All language subtitles for The.Pharmacist.S01E04.Tunnel.of.Hope.720p.NF.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.x264-NTG

Tell me about that day.

That was probably the most difficult day
of my life.

Today, the State Board
of Medical Examiners

summarily suspended
Dr. Jacqueline Cleggett.

Cleggett's lawyer tells us
he'll be asking for

a full hearing tomorrow.

I spent a very, very long time
to become a physician.

Too many hardships I had to endure
to actually get to where I was

to have it snatched away.

My desire to become a physician
started when I was eight years old.

I wanted to help people.

Simple as that.

Chronic pain is subjective.

You must rely on
the patient's explanation,

because often there are no physical signs
that you can objectively diagnose.

In other words,

your pain is what you say it is.

In seeking to help patients,

you try to provide
the best possible resource to them.

OxyContin was very effective.

So that's why that drug was selected.

Do you remember
any of your patients dying?

Do you have specific patients in mind?

After Dr. Cleggett's license
was suspended...

you have to give the physician
a due process hearing

within 90 days
of the time that you summarily suspend.

So the clock is ticking.

In the complaint,

there are well over
100 factual allegations.

Fifty, sixty pages.

Family members contacted Dr. Cleggett

and tried to get her to agree

to quit treating their son

or daughter or husband

because they were addicted and impaired,

and they were misusing their medications,

and they got no, um, response
from Dr. Cleggett.

Or if they got a response,

it was negative.

We had affidavits from coroners,
uh, DEA people,

you know, narcotics agents.

They see young people

with foam coming out of their mouths.

OxyContin bottles
with Dr. Cleggett's name on it

strewn on the floor.

I had all of that ready to go
and I was ready to move.

I got a phone call
from the medical board,

asking me if I might give a deposition

against Dr. Cleggett,
who was trying to get her license back.

The deposition was the first time
I sat down across from Dr. Cleggett.

Her attorney was trying to belittle me.

He painted this picture

that I wasn't able to catch

my son's addiction before he died.

And that I would have done anything
to put her out of business

to make up for my son's death.

Her attorney says...

"Mr. Schneider, what length

would you have
gone to to put her out of business?

What would you have spent...

to put her out of business?"

And I said...

"What's a life worth?"

We had a hearing set.

And a few days before the hearing,
we get word

Dr. Cleggett has been admitted

to DePaul-Tulane Behavioral Center
for opiate abuse...

and cannot attend the hearing.

DEA had information

from some patients

who said that Dr. Cleggett not only

gave out prescription drugs,
she used prescriptions.

On one occasion,
while we were conducting observation,

I saw Dr. Cleggett taking pills herself
when arriving at the clinic.

We got a search warrant
to search her home.

In plain view, there were numerous bottles
of prescription medication,

some with pills in 'em, some empty.

just laying around in Dr. Cleggett's home.

So you were never self-medicating?

Mm-mm.

Mm-mm.

You didn't suffer from addiction?

No.

I was never addicted.

After Dr. Cleggett was admitted
into DePaul

and her abuse was well-documented...

Dr. Cleggett and her attorney
were agreeable...

to the total termination

of her medical license

without having to admit any wrongdoing.

Dr. Cleggett's license was revoked
in 2003.

However, it was years later

before the US Attorney indicted her.

When you see...

your name...

versus the United States of America...

if that doesn't strike fear
into your heart, I don't know what will.

"So the entire country's against me?"

She was one of the first doctors

the US Attorney's office prosecuted.

I was given a subpoena.

And they asked me

to bring everything I had done,
through either the medical board

or the FBI or the DEA.

And I was basically told when I got there
that I was probably the primary witness.

And shortly after that,

I found out that there were other cases
against Dr. Cleggett.

I was an operative
of Purdue Pharma...

but I was subpoenaed individually.

I don't know if it was a group of patients
that got together and they were suing her

and somehow or another
my name got tangled up in this,

or if it was kind of a blanket action
to get Purdue reps,

to get them to answer questions

about the territory in general.

But it wasn't, "Purdue Pharma and Chris."

So I had to go show up.

The questions revolved around,

"What do you know about Dr. Cleggett?

What do you know about the promotion
of OxyContin in this territory?"

I answered the questions.
I answered honestly.

And I remember being relieved
when I walked out.

