Substance Use Disorder

It was touted as a miracle pill: a narcotic pain reliever that could change the lives of people suffering from chronic pain, but with little risk of addiction. How did a little pill that appeared in 1996 become so big, so fast? In 1998, Canadian sales were just a few million dollars; twelve years later they had soared to $243 million and U.S. sales were $3.5 billion. This film examines why medical schools, GPs and specialists in pain clinics readily embraced the drug at first, and why some have now changed their minds. The manufacturer has now stopped making it altogether, replacing it with a new formulation known as OxyNeo. (43 minutes)

Understanding the Opioid Epidemic traces the causes behind the unprecedented growth in the use of prescription opioids and the devastating impact these drugs are having in virtually every part of America.