done about Purdue Pharma.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
In 2007, Purdue Pharma was convicted of misrepresenting the abuse liability, or the addictive potential of OxyContin.
[Brownlee.]
Purdue's marketing of OxyContin was deceptive and criminal.
It is important to note that most of the people never claimed that Purdue was solely responsible for their loved one's death.
They just wanted Purdue to tell the truth about the drug.
[Chris.]
The patients were told, "This has lower addictive qualities.
" Compared to fucking what? You know, I mean, that's a serious question.
Compared to what? [Dan.]
Their executives were slapped on the wrist, okay? The company had to pay 600 million dollars in fines, but these guys never really accepted responsibility for the opiate epidemic that they helped create.
Even after the Purdue executives plead guilty in 2007, they didn't stop promoting OxyContin.
They promoted it harder than ever.
[dramatic instrumentals continue.]
[Chris.]
Somebody should have said, "Whoa.
" Somebody should have pumped the fucking brakes and said "Whoa, we got problems.
" You know? "We got problems, Houston.
We're leaking oil.
" [Dan.]
I finally came to the conclusion that Purdue Pharma was not gonna stop what they were doing.
But maybe we could stop the prescription problem, which was producing addicts.
What can we do to curb pill-mill doctors? [radio DJ.]
This hour, we're talking about Are these pain control clinics out of control? These are prescriptions that are filled at pharmacies.
[Dan.]
Exactly.
And we're not in a position to know whether or not these people are seeing more than one doctor.
[DJ.]
What do they call it? Drug shopping? [Dan.]
Drug shopping, doctor shopping.
- [DJ.]
Doctor shopping.
Yeah.
- Correct.
[Dan.]
I was advocating for a prescription monitoring program.
I didn't invent this thing, but I saw it in some other states and on the news.
And I started saying, "God, this is a great idea.
" I wrote a letter to the pharmacy board.
And it was just weeks later, they came back and said, "We have listened to your proposition, we agree with you and we're gonna do it.
" [Iris.]
With the prescription monitoring program, we didn't have to go to pharmacies.
We could see it on one computer-generated print-out.
The PMP made it a lot easier to prosecute doctors.
[reporter 1.]
Two pain management clinics are the targets of raids by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
[reporter 2.]
Dr.
Richard Paolino was charged with more than 1,000 counts of fraud associated with OxyContin prescriptions.
[Dan.]
We finally started curtailing doctors a little bit to reduce the OxyContin that they wrote.
[reporter 3.]
The 61-year-old physician was basically a drug dealer with a medical license.
[M.
.]
OxyContin began getting restricted.
Pharmacies were refusing to fill certain prescriptions.
It was just getting harder for people that were addicted to get those opioids prescribed.
So people moved to heroin.
[Chris.]
People get addicted and then the supply goes away.
So what happens when the supply goes away? People find a new supply, because they're addicted and they don't have any other options.
[Jack.]
The drug cartels saw an opportunity to fill an enormous vacuum with the interruption of the pill mills.
Then, all of a sudden, we've got as bad a drug problem as we've ever had.
[Diane Sawyer.]
We want to tell you about a skyrocketing threat in suburban communities across the country tonight.
[reporter 4.]
The explosion of heroin isn't by accident.
The prescription monitoring program has turned opiate addicts who can't get their fix in a pill form to heroin.
[reporter 5.]
Cheaper than prescription pills, heroin gives users the same fix, but at a significantly lower cost.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
Prescription opioids became the gateway to heroin addiction.
Seventy-five percentof heroin users said the first opioid they ever used was a prescription opioid.
[M.
.]
When you're getting something legal from a doctor with a legitimate prescription it's not like, you know, going into the city and buying heroin on the street, which is illegal.
[stammers.]
It's dirtierto people.
[indistinct chatter.]
But an addict is an addict, and if you put a heroin addict and an OxyContin addict in a room for a few days, using, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart, because it does the same exact thing.
[gurney rattles.]
[indistinct radio chatter.]
[Dan.]
Just when I thought I was getting everything maybe resolved I saw so many unintended consequences.
Now they're going to heroin! It was almost like "Did I do the right thing?" [sirens whooping.]
Prescription drugs, at least they know what they're getting.
[indistinct dispatch chatter.]
[Jack.]
There was unfamiliarity with the drug and our overdose episodes just went through the roof.
[officer 1.]
Get him on the ground.
[Jack.]
It was alarming.
It was It was a shock.