And I remember having my mind made up...

when I walked out...

that I got to get the fuck away
from this...

because I'm not going any deeper
than where I am right now.

Right before the indictment...

I heard that Dr. Cleggett

was in a car accident.

I was asleep
on the passenger side.

The driver took out a section of trees,

going at approximately 80 miles an hour.

They said I nearly died in that crash.

They were correct.

I had a hangman's fracture,

which is what happens
when you hang from a noose

and break your neck.

I suffered the exact same injury
in the car accident.

I had two brain hemorrhages...

five skull fractures.

The reason why I sound different
is because I was intubated

for six weeks.

My voice is now higher and squeakier.

Following the accident...

I was prescribed OxyContin.

And, no,
I didn't have any problems with it.

Actually...

it helped alleviate a lot of pain.

At the time,
she was partially paralyzed,

but Dr. Cleggett eventually
was brought to trial

for the operation of her pain clinic.

The criminal prosecution
placed Dr. Cleggett at risk

for somewhere around 20 years
of incarceration

and fines of around a million dollars.

She was originally charged

with 37 counts of conspiracy

to distribute controlled
substances for no medical purpose.

Because she was in
this terrible automobile accident,

her attorney worked out a plea agreement

with the US Attorney's office.

She was charged
with only one count of conspiracy

to prescribe a controlled substance
without a legitimate medical purpose.

Which, in fact,
means she was not practicing medicine,

period.

I pleaded guilty to one count

even though I knew...

that I had not done

what they stated I had done.

Due to her impairment
from the car accident,

she did not do any prison time
and was on probation for three years.

She didn't go to jail.

But part of her plea agreement

was to agree never to operate
a pain clinic ever again.

Sometimes,
I actually have dreams

about practicing medicine.

And...

for a few moments, when I wake up...

it seems that dream is actually real.

But that's a dream about the past.

A dream that I can never get back.

Her punishment did not fit the crime.

And I'll leave it at that.

Yeah.

After Dr. Cleggett got shut down...

I felt like I had accomplished my mission.

And I thought
that might be the end of this.

That wasn't the end.

That was the beginning.

It was like a cancer.

It metastasized.

Pills were just readily available.

Pill mills were, you know,
kind of popping up all over the place.

It seemed like they were replicating
Dr. Cleggett's business model, okay?

So many addicts had been created

and people knew there was real money
to be made off every one of them.

How easy is it
to open and run a clinic?

According to the DEA, just about anyone
who's willing to fill out the paperwork

and pay the taxes can do it.

You go to the Sheriff's Office

and make an application
for an occupational license

and you agree to pay sales tax

and you're issued a license
and you can open a clinic.

I was really disappointed in
the doctors.

They had sworn to do no harm.

They had been trained all their lives
to help people

and here they were killing people.

Every week,
the DEA sees one or two applications

from people trying to open up
new pain clinics in the New Orleans area.

We now estimate that there's 60
and the number is growing.

But this problem
has reached crisis proportions.

More than 60 pain clinics
had popped up.

And fatal overdoses doubled
in St. Bernard.

A lot of people

felt it was a hopeless situation.

But I saw the drug problem
as a dark tunnel that we were in.

And I had a dream that maybe, just maybe,

there could be light
at the end of the tunnel

or somehow we could create some light
at the end of the tunnel.

In St. Bernard Parish,
there's a stretch of trees

that forms a tunnel.

We call it the tunnel of oaks.

Danny and I would be in the Mustang

and we would ride through
that beautiful tunnel.

It was always part of a route
that we would take,

what we called "down the road."

I saw it as a symbol of hope.

So I started calling this mission
that I was on, "The Tunnel of Hope."

We never had all the answers
we wanted,

why Danny got killed that night.

But Danny was still on a mission
to help other parents

with kids that have drug problems.

'Cause we didn't want that to happen
to their families.

I had a chance
to save a bunch of kids.

I wanted to do something for my community.

Apparently, most people
are like I was in the past.

And they just let everything slide.

Everything just kind of goes by 'em.

I have a little saying.
Some people watch things happen.

Some people make things happen.

And some people say, "What happened?"

And I'm in a "make happen" stage.

I'm speaking out.
I plan to speak at schools.

We gotta try to make a difference
against incredible odds again.

