El farmaceútico

Purdue pharmacy ruined the lives of countless Americans pushing heroin as a prescription drug.

This documentary effectively shows the local and national effects going thru the lens of 'the pharmacist'. The execs at Purdue and the FDA have blood on their hands.

It's truly disgusting what greed and no moral compass can drive people to do. Truly sickening. I hope kids can watch this and avoid opiates, because once you start it's really hard to stop.

This centers around one man, Dan Schneider, who goes out on a quest to find answers about his son's death after the son gets murdered during a failed drug deal. In the way the story starts, you could never guess how it all would unfold. Dan is an amazing storyteller, and to top it off he has also documented, filmed and recorded almost everything that has happened to him since the 80's. Because of how well documented this story is, and how much material they presented to me as a viewer, I felt that the story was as nuanced as it gets. They basically left no stone unturned.

From the son's murder to the investigation of the doctor, this documentary also makes you empathize greatly with Dan's frustrations over the different situations and systems he was dealing with. And even though I have read a lot about the opioid crisis and the Purdue cases etc, I feel like I got a very unique insight of the micro and macro causes and effects of the opioid crisis. I think that a documentary like this one can really make people start questioning how complicit the drug companies, but also more importantly - the authorities have been during this epidemic.

This is an awesome documentary about a father who pursues the killer of his son and ends up finding a larger calling. Intelligent and meticulous...one man CAN make a difference.

A story of how one man driven by at first grief and later guilt did three incredible things: 1. The solving of a murder that led to exposing the negligence of the New Orleans police department.

2. The 'pill mill' scandal by doctors and corruption of police who protected one particular doctor.

3. A scandal by a billion $ pharmaceutical that affected the whole of the United States

This is the incredible story of Dan Schneider, brilliantly told by Netflix and one well worth watching.

Highly recommended.

It took a few "false starts"- 2 years worth - for me to finally ease into this series. I admit that Dan is the type of person who makes me ill at ease: Loud and pushy.

Plus - If I ever found out that my pharmacist recorded me - well, use your imagination.

That said! I admire what he did. He saw a catastrophic wrong being done to his people and patients and he decided he was the one to fix the problem. That problem wasn't about to go away on her own. I can't comment on her. My mother said that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. I will say she did NOT reap what she sowed. (Dan liked bible stuff.) I would have preferred some serious Old Testament for her.

We obviously need more people like him - especially in the archaic slow moving government agencies. When he sees an obstruction, he rams right through it. And it still took years.

This NOT an easy watch - at all. But you'll learn a lot. And I think you'll come to like Dan. His family is very easy to like.

Thank goodness there are still good people in the world. Thanks, Dan.