[officer 2.]
Come on, buddy.
Come on.
[Jack.]
We're losing more people every year.
[officer 3.]
Jay, wake up.
[Iris.]
Drugs come in seasons.
First, it was OxyContin season.
Heroin season.
And now we have fentanyl season.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin or morphine and so extremely lethal.
People think they're getting one thing and they're actually getting a mixture of that drug and fentanyl.
Which means that the heroin on the street is much more potent than it had been.
[Walter.]
Here in St.
Bernard Parish, every one of us knows someone who's lost a child or a relative to addiction of prescription opioids and heroin.
We have innocent Americans who have become addicted to a drug that was designed to relieve them of pain.
This was so devastating in St.
Bernard Parish.
It makes me think of another addictive drug.
Tobacco.
During the national litigation against the cigarette industry, I was representing St.
Bernard Parish, to investigate and eventually prosecute the tobacco industry for addicting smokers and causing death.
The tobacco industry had denied the addictive properties of cigarettes and hired doctors to teach the public that cigarette smoking was really a choice.
That it was a matter of free will and it was not addictive.
Let me ask you first, and I'd like to just go down the row, uh, whether each of you believes that nicotine is not addictive? When the chief executive officers of the major tobacco companies stood and raised their hands I believe nicotine is not addictive, yes.
I believe nicotine is not addictive.
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
When we discovered in litigation later, every one of them had tremendous amounts of information in-house that proved that the drug was addictive and that many of them were engineering their product to make it more addictive.
[ambient instrumentals.]
[Dr.
Lembke.]
The same thing happened in medicine.
That's essentially what Purdue did with OxyContin.
OxyContin, from a molecular level, is pretty much identical to heroin or any other opioid you can get on the street.
You know, Purdue Pharma, they knew that.
And they just didn't care.
None of the people working for Purdue, from the very top people, all the way down to little territory reps like myself.
Nobody was dumb.
I'm not dumb.
Uh, the people above me weren't dumb.
The people above them weren't dumb.
All the way into Connecticut, nobody's dumb.
But we all acted dumb.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
And opioid addiction spread all across the country.
[Dan.]
Purdue Pharma set the stage for this to happen.
They made opioids acceptable to a whole bunch more people.
[Jack.]
The wake of destruction that this one company leaves behind them is extraordinary.
I don't know how they can live with themselves.
This is corporate crime.
This is big business America.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
Today, Purdue Pharma is facing a reckoning.
[Walter.]
Cases were beginning to be filed all over the country.
It'll be a titanic confrontation.
DeKalb County is joining a growing number of local governments suing opioid manufacturers.
[reporter 2.]
Florida, heading to court today to take on opioid drug makers and distributors.
[representative 1.]
It is a new day in Oklahoma in our battle against the opioid epidemic.
[representative 2.]
In Michigan, over 1,600 people died of opioid overdoses last year.
One thousand three hundred and seventy-five Texans died.
Opioid addiction is a public health menace to South Carolina.
The gross misconduct enabled countless New Yorkers to obtain prescriptions that were not medically necessary.
Their strategy was simple.
The more drugs they sold, the more money they made.
[reporter 3.]
Nearly 2,000 lawsuits have been filed against Purdue Pharma.
[Walter.]
I'm one of the senior lawyers involved in representing most of the local governments in south Louisiana, including St.
Bernard, against the opioid industry.
[Dan.]
After this tremendous journey that I've been on I've become aware that Walter Leger, my good high school buddy, okay, is is the attorney that's representing St.
Bernard Parish.
And it relieved my burden.
I finally had somebody that could make something happen.
Walter was a guy that could make these guys pay.
But how do you deal with people that have more money than the United States Department of Justice has to fight this issue? [Dr.
Lembke.]
The Sackler family, which is the family behind Purdue Pharmaceuticals, is worth $13 billion dollars, and they essentially made that money on the backs of OxyContin.
And they have been able to evade any kind of personal responsibility for the opioid epidemic until now.
For the first time, the Sacklers have been named in multiple lawsuits.
Today, the Attorney General of Massachusetts pushed for the release of more documents from Purdue Pharma.
[reporter 4.]
Newly-obtained emails and memos from then-president Richard Sackler, writing in a confidential email, "We have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible.
" [Dr.
Lembke.]
What these lawsuits have meant is that we've had access to these private emails, showing that the Sackler family was totally and completely in it for the money.
It's not about helping people, whatever they might say to the contrary.