And Danny's right by our side.

I appreciate
the opportunity to speak to you all.

I'm here representing my family,

including my son,

to deliver this message
and see if we can't make a difference.

I started talking to kids
on a regular basis.

And Robbie,

many times,
would show up in a supportive fashion

and be part of the audience.

Something had to change.

You had young teenagers

just looking to get high.

Now they're starting with something

that could kill 'em on the first dose.

Danny had talked to me
about marijuana,

saying it was safe and saying,
"But, Dad, I wouldn't go any further."

And every person...

And every person that goes further,

do you think that any of them
think it's going to lead to death

or them being in jail?

Not one of 'em.

After he talked at some of
the schools...

he almost became a mentor
to some of the kids,

'cause they would call him up
on the phone.

I remember, one night, we were sleeping,
it was like two o'clock in the morning.

The phone rang and it was this kid
that needed to talk to Danny.

What I want to point out
to y'all in the audience is this:

If I asked you
to look at the ten people around you...

which of your friends do you think
would be the one that would screw up?

You might form an opinion on that,

but it'd be curious,

because if you ask
the person you picked...

they might pick you.

It can happen to any one of you.

We've got to reverse the trend.

2004, 2005,

I was developing a lot of momentum.

People started to know kind of who I was
and what was going on.

I was writing articlesin the newspaper.

I wrote lettersto a number of politicians

trying to motivate somebody
to try to reduce this problem.

Could we get
the pharmaceutical manufacturers

at least to maybe pay
for some of this carnage?

We worked on pain clinic law.

We worked on pain clinic moratoriums.

I not only wanted to change St. Bernard,

I wanted to change the country.

That was my dream.

I was feeling good
about where I was going with my mission,

and so I scheduled a town hall meeting.

We were getting very, very close, uh,
to that meeting.

We had a date scheduled,
I'd already printed materials on it.

And then we heard about a hurricane
that was out in the Gulf.

There's been a subtle change

in the track of this, which may mean...

Hurricane Katrina
continues to move west,

taking aim at southeast Louisiana.

My cell phone rings,
"Is this Sheriff Stephens?"

I say, "Yes."

He says,
"I'm with the National Hurricane Center.

I'm sorry to have to make this call."

He said, "But you're gonna have
a 30-foot wall of water

hit your parish tomorrow.

You're gonna flood levy to levy

and there's not going to be
a structure spared.

And you're gonna have
significant loss of life.

God bless you and good luck,"
and they hung the phone up.

If persons haven't evacuated
by now...

they need to leave immediately.

It is a 100% probability.

For God's sake,

if you're listening
to this broadcast right now,

get out.

The news people had kind of warned

some major damage might happen.

But we just could not envision

the entire St. Bernard...

The levy breach has occurred
along the industrial canal.

There's gotta be a break
in the levy somewhere

'cause the water's still coming up.

Oh, no!

Here it comes, up the front door.
It broke the front door.

Oh, God. I can't believe this.

There were four houses over there.

Now they're gone. All four of them.

Oh, Jesus Christ!

Moving right down the Bayou.

Oh, God, please let it stop.

Look at that car. You see?
It was halfway on the roof.

- Was it? Okay.
- Yeah. Come back, you might see it.

Entering St. Bernard Parish
for the first time.

Hopefully entering St. Bernard Parish.

Unbelievable.

Never realized how much I cared
for this community until this happened.

Everything has been destroyed.

Totally destroyed.

It was the largest natural disaster

in the country's history at that point.

Here's our house.

There's Kristi, with her boots, going in.

Holy crap.

I'm going down.

Good Lord. Look at that!

Came right through the ceiling.

- What?
- Yeah.

Kristi's trying to go upstairs.

Okay, wait a minute.

Merry Christmas!

It's Danny.

He's up.

That was the only house
I ever lived in my entire life.

Ta-da!

All the memories with my brother
were there and...

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

All of St. Bernard

had pain and anguish, just like us.

And, unfortunately, a lot of people
turned to OxyContin to cope.

When we were starting
to rebuild this place,

the melancholy and the grief

and the depression after Katrina

was unbelievable.

They had more people
turn to drugs and alcohol

after that storm
than you could ever imagine.

People you would never assume
would take pills to survive...

were doing it.

