John Oliver tears into pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid crisis

The latest episode of ‘Last Week Tonight’ also featured an appearance from the Revere Fire Department, whose jobs have changed due to the rise in narcotics use.

October 24, 2016

1 minute to read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pdPrQFjo2o

John Oliver delved into the nation’s opioid crisis during Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, highlighting some of the sad stories of a growing epidemic while pointing fingers at the pharmaceutical companies that helped give rise to the problem.

Oliver spent much of the show examining how Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContion, relentlessly marketed the drug to doctors using promotional videos, faulty statistics, and paid physicians in the late ‘90s. In one clip from the Purdue-produced marketing film I Got My Life Back, pain specialist (and Purdue-paid expert) Alan Spanos introduced the concept of “pseudo-addiction,” which he explained as “when a patient is looking like a drug addict because they’re pursuing pain relief.”

“Wow, that is so convenient,” Oliver said. “That is like Chipotle going, ‘Have you heard of this fascinating new thing called pseudo-diarrhea? It looks a lot like diarrhea, but it’s not diarrhea, and the cure may actually be more tacos.’”

Oliver also highlighted what is being done to treat the problem, playing a clip from the Fusion documentary Death By Fentanyl featuring members of the Revere Fire Department, who said that every single firefighter carries nasal spray with naloxone, used to treat narcotics overdoses.

“We tend to have more overdoses than we do fires,” Revere firefighter Kevin Doherty said in the clip. “So it’s a piece of equipment we can’t go without now, just like we have the hose.”

Oliver concluded the segment by noting that there’s still no one clear solution to the opioid epidemic, as not all addicts respond to the same treatments or find relief from alternative therapies.

“This will take a massive effort and a significant investment,” Oliver said. “It won’t be cheap, it won’t be quick, and it won’t be easy. And it is hard not to be angry at the drug companies like Purdue whose promise of cheap, quick, easy pain solutions put us in this f***ing mess.”