Warning: This Drug May Kill You

This is one great documentary. I couldn't stop watching as the subjects and their stories are so compelling that it's impossible to turn away. It's about the current opioid epidemic that's sweeping the country and taking lives of otherwise healthy productive people. The hook of the drug is insidious and grabs people like a Venus Fly Trap. The irony is that many if not most of the cases could be avoided if the doctors and hospitals that dispense the drugs so freely were more cautious about giving them out and providing adequate guidelines as to the potential hazards involved. In other words many of the cases of addiction which sometimes led to death, could be avoided. At one point I had tears running down my face as I was so moved by the stories of loss and sadness that all I wanted to do was hug my kid with the thought of putting a protective wall around her. Thank you HBO and kudos to the production team. Well done.

I loved this film- although the material is incredibly heavy, it presents the footage in an incredibly graceful and interesting way. The film essentially uncovers a hidden problem that exists in the USA. Moreover, the film is all about the victims of the opioid epidemic as opposed to focusing on experts which really provides the viewer with a candid understanding of what is happening around us. It is a must watch!!! Bravo to the filmmakers-

Provocative, unflinching and at time utterly heartbreaking, Warning This Drug May Kill You takes us deep inside the lives of four American families shattered by the prescription opioid epidemic, the worst drug crisis this nation has ever seen. It is an hour long indictment, expertly delivered, of a culture and system that sold us on dangerous medications, got us hooked and then tried to dodge responsibility. We're still trying to dodge it, pretending that our drug problem is imported, and that a wall can stop it, when indeed the fault lies in ourselves. This is a challenging and important film. It should be made required viewing for our state an federal lawmakers.

This documentary looks at several middle class families and how well adjusted people had various illnesses of short duration and ended up addicted to OxyContin, then buying pills off the street when their doctors finally identified them as drug seekers, then to heroin as a cheap alternative, and then either ended up dead or in multiple relapses.

The illnesses involved were kidney stones, a cyst, and a C-section. The problem is, in the 1990s the manufacturers of the new opioid drugs were telling doctors that these drugs were not addictive over the long haul and that they could be prescribed freely for chronic pain. This is not to discount the usefulness these drugs have had for people in truly horrible long term pain due to cancer or car accidents, but M.D.s were passing prescriptions out like candy for a few years to people who didn't really need it and found themselves addicted in as little as one week.

There are stories of addiction, getting clean at clinics, and then relapsing at some point once released. Stories of children having to take care of and see their mother in a state that no children should have to endure, the stories of heartbroken survivors when the addict takes a fatal overdose.

There is also a look at a support group for parents who have lost children to this drug. The survivors are truly shell shocked, almost in disbelief that their Mayberry like existences would ever be permeated by drug addiction.

I can't remember if the documentary mentioned it or not, but you can't help but notice that everybody in this documentary is white and at least middle class. It could be because doctors have bias that makes them suspect non-white or poor patients. You also can't help but notice that all of the addicts here are offered rehab rather than incarceration.

This documentary is worth watching not because it breaks new ground, but because in spite of the warnings and the settlement with Purdue, the maker of OxyContin, ten years ago, this epidemic is still with us.

As one who recently had spinal surgery and was offered pain killer (30 day supply!) upon discharge from the hospital and given no warnings about possible consequences, I was shocked to learn in the film how legally and professionally dispensed medicine can become addictive in a matter of just a few weeks, sometimes in a matter of days.

The film should be seen by everyone or otherwise more people will stumble into the unknown darkness of addiction which has devastating consequences for the individual involved, of course, but also for the immediate family as well.

This is a spiral of disaster and it is amazing that it can all happen so quickly.