Netflix The Pharmacist Documentary (An Alternate Point Of View)

This new documentary showing on Netflix right now called the Pharmacist. And in this video, I want to talk to you a little bit about not just the documentary itself and a little bit of a review about it, but I also want to talk about an alternate point of view from an addiction counselor perspective. For those of you who are new here, welcome to Put the Shovel Down. This is a YouTube channel dedicated exclusively to helping you understand the science and psychology of addiction. So you can stay five steps ahead. Ahead of it. If that's something that you need to do for yourself or for a loved one, consider subscribing, and I'll make sure you have everything you need to get that job done. Okie dokie. Let's get to the review. So I don't know how much you. I don't know how many of you have already seen this documentary. If you have, let me know that in the chat or in the comments below, I'd love to know how many of you have actually already watched it. I've watched it over the past couple of days. It's about, like, four episodes, I think, each one being about an hour or so long. So it's going to take you a good amount of hours. Hey, Tanja, you haven't watched it yet. It's going to take you a good amount of hours to watch this. But it is the story of a father who happens to be a pharmacist who loses his son related to addiction in the late 1990s. And. And then it's about his grief over the loss of his son, the sort of journey that he goes through to catch the killer and how that sort of obsession turns into a mission to stop this particular doctor. This is now, like, in the early 2000s. It's the very, very, very beginning of the opioid crisis when OxyContin was sort of just released and sort of on the scene. And so we're gonna talk a little bit about the documentary itself, but then I also want to talk more with you about that larger issue at hand, being who's the bad guy and who's the bad guy in this situation, because that's what the whole thing's about. So you see this very loving, traditional family, a mom, a dad, a son and a daughter who are just sort of living the American dream, you know, a very sort of loving, close family. And the son, I think he's graduated high school not much older than that. And he. The family has no idea, no idea that this kid is struggling with addiction. And he just goes out one night to do something normal and doesn't come back. And then the police knock on this family's door. It is the worst nightmare a family could ever have. And they basically say, your son's been shot and killed. And so the whole first part of this series is about this father's obsession to catch the killer. And there are a lot of twists and turns in this. And so I'm not going to try really hard not to do any spoilers here or give that up because I do recommend you watch. Definitely sort of pops, pulls your heartstrings and grabs your attention because it's kind of like, who did it? Did they do it? You know, is the witness gonna talk? There's just a whole lot of dynamics going on because the son was actually, when he got killed, was in this sort of really seedy, bad part of town where you basically, he would have only been there to buy drugs. And he gets killed. And there are some witnesses, but it's kind of like, is anyone going to come forward and tell what they saw? Because it could be really dangerous to do so. And so you sort of go through that journey at first and you sort of take some twists and turns there. It is very emotional and I see and deal with families struggling with addiction every day. But I tell you, it doesn't ever get less emotional for me. It's like maybe even more so because just understanding the depths of how difficult that is and what that family must have went through, it's just really horrifying. So you've got that initial story going on. Meanwhile, this father happens to be a pharmacist. And so as he's working and grieving, he starts noticing that all these prescriptions are coming in just like tons and tons and tons of them for this newer medication called OxyContin, which is a high powered pain management medication. And these people that are coming into the pharmacy to get this filter look pretty young and healthy. And then he begins to notice that most of these prescriptions are coming from this one physician. And the more you sort of dig into this story, and the more he digs into this story, you really begin to see, wow, this is some sketchy, sketchy situation going on. You know, we've all heard that term pill mill and sort of doctor shopping. And we've all sort of heard of the idea that, you know, some of these doctors are sketchy and they're just drug dealers in lab coats. We've all heard that before. But honestly, my personal opinion on it is that's really not Usually the case. I'm not a huge conspiracy theorist, and what I do want to say on this topic of addiction is it's very, very complicated. But clearly when you watch this story, that is the case for what happened here, at least the way Netflix shows it. So the. This doctor, really, it looks so super seedy. And there is just so many pieces to this