[reporter 5.]
A new report based on secret parts of a lawsuit filed by the State of Massachusetts claims the drug company considered expanding into addiction treatment.
[Dr.
Lembke.]
Even more egregiously, the Sacklers decided to get into the addiction treatment business.
When they were promoting OxyContin, they would repeatedly say that addiction and pain have nothing to do with each other.
Then when they got into the addiction treatment business, they said, "Addiction and pain are inextricably intertwined.
" [Chris.]
Purdue trying to get into the treatment business? Didn't make sense.
Right? There again ding! Red flag.
[council.]
Sitting here today after all you've come to learn as a witness do you believe Purdue's conduct in marketing and promoting OxyContin caused any of the prescription drug addiction problems now plaguing the commonwealth? I don't believe so.
[council.]
Sitting here today, after all you've come to learn as a witness, do you believe that Purdue's conduct has led to an excessive or unnecessary amount of opioids being located throughout the commonwealth? I don't believe so.
[council.]
Do you believe that any of Purdue's conduct has led to an increase in people being addicted? No.
[pills rattling.]
[somber instrumentals.]
- [indistinct chatter and cheering.]
- [flame roars.]
[kids scream excitedly.]
[indistinct intercom chatter.]
[teens scream joyfully.]
[cages rattling.]
[Robbie.]
I drive a cab now.
I see people, uh You know, I know I'm dropping 'em off in the 9th Ward.
I know what's going on.
I know what's happening.
If you're coming here, you're only coming here for one reason.
And one after the other, like a McDonald's drive-thru, they'll they'll score their dope.
You know, that's one of the reasons why I carry Narcan in my glove box.
You never know who you're gonna pick up or when you're gonna need it.
- Crack destroyed New Orleans in the '80s.
- [pipe bubbling.]
- But with the opioid epidemic - [pills rattling.]
I see total destruction.
There's no end to the damage this opioid situation has caused.
[M.
.]
The addiction just doesn't discriminate.
It doesn't matter who you are, how much money you have, what color your skin is.
Addiction, [stammers.]
it just doesn't discriminate.
[Chris.]
Is there some way in the future that we can stop people from having pain? I don't know what the answer is.
But we're in a hell of a pickle.
This is a hell of a mess.
When I see young lives destroyed by this disease, you know, I wonder where do I fit? [seagulls caw.]
I do believe that everybody not just me as a sales rep, not just Purdue but doctors the FDA Congress, right? Everybody's got a bit of blood.
We've all got skin in the game.
[Walter.]
Danny was on the front line in terms of the opioid epidemic.
As we look back at what Dan went through, and what he was recognizing, what he was saying, uh, contributes to our understanding of the opioid crisis and hopefully how to deal with it.
Uh, not just how to litigate it, but how to solve it.
There may not be a more important case than this one.
And your dedication could be incredibly helpful.
This is a copy of the lawsuit that was filed here - in St.
Bernard Parish.
- Right.
It's like my crazy dream of Tunnel of Hope that I could maybe make a difference or or be a part of something that can make a difference may very well become a reality.
[somber instrumentals fade.]
[tranquil instrumentals.]
What do you say, Danny boy? Decent job? [statue scrapes on table.]
[Jack.]
Dan's life will never be the same.
No Christmas, no Thanksgiving, no birthday, no anything will ever be the same.
He will make the best of where he is, but he will always have his son in his mind and his heart, and it will never go away.
And that's the same for his entire family.
[Annie sobbing.]
It's alright, baby.
He's with us.
He's with us and we're gonna see him again, okay? [sighs deeply.]
[Jack.]
He is burdened with the type of grief and loss that we all hope we never have to go through.
But as a result of his attention being called to this enormous problem he saved a lot of lives and he can always give his son credit for that.
[Dan.]
Right now, God, I have to pause.
I've got things in the real world I have to keep up with.
[Annie sniffles.]
[Dan.]
This is a poem he wrote.
"Reflections upon life seem like a dream.
Although very real in the eyes of the beholder the time will come when his life is done and he will live in the distant dreams of everyone.
Living the dream, living life both the same.
Both two different portraits in two different frames.
" - That was good.
- [sniffles, exhales.]
[Annie sniffles.]
Here, give me that.
[laughs.]
I don't care.
It's got mascara on it.
[both chuckle.]
[Dan.]
Everything I did, I did for Danny.
[tranquil instrumentals fade.]
[mechanical clicking.]
[somber instrumentals.]