Virginia Filmmaker’s New Take On Opioid Epidemic

AUDIO – A KILLER PILL –

Oct. 26, 2024 – The film begins with attorney Paul Farrell Junior giving a tour of his hometown – Huntington, West Virginia.

“There’s been a slow decay. The jobs have dried up,” he says. “Certainly the coal industry has had its challenges. I think it was the perfect storm with a lack of employment, a ton of prescription opiates, and once that demon got a hold of its victims, you can’t come out of it!”

“Everybody’s aware of Perdue Pharma. We all understand that there are pill mills and there are rogue doctors, but what I think people missed was that there was a control valve established by Congress in 1970. Congress created this closed system where it doesn’t go directly from the manufacturer down to the pharmacies. It goes through the wholesale distributor. They were tasked with controlling the flow of prescription opiates — identify and report suspicious orders, which is defined as unusual size, deviation from normal patterns or unusual frequency, and if they get a suspicious order, they have to halt the shipment and notify the DEA, and they didn’t do it.”