story that I think you've got to look at through a critical thinking lens. Because we all want to identify a bad guy. This addiction crisis, this opioid epidemic is destroying people all over the world. It's destroying families. It will take you down no matter you are or where you're from or how many wonderful things you have going for you in your life. Just like this young man that died. And when that happens, we all want to identify the bad guy. And when you watch this documentary, you're sort of going from one bad guy to the next to the next, trying to figure out, you know, who you mad at, who you chasing here, who's the bad guy? And so it starts off with like, well, the bad guy's the killer. Well, the first bit of it, you're trying to figure out who the bad guy is. And like I said, there are some twists and turns, but you're gonna actually meet the bad guy in that story. The guy that actually kills. The illness is to blame for part, but also the addict. Ooh, that's a really good point. You know, it's like, who is to blame? And so you actually get to meet the killer in the story and hear from him. And at the same time, you're like, I can't believe you did that. Like, what a horrific, horrible, horrible thing to do. When you hear about his background, you're just pulled. You're just pulling all these different pieces. And so then you start focusing on, well, this doctor is the bad guy. You know, she's the one out there pushing these pills. All these kids are dying. What a horrible, horrible thing to do. And then you shift your attention to, no, it's the pharmaceutical company that's the bad guy. Like, what the heck? They're, like, pushing these drugs. They're selling these drugs. They're pushing them on all these doctors. They're telling them it's safe. The doctors are pushing them on these people. And that's what's responsible for the opioid crisis or the addiction crisis that we're having. But honestly, that's not even the bad guy. And all throughout this story, you're going to feel like the police and the system is the bad guy. Because you see this father who's just desperate for answers and then desperate to do something about this problem. And he records basically every conversation he has after the sun dies. And you hear these really just heartbreaking responses that he gets when he calls. He's asking for help, and he's trying to get people to do something, and he keeps getting pushed away. And so you think, God, no, the police are the bad guys. You know, they're just not even doing anything. And if you have had a loved one with a drug or alcohol problem, you may have even had an experience similar when dealing with the system, whether it's the police or the health care system or doctors or nurses, because it feels like as the family member, you're so desperate looking for help on what to do with this addicted loved one. And everywhere you turn, you basically get told, I can't help you. You know, if you're going to the medical profession, it's. It's, I can't help you. Because they have to want it or they have to sign themselves into treatment. You know, there's nothing you can do. If you go to the police, you're gonna get dead end after dead end after dead end. And it is so frustrating. It really just makes you want to pull your hair out. Yes, the person must be so old to like when it comes to treatment or medical providers. And even if this is your loved one, you may try to talk to the doctor, the nurses, the counselors, and they may say, I can't talk to you at all. Like, they have confidentiality, and you just feel stuck. So many of you may have felt that sort of frustration and that lack of help and that stuckness that this dad feels. If you've ever experienced that or you know what I'm talking about, let me know that in the comments below because I feel like it's not just this pharmacist that has experienced that roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. And that's part of what this channel is about. It's about helping to give you real evidence. It's about helping you to understand and look at things differently. It's helping you understand what your options are and what you can do. Yes, I know there are a million roadblocks out there, but I'm not here to tell you about another roadblock. I'm here to help you understand. Here's where the cracks in that roadblock are, and here's how you might can get through that, Especially if you are worried about a loved one struggling with drugs. And alcohol. So, anyways, you've got this whole bad guy idea. Sounds like a good show. We'll be watching it. It is a good show, and it really makes you think. It's like, who do we get mad at here? And here's what I want to say. Although I'm just like anyone else, I love a good story. I love Netflix. Those of you that know me know I love Netflix. Like, right up there with the iPhone. Favorite two inventions. Love some Netflix. And love a good, captivating story, especially one that makes you think, kind of like a whodunit. Love that. And it's easy to get drawn into this sort of bad guy idea. But if you are in recovery and you're watching this, you are gonna know exactly what I'm saying here. And if