“Dopesick” revolves around a pharmaceutical scandal with hundreds of thousands dead in America, triggered by addictive painkillers. Stars like Michael Keaton and Barry Levinson are involved.
Los Angeles – The drama series “Dopesick” began in 1986 with an ambitious idea that was to have fatal consequences. The son of a businessman, Richard Sackler of the US pharmaceutical company Purdue, presents his family with a plan to develop a completely new pain reliever.
Ten years later, the group pushes the powerful opioid Oxycontin onto the market with an unprecedented advertising campaign. For the Sackler family, billions in profits are falling, for the USA it is the beginning of an addiction epidemic that will cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
“Dopesick” traces the shocking scandal from all angles: the eight-part mini-series leads from the poor miners’ village in rural Virginia to the boardrooms of the pharmaceutical companies, from the street raids by drug investigators to the courtrooms.
The story is based on the 2018 bestselling non-fiction book by US author Beth Macy. Macy and series creator Danny Strong were able to win a star cast for the filming. Michael Keaton (“Batman”, “Birdman”) plays the doctor Dr. Samuel Finnix, who treats miners in pain in his practice. A shrewd pharmaceutical representative (Will Poulter) convinces him of the allegedly harmless “miracle cure”, which, according to the manufacturer’s promises, does not make you dependent.
But the young miner Betsy (Kaitlyn Dever) is soon addicted. Bridget Meyer (Rosario Dawson), the committed drug investigator for the DEA, comes across black market pills more and more often. While Purdue continues to ramp up the production of Oxycontin and downplay the risk of addiction, prosecutors get on the trail of the unscrupulous machinations.
Star director Barry Levinson (“Good Morning, Vietnam”, “Rain Man”) was easy to win over to the material. “It is the story of a small pill that ultimately affected the lives of so many people and killed so many,” says the Oscar winner in an interview with dpa. The format of the miniseries appealed to him. This means that he can take the audience on a much more complex “real journey”, says the Hollywood director.
The “bad guy” role of the billionaire entrepreneur Richard Sackler is played by Michael Stuhlbarg (“Call Me by Your Name”, “Shape of Water”). The actor says that he was very concerned with the real, controversial figure. Sackler blindly pursued the idea of freeing the world from pain. He blamed the addicts for the opioid crisis. People like Sackler should be held accountable, says Stuhlbarg.
In “Dopesick”, two state attorneys in Virginia open the investigation and take action against the pharmaceutical giant Purdue. Peter Sarsgaard (“Powerless”) and John Hoogenakker (“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”) play these real characters. “They worked in a small office and had few resources, but they fought against the bad guys who had so much money,” says Saarsgard.
Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against Purdue Pharma in the United States over the addictive pain reliever, Oxycontin. According to the CDC, the opioid crisis has resulted in more than 450,000 deaths from overdoses and rampant drug addiction with many social problems since the turn of the millennium. In 2020, the pain reliever company pleaded guilty to violating several US federal laws, including conspiracy to commit fraud. The group filed for bankruptcy, Purdue’s owner family Sackler has to pay over four billion dollars.
For the author Beth Macy, who illuminates the scandal in her book “Dopesick”, the end of the crisis is far from in sight. “I feel really sick when I hear the growing number of overdose cases,” says the journalist. She hopes that the television series will help shed light on the background to the crisis and reduce the stigma of drug addiction. dpa
