 Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. That's right in this video. We're going to talk about how John Oliver just exposed the real cause of the opioid crisis in the United States 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 What I like to do is pull different topics from pop culture or the news to try to see what lessons we can learn from them So if you're into that kind of stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell So I just finished watching John Oliver last week tonight. Love that show love it so much And whenever they're talking about opioids. Ooh, I get all worked up. So those of you who don't know me yet Hi, I'm chris. I am a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. I've been clean since June 23rd 2012 So a little over six and a half years and my drug of choice was prescription opioids Okay, so this is something I'm very passionate about it's something that almost took my life Working in a treatment center for over three years. I've seen how it's affected so many people All over the country and I've seen how many people have passed away From addiction because of prescription opioids So in this video, I'm going to break down some of the things that John Oliver talked about share some of my own personal experience as well as some broader information about this and it's all going to lead back to where we're at with the opioid crisis Talking about some of the things that president trump's talked about and how those aren't necessarily the solutions. All right, so In this week's episode of last week tonight with john oliver. They start out by talking about mckesson okay, so they're talking about how the opioid crisis is Largely fueled by a bunch of pharmacies Ordering way too many opioids and like selling them all really nearly. All right. These are sometimes known as pill farms So the example they used was a small town in west virginia with a population of 400 And they ordered over 3 million prescription opioids. Okay, that was enough to give every person there about 7500 opioids Okay, so think about that for a second and I'm going to circle back to this in a minute But anyways, what they talk about has mckesson All they did was like they made it so they had to regulate themselves and keep an eye on themselves Which is absolutely bonkers. All right So one of the things that a de uh former dea agent was discussing is they shouldn't be fined Right because a fine is just a slap on the wrist. These guys are making Insane amounts of money off the backs of people who are becoming addicted and dying from this disease Like these are people who should be put in prison for what they're doing. All right So john oliver ends up going into the sackler family and the sackler family Oh They get my blood boiling But one thing about john oliver and the team of last week tonight is they lighten up the mood a little bit So what they did was they got various actors to read parts of this deposition with the sackler family or uh, I believe it was Richard sackler And I chose to use a couple clips from one of my favorites brine crampston who you may know as walter white So here's a few things pulled from that deposition The launch of oxy cotton tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition The prescription blizzard will be so deep dense And white and then don't forget this one We have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible. They are the culprits and the problem They are reckless criminals. All right. So this is absolutely terrible for those of you Who don't know the full history about this? When oxy cotton first came out They marketed it as a safer non-addictive opioid Okay, they said this is safe to use use this and all this and they were pushing it Light crazy and they were lying to doctors lying to the public They had a very very aggressive marketing campaign and by the way, I'm gonna link to the sackler gallery Dot-com website that john oliver created and lastly tonight created Um, it's great. Go watch it a little humor for this terrible situation But anyways, like they aggressively pushed this and so many people so many people even people who were part of their marketing campaigns And uh, the commercials that were doing they ended up becoming addicted and dying I think only a few a few people survived, right? Um, some of them became addicted to heroin and ended up getting clean But a lot of them ended up passing away from this So that one clip I just showed you that brian cranson read like that absolutely Sickens me. Okay. Like they're their whole idea behind this and he said other awful things like oh only 50 something people died That's not too bad. But anyways, their whole, um Campaign to like kind of sweep this under the rug was they wanted to get ahead of this thing and blame the addicts Blame the addicts for this. