Painkiller was an extremely eye opening dramatized docu series about Oxycontin. One of my favorite things about Painkiller is that it shows you all angles. From what Purdue Pharma had to do to get the drug approved, how they use attractive college-aged girls to sell the pills to pharmacists, and it shows how Oxycontin impacts peoples’ day to day lives and the impact that their addiction has on their families. 

Painkiller shows that Purdue Pharma jumped through a lot of hoops so that Oxycontin could be pushed onto the market faster than it otherwise would have been. Oxycontin is a highly addictive schedule two narcotic, typically used to treat severe pain and cancer. Oxycontin is 1.5-2 times stronger than morphine. 

Throughout the series we also see how Purdueu Pharma manipulated young college girls into selling Oxycontin by giving them fancy gifts and nice apartments. These girls were supposed to sell Oxycontin while knowing absolutely nothing about it. They were expected to sell it with their only claims being that it’s not addictive and that it’s the “safest drug on the market.” When the truth is that neither of these claims has been proven. 

Overall Painkiller did an amazing job on showing what is wrong with the pharmaceutical business. Some of the pills that they are pushing do help with pain, but a lot of them are not always safe and a lot of the time there isn’t extensive research done to see if they are actually safe. I would definitely recommend watching Painkiller, but I would be aware that it touches on some pretty heavy topics.