 Alright, so I finally had a chance to check out the Pharmacist documentary on Netflix and it is one of the best documentaries with the coolest main people ever. And we're going to talk about it and there will be some spoilers but it's a documentary so not much can be spoiled. But anyways, if you want, go watch it, come back and we'll discuss. What is up everybody? This is Chris from The Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health, addiction, addiction recovery and all that stuff so if you're into that, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because sometimes what I like to do is take different movies, TV shows, documentaries and kind of discuss them, break them down, share some of my experience. So this documentary, The Pharmacist, it came out, God, earlier 2020 or last year in 2019 but I've been meaning to watch it because it's about this pharmacist who kind of blew up the spot of big pharma and the whole opioid crisis that really got its legs in the early 2000s. All right? So one of the reasons why I'm very passionate about this topic is for those of you who don't know me, hi, I'm Chris, I'm a recovering drug addict. My preferred drug of choice was prescription opioids, all right? I got clean on my 27th birthday in June of 2012 and yeah, now I try to share my story and give people some hope who are struggling with addiction or if you know somebody who is. So this is a topic that I'm very, very passionate about. So let's discuss the documentary real quick and I'll kind of lay out the foundation of how this guy, Dan, he became one of the main people to really give attention to the opioid epidemic and I'm blown away that more people don't know about this guy. So anyways, Dan, he's a father. He had two children and his wife and they lived in Louisiana and his son was tragically murdered while doing a drug deal in a bad part of town and his son was buying crack cocaine and he was shot and Dan saw that, you know, the local New Orleans police department wasn't doing much. There was a lot of like scandalous stuff within the police department and a lot of very shady detectives and police officers and all that kind of stuff and Dan, he, you know, he felt a responsibility to figure out who killed his son, right? So he was going down into the hood, like the most dangerous part of the city, knocking on doors, asking questions and like, people were like, oh my God, like this, this dude is crazy, right? And yeah, it took some time and it's, it's a really interesting and sad story. They think they catch the person, then they don't, then they find out who really killed his son. But anyways, that's just like kind of where it starts and that's kind of the first two episodes. But anyways, as you can tell from the title of the documentary, Dan is a pharmacist. All right? So something that Dan started doing when he was investigating his son's murder was he started recording all of his conversations. And by the way, like Dan, he like keeps all his, his tapes and stuff in his attic and he has the scariest little staircase that goes up there and Tristan and I were worried that that thing was going to break, but anyways, he records like all of his conversations and that'll kind of play into stuff that happens a little bit later. But anyways, he's a pharmacist and in the early 2000s, here's what went down. Purdue Pharma created OxyContin, all right? And this was promoted as this miracle pain killer, all right? Chronic pain or pain in general is something that a lot of people suffer with, whether it's chronic pain from an injury or, you know, some other kind of chronic illness. But doctors are always trying to find ways to minimize pain for people. So when OxyContin hit the market, it was one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns ever, but here's the thing. It was promoted as an opioid that is non-addictive, all right? Which is crazy and they discuss this a little bit in the documentary, right? Like we know opiates and synthetic opioids are addictive, like we know that for a fact. But somehow Purdue Pharma and their sales reps were able to lie to people, lie to the American people and doctors and say, no, this is non-addictive. One of the ways they did that was by selling people in the fact that OxyContin is time release, right? So since it's time release, basically what that means is you take it and it takes a while to actually digest and break apart in your system and release into the opioids. That was their selling point is saying, this is why it's non-addictive, right? But an opiate is an opiate is an opiate is an opiate, okay? So they really pushed this. Well, Dan, being a pharmacist, he knows, he knows how strong and powerful a drug like this is. And in the early 2000s, about year 2000, 2001, he started seeing a lot of people coming into his pharmacy, getting prescriptions for this extremely powerful drug and he's like, what's going on? And because Dan felt this sense of duty, right? Because he lost his son who had a drug