St. Bernard is blue collar.

A lot of 'em got hurt doing manual labor.

So, the demand was there.

There were doctors
that were willing to supply that demand.

It's a perfect storm.

After Katrina, it was amazing
that the hundred-year oak trees survived.

The Tunnel of Hope survived.

I knew my mission had to go on.

When Katrina came,

almost all of Danny's documents
and everything was upstairs

in the attic.

Everything in the attic got saved.

And it was amazing,

'cause everything else
pretty much was destroyed.

And so I felt God wanted me
to do something beyond Cleggett.

OxyContin was still out there.

The only way
we could make a serious dent in this

was to go at the source.

Something had to be done
about Purdue Pharma.

In 2007,

Purdue Pharma was convicted
of misrepresenting the abuse liability,

or the addictive potential of OxyContin.

Purdue's marketing of OxyContin

was deceptive and criminal.

It is important to note
that most of the people never claimed

that Purdue was solely responsible
for their loved one's death.

They just wanted Purdue
to tell the truth about the drug.

The patients were told,
"This has lower addictive qualities."

Compared to fucking what?

You know, I mean,
that's a serious question.

Compared to what?

Their executives
were slapped on the wrist, okay?

The company had to pay
600 million dollars in fines,

but these guys never really
accepted responsibility

for the opiate epidemic
that they helped create.

Even after the Purdue executives
plead guilty in 2007,

they didn't stop promoting OxyContin.

They promoted it harder than ever.

Somebody...

should have said, "Whoa."

Somebody should have
pumped the fucking brakes and said...

"Whoa,

we got problems."

You know? "We got problems, Houston.

We're leaking oil."

I finally came to the conclusion
that Purdue Pharma

was not gonna stop what they were doing.

But maybe we could stop
the prescription problem,

which was producing addicts.

What can we do...

to curb pill-mill doctors?

This hour,
we're talking about...

Are these pain control clinics
out of control?

These are prescriptions

that are filled at pharmacies.

Exactly.

And we're not in a position to know

whether or not these people
are seeing more than one doctor.

What do they call it?
Drug shopping?

Drug shopping, doctor shopping.

- Doctor shopping. Yeah.
- Correct.

I was advocating

for a prescription monitoring program.

I didn't invent this thing,

but I saw it
in some other states

and on the news.

And I started saying,
"God, this is a great idea."

I wrote a letter to the pharmacy board.

And it was just weeks later,
they came back and said,

"We have listened to your proposition,
we agree with you

and we're gonna do it."

With the prescription monitoring program,

we didn't have to go to pharmacies.

We could see it

on one computer-generated print-out.

The PMP made it a lot easier...

to prosecute doctors.

Two pain management clinics
are the targets of raids

by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

Dr. Richard Paolino was charged

with more than 1,000 counts of fraud

associated with OxyContin prescriptions.

We finally started
curtailing doctors a little bit

to reduce the OxyContin that they wrote.

The 61-year-old physician
was basically a drug dealer

with a medical license.

OxyContin began getting restricted.

Pharmacies were refusing
to fill certain prescriptions.

It was just getting harder

for people that were addicted
to get those opioids prescribed.

So people moved to heroin.

People get addicted
and then the supply goes away.

So what happens when the supply goes away?

People find a new supply,

because they're addicted
and they don't have any other options.

The drug cartels saw an opportunity

to fill an enormous vacuum

with the interruption of the pill mills.

Then, all of a sudden,
we've got as bad a drug problem

as we've ever had.

We want to tell you
about a skyrocketing threat

in suburban communities
across the country tonight.

The explosion of heroin
isn't by accident.

The prescription monitoring program

has turned opiate addicts
who can't get their fix in a pill form

to heroin.

Cheaper than prescription pills,

heroin gives users the same fix,

but at a significantly lower cost.

Prescription opioids
became the gateway to heroin addiction.

Seventy-five percentof heroin users

said the first opioid they ever used
was a prescription opioid.

When you're getting something legal
from a doctor

with a legitimate prescription...

it's not like,

you know, going into the city

and buying heroin on the street,
which is illegal.

It's dirtierto people.

But an addict is an addict,

and if you put a heroin addict
and an OxyContin addict

in a room for a few days, using,

you wouldn't be able to tell them apart,

because it does the same exact thing.