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. Okay? I have a science of addiction course up on my website for free if you want to go check it out It's linked down in the description below But yes, some people are born addicted some people develop an addiction from substance abuse But when doctors are pushing and over prescribing Addictive medications, there are chemical hooks. Okay, and then some people are more prone to addiction. All right Science has discovered this some people's genetics their brain chemistry is different than the average person So they are more prone to addiction. For example addiction runs in my family. There's actually a gene associated with addiction Okay, so we need to understand that they were creating addicts and then they wanted to blame the addicts and John Oliver makes a joke about how like, you know, um, they're they're they're Trying to blame the people who are filling their pockets with money So here's where this thing comes full circle back to where we're at today Okay, because this is something that got kicked off in like the early 2000s Now the sackler family is paying for it and all sorts of things But here's the issue that I have here's the biggest issue I have Is the way that president trump keeps talking about building a wall because mexico keeps bringing drugs into our country Like this is complete bs. Okay, there are so many politicians who are taking money from big pharma And the best way for people not to look at that is to blame mexico and say, oh, well, mexico's bringing heroin in Here's the thing on the screen right in front of you This is a report from drug abuse dot gov. All right Most people who turned to heroin Started with prescription opioids. All right, not many people wake up and they're like, you know what? I'm gonna try heroin today. That's not how this happens Most people start with prescription opioids So that wall that wall that they're so adamant about to keep drugs out immigration is a totally different thing that I don't talk about on my channel But one of the selling points that donald trump keeps trying to give is that the drugs are coming over and here's the thing Here is the other thing that upsets me. All right, and let me make it very very clear Like yes, there are people with chronic pain and yes, that is awful and like I can't even imagine But we need to figure out a way to come together because whenever I talk about this prescription opioid epidemic Chronic pain patients think that, you know, I'm talking about just getting rid of prescription opioids That's not what I'm talking about. But we're talking about regulating them. We're talking about Making it harder to access. I'm like, I'm sorry, but there are very bad doctors out there Who are pushing this remember that small town of kermit that I talked about Overordering prescription opioids and then selling them to the public because here's the thing Like here in nevada, they've cracked down quite a bit on it. So like for example, chronic pain patients They'll have to go back to the doctor. Um, like maybe once a month like they're not giving people 90 day prescriptions anymore They go back once once a month and then they might even have to do a drug test Why do a drug test? Do you ask right? And I remember there was an article in the las vegas review journal about this woman They quoted and they're saying oh and they're drug testing me like I'm some sort of drug addict No, here's the thing and like the most ridiculous argument I ever hear is like when people are like Oh, doctors weren't giving them to me. I was buying prescription opioids on the street How do you think people get those prescription opioids? Okay I was a prescription opioid addict and 99.9 of my dealers were like Older men and women. Okay. What they were doing was going to the doctor lying about their pain Getting a bunch of pills and then selling them to guys like me as well as many other peoples So this is one of the reasons why doctors are starting a drug test to make sure that people are actually taking the pills That they're being prescribed because there's a lot of people gaming the system in order to sell drugs to other people And this creates a dependency. This is why people turn to heroin. I can tell you from my own experience I I was addicted to prescription opioids without prescriptions So when my dealers would run out, I would go through withdrawal. I was in a lot of pain I'm one of the few fortunate people who had a very severe opioid addiction to prescription opioids And I never turned to heroin and like I was probably this close This close heroin was cheaper and it was stronger and it was more readily available. All right So we need to understand how this thing escalates So like I really really hope that all of you are getting the correct information and you're thinking about this I've been doing some more videos on like politics and things like that Like we need to understand where the sources of these problems are coming from the drugs. Yes Like fentanyl coming in from china. Yes, that's a big issue black tar heroin coming in from mexico Yes, that's a big issue But we need to start getting down to the root problem and figuring out why people are turning to heroin Why people are turning to fentanyl? Why are people doing this? A lot of it starts with a prescription opioid crisis that is coming from doctors coming from pharmacies right here in the united states All right, so let's all come together and figure this thing out. All right who We're gonna do this. We're gonna do this together. All right. Anyways, that's all I got for this video Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments if you like this video Please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos And a huge huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon You are all amazing and if you would like to sign up become a patron help support the channel Get involved in our monthly q&a and some other stuff. Click or tap right there. All right Thanks again so so much for watching. I'll see you next time