There were 487,842 overdose deaths involving opioids from 2000-2019 in the United States.

There were 487,842 overdose deaths involving opioids from 2000-2019 in the United States. HBO's THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY, a two-part documentary directed by Emmy and Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (HBO's "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley," "Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief"), and presented in association with The Washington Post, is a searing indictment of Big Pharma and the political operatives and government regulations that enable over-production, reckless distribution and abuse of synthetic opiates. The film follows the opioid epidemic in the United States, and the political operatives, government regulations and corporations that enable the abuse of opioids, particularly the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma. Exploring the origins, extent and fallout of one of the most devastating public health tragedies of our time, with half a million deaths from overdoses this century alone, the film reveals that America's opioid epidemic is not a public health crisis that came out of nowhere.
In 1996, the drug company Purdue Pharma, then owned and controlled by Mortimer and Raymond Sackler and their heirs, began selling the opioid drug OxyContin. The highly addictive medication was designed for people with severe pain, such as cancer patients, but went to market as a moderate pill for chronic pain sufferers, complete with a succinct, misleading seal of approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Purdue then aggressively marketed OxyContin to doctors across the country as a safe prescription for chronic pain sufferers, although company never held clinical trials to demonstrate that OxyContin was less addictive or likely to be abused than any other opioid.
With the help of whistleblowers, insiders, newly-leaked documents, exclusive interviews and access to behind-the-scenes investigations, and featuring expert input from medical professionals, journalists, former and current government agents, attorneys and pharmaceutical sales representatives, as well as sobering testimony from victims of opioid addiction, Gibney's expose posits that drug companies are in fact largely responsible for manufacturing the very crisis they profit from, to the tune of billions of dollars.and thousands of lives.

Written and Directed by Alex Gibney; A Jigsaw Production in association with Storied Media Group and The Washington Post for HBO Documentary Films