Just when I thought
I was getting everything maybe resolved...

I saw so many unintended consequences.

Now they're going to heroin!

It was almost like...

"Did I do the right thing?"

Prescription drugs,
at least they know what they're getting.

There was unfamiliarity
with the drug

and our overdose episodes
just went through the roof.

Get him on the ground.

It was alarming.

It was... It was a shock.

Come on, buddy. Come on.

We're losing more people
every year.

Jay, wake up.

Drugs come in seasons.

First, it was OxyContin season.

Heroin season.

And now we have fentanyl season.

Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times
more potent than heroin or morphine

and so extremely lethal.

People think they're getting one thing

and they're actually getting a mixture
of that drug and fentanyl.

Which means that the heroin on the street
is much more potent than it had been.

Here in St. Bernard Parish,

every one of us knows someone
who's lost a child or a relative

to addiction of prescription opioids
and heroin.

We have innocent Americans
who have become addicted

to a drug that was designed
to relieve them of pain.

This was so devastating
in St. Bernard Parish.

It makes me think
of another addictive drug.

Tobacco.

During the national litigation
against the cigarette industry,

I was representing St. Bernard Parish,

to investigate and eventually prosecute

the tobacco industry
for addicting smokers and causing death.

The tobacco industry had denied
the addictive properties of cigarettes

and hired doctors to teach the public

that cigarette smoking
was really a choice.

That it was a matter of free will
and it was not addictive.

Let me ask you first,
and I'd like to just go down the row,

uh, whether each of you believes
that nicotine is not addictive?

When the chief executive officers
of the major tobacco companies

stood and raised their hands...

I believe nicotine is not addictive, yes.

I believe nicotine is not addictive.

I believe that nicotine is not addictive.

I believe that nicotine is not addictive.

When we discovered in litigation later,

every one of them had tremendous amounts
of information in-house

that proved that the drug was addictive

and that many of them were engineering
their product to make it more addictive.

The same thing happened
in medicine.

That's essentially what Purdue did
with OxyContin.

OxyContin, from a molecular level,

is pretty much identical to heroin

or any other opioid
you can get on the street.

You know, Purdue Pharma, they knew that.

And they just didn't care.

None of the people working for Purdue,

from the very top people,

all the way down to...

little territory reps like myself.

Nobody was dumb.

I'm not dumb.

Uh, the people above me weren't dumb.

The people above them weren't dumb.

All the way into Connecticut,
nobody's dumb.

But we all acted dumb.

And opioid addiction
spread all across the country.

Purdue Pharma set the stage
for this to happen.

They made opioids acceptable

to a whole bunch more people.

The wake of destruction

that this one company leaves behind them
is extraordinary.

I don't know
how they can live with themselves.

This is corporate crime.

This is big business America.

Today, Purdue Pharma
is facing a reckoning.

Cases were beginning to be filed
all over the country.

It'll be a titanic confrontation.

DeKalb County is joining
a growing number of local governments

suing opioid manufacturers.

Florida, heading to court
today to take on

opioid drug makers and distributors.

It is a new day
in Oklahoma

in our battle against the opioid epidemic.

In Michigan,
over 1,600 people

died of opioid overdoses last year.

One thousand three hundred
and seventy-five Texans died.

Opioid addiction is a public health menace

to South Carolina.

The gross misconduct enabled

countless New Yorkers

to obtain prescriptions
that were not medically necessary.

Their strategy was simple.

The more drugs they sold,
the more money they made.

Nearly 2,000 lawsuits
have been filed against Purdue Pharma.

I'm one of the senior lawyers involved

in representing most of the local
governments in south Louisiana,

including St. Bernard,

against the opioid industry.

After this tremendous journey
that I've been on...

I've become aware

that Walter Leger,
my good high school buddy, okay,

is... is the attorney
that's representing St. Bernard Parish.

And it relieved my burden.

I finally had somebody
that could make something happen.

Walter was a guy
that could make these guys pay.

But how do you deal with people
that have more money

than the United States Department
of Justice has to fight this issue?

The Sackler family,
which is the family

behind Purdue Pharmaceuticals,

is worth $13 billion dollars,

and they essentially made that money
on the backs of OxyContin.

And they have been able to evade
any kind of personal responsibility

for the opioid epidemic until now.