habit that he didn't even know about, he felt a responsibility to really explain to people what this drug does, how it can be addictive, how it can destroy your life, how it can even lead to a fatal overdose, right? And what Dan ended up doing as these OxyContin prescriptions kept coming in, he ran a report, which is crazy. There's so many things that Dan does in this documentary and you're like, you're like law enforcement didn't do this, the DEA didn't do this, the FBI didn't do this. Dan ran a report to see how many prescriptions he was getting from a specific doctor in his area named Dr. Cleggit, right? And it was an insane amount. It was like thousands. So Dan, Dan's the best person ever. Go watch this documentary just for Dan. Dan's like, I'm going to go investigate this. So he goes to Dr. Cleggit's office, right? And there's a line out the door, okay? Like a line of people. Like imagine, imagine like a midnight release of like an album or a video game or a movie, right? Like this is what it looked like going into her doctor's office. And he's like, yo, this, this does not look right. What's even crazier is Dr. Cleggit. Her office hours were like primarily during the nighttime hours, right? Like it wasn't like normal operating hours. And Dan ended up meeting a young man who was, you know, actually getting those prescriptions and Dan talked this guy out of like using and things like that. But anyways, Dan realized that she was over prescribing these medications. And they called this the Holy Trinity. She was prescribing Oxycontin, Xanax, and Soma, okay? And those of you who don't know, that is a deadly combination, okay? All three of these are depressants. Xanax is typically prescribed for, you know, anxiety disorders. Soma can also be prescribed for anxiety, but it's also a muscle relaxer, right? But all three of these medications get you high, but they depress the nervous system. And when taken in combination, they can kill you, right? They depress your nervous system. They slow down your breathing and you could die. And Dan felt this obligation to do something because he couldn't in good conscious keep prescribing these medications knowing people might die, right? And eventually he did have somebody who died and he ended up leaving his pharmacy for a little bit and things like that. But he raised hell. He went to the DEA. He went to the FBI. He was calling, recording conversations, doing all sorts of stuff. And like the DEA, they interviewed the DEA and agents at the DEA. They were actually working on the Dr. Clegg case for a while, but it was taking forever. And I get it. I get that there's like this process. But Dan, Dan realized with every passing day that Dr. Clegg, it was still able to prescribe these very powerful, potentially lethal opioids. More people were dying. And in this specific area in the New Orleans area, they had this massive spike in overdose deaths. So Dan was going everywhere like we need to stop this now. He was going to the news. He was calling the FBI. He was doing his own research and everything. And he ended up getting the smoking gun because the guy he sent in who was like his inside guy, he actually went there to do some kind of office maintenance repair. And she paid him with a prescription. And she had cops working there. And the cop was like, yo, no payment. Take this prescription and you better leave, right? But anyways, it's really tragic to kind of finish it up. Dan, he was kind of like the driving force behind pharmacy starting to put in a system. So pharmacists can better track who's getting opioids if they're doctor shopping, getting all these and everything like that. Dr. Clegg did end up going to court, but she was in a car accident. And it turns out she was like abusing the medications herself. And she got in a car accident, had brain damage. And she pretty much had no repercussions at all for the thousands, potentially thousands of people that she killed. But they kind of finish up the documentary explaining the lawsuits against Purdue pharma and everything like that. And I think, as a recovering opioid addict and as somebody who's trying to increase awareness and help others out, it blows my mind that these red flags have been there for almost 20 years. And if you look at any of the current statistics, it's not slowing down. Like we still have a massive problem, all right? But anyways, like there are people who do need these medications, but we still do have a problem with some doctors over prescribing. Anyways, go check out this documentary over on Netflix. It's only like four episodes, and it's worth your watch. And it helps you educate you a little bit more about the opioid epidemic and how it started, all right? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up if you're new. Make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books at TheRewardToll.com and those who get merged from the merch store. You're all awesome, all right? Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.