For the first time, the Sacklers

have been named in multiple lawsuits.

Today,
the Attorney General of Massachusetts

pushed for the release of more documents
from Purdue Pharma.

Newly-obtained emails
and memos

from then-president Richard Sackler,

writing in a confidential email,

"We have to hammer on the abusers
in every way possible."

What these lawsuits have meant

is that we've had access
to these private emails,

showing that the Sackler family

was totally and completely in it
for the money.

It's not about helping people,
whatever they might say to the contrary.

A new report
based on secret parts of a lawsuit

filed by the State of Massachusetts

claims the drug company

considered expanding
into addiction treatment.

Even more egregiously,

the Sacklers decided to get into
the addiction treatment business.

When they were promoting OxyContin,

they would repeatedly say
that addiction and pain

have nothing to do with each other.

Then when they got into the addiction
treatment business,

they said, "Addiction and pain
are inextricably intertwined."

Purdue trying to get into
the treatment business?

Didn't make sense.

Right? There again...

ding!

Red flag.

Sitting here today...

after all you've come to learn
as a witness...

do you believe Purdue's conduct
in marketing and promoting OxyContin

caused any of the prescription drug
addiction problems...

now plaguing the commonwealth?

I don't believe so.

Sitting here today,

after all you've come to learn
as a witness,

do you believe that Purdue's conduct

has led to an excessive
or unnecessary amount of opioids

being located throughout the commonwealth?

I don't believe so.

Do you believe
that any of Purdue's conduct

has led to an increase
in people being addicted?

No.

I drive a cab now.

I see people, uh...

You know, I know I'm dropping 'em off
in the 9th Ward.

I know what's going on.
I know what's happening.

If you're coming here,
you're only coming here for one reason.

And one after the other,
like a McDonald's drive-thru,

they'll... they'll score their dope.

You know, that's one of the reasons
why I carry Narcan

in my glove box.

You never know who you're gonna pick up

or when you're gonna need it.

Crack destroyed New Orleans in the '80s.

But with the opioid epidemic...

I see total destruction.

There's no end to the damage

this opioid situation has caused.

The addiction
just doesn't discriminate.

It doesn't matter who you are,
how much money you have,

what color your skin is.

Addiction,

it just doesn't discriminate.

Is there some way in the future

that we can stop people from having pain?

I don't know what the answer is.

But we're in a hell of a pickle.

This is a hell of a mess.

When I see young lives destroyed
by this disease,

you know, I wonder...

where do I fit?

I do believe that everybody...

not just me as a sales rep,

not just Purdue...

but doctors...

the FDA...

Congress, right?

Everybody's got a bit of blood.

We've all got skin in the game.

Danny was on the front line
in terms of the opioid epidemic.

As we look back at what Dan went through,

and what he was recognizing,
what he was saying,

uh, contributes to our understanding
of the opioid crisis

and hopefully how to deal with it.

Uh, not just how to litigate it,
but how to solve it.

There may not be
a more important case than this one.

And your dedication
could be incredibly helpful.

This is a copy of the lawsuit
that was filed here

- in St. Bernard Parish.
- Right.

It's like my crazy dream
of Tunnel of Hope...

that I could maybe make a difference
or... or be a part of...

something that can make a difference...

may very well become a reality.

What do you say, Danny boy?

Decent job?

Dan's life will never be the same.

No Christmas, no Thanksgiving,
no birthday,

no anything will ever be the same.

He will make the best of where he is,

but he will always have his son
in his mind and his heart,

and it will never go away.

And that's the same for his entire family.

It's alright, baby. He's with us.

He's with us
and we're gonna see him again, okay?

He is burdened

with the type of grief and loss

that we all hope
we never have to go through.

But as a result of his attention

being called to this enormous problem...

he saved a lot of lives

and he can always
give his son credit for that.

Right now, God, I have to pause.

I've got things in the real world
I have to keep up with.

This is a poem he wrote.

"Reflections upon life seem like a dream.

Although very real in the eyes
of the beholder...

the time will come
when his life is done...

and he will live
in the distant dreams of everyone.

Living the dream, living life...

both the same.

Both two different portraits

in two different frames."

That was good.

Here, give me that.

I don't care.

It's got mascara on it.

Everything I did, I did for Danny.