you don't agree, that's okay. You can let me know that. But I think you're gonna agree here. And if you're a family member watching this, then I want you to understand this. You cannot stop addiction externally. Families do the same thing that happened in the store. They just do it on a smaller level. So what happens is, yes, you're right. Hinge. It's not black or white at all. It is all kind of complicated messes of gray. And so it's so easy as a family member want to say, well, it's those bad influence friends. It's the doctor. It's the. You fill in the blank. And so you start becoming focused on keeping your loved one away from these sort of bad influences and bad situations in recovery. Call it people, places and say things. It's the crazy, crazy change in view from the crack epidemic to the opioid epidemic. That's right. That's a really good point, because it's like, first it was the crack epidemic, then it was. I feel like almost like before you started hearing about the opioids, you heard about meth, and now you hear about the opioids. And before that, you had alcohol, you know, in the beginning, and then it was marijuana. And so it's always this sort of change in focus on the drug. And while I don't think we should ignore those things, I also don't know that we should get overly wrapped up in trying to control it externally. It is not the pain pills. It is not any particular drug. It's not the doctors. Although the doctor in this story was definitely sketchy. But as you watch the story, you can see the doctor has a drug problem herself. And so it's complicated. It's like, who do you want to Blame for this issue. And so we. It's so easy as families and as a society and as culture to want to point the finger out there. We got to stop these drug dealers. We got to stop the doctors from prescribing it. We got to stop these, you know, bad influence friends. But let me tell you, if you could get your sights on the right bad guy, then we might could do a better job of dealing with this issue. And the true bad guy is addiction itself. It's the disorder of addiction. And we spend so much time and energy trying to fight this in all the wrong ways. We do this as people. People early in recovery, they're always like, I got to get away from this drug. I got to get away from this friend. But that's not the issue. It's addiction. And people in recovery eventually figure this out, Usually the hard way, by trial and error, like a lot of times. And families eventually figure this out. You know, there's no amount of boyfriends that you're going to run off that are going to fix this problem. There's no moving to a different town that can fix this problem. It's an inside job. And so what I always tell families is, you can't run off the bad people. You can't chase down the drug, because there's always another one and another one and another one. And if you think about it like a supply and demand issue, we keep trying to go at the supply, and we keep trying to solve the problem that way on an individual level, on a family level, and then also on like a big cultural, like, national level, we keep trying to fix the problem that way, and it's not working. Don't know if you've noticed. Don't think it's getting any better. It's getting worse and worse and worse and worse. And you can arrest drug dealers and you can put them in jail, and you can arrest drug addicts and you can put them in jail, but it's not fixing it if you can't tell. The whole problem just keeps getting worse. And so if you ask me, it's time to shift our attention. Not that we shouldn't do anything about that, but that shouldn't be where the majority of our attention goes. If we could address the demand, the demand for the drug, the supply issue will take care of itself. So it's not chasing down these doctors. If you watch this story about the pharmacist, you're gonna see like, oh, my gosh, this doctor did this. And these poor innocent people, she got addicted. Well, Maybe a little bit. But when you watch the story, you can see that she's got lines and lines and lines of all these, like, young, healthy people lining up outside her clinic to get the medicine. Those aren't just totally innocent people out there. They weren't didn't get accidentally addicted. They just found out she was a good place to get it and they started showing up there. So it's complicated, it's difficult. And the reason why I think it's so important to even talk about this is because I just want to encourage you. Don't waste all of your time and your energy and your heart, your emotions and your money on all the wrong solutions, because you can lock up that doctor. And as you're going to see in the movie, they deal with that one and ten more of these pain clinics pop up. And that is exactly the way this problem works. If you're sort of interested in understanding this topic of addiction on this higher level of what's causing it, why does it keep getting worse and how do we fix it? There's a really good book out there. I read it several years back, but it's called Chasing the Scream. The first and last days of the war on drugs. And I'm telling you, this book is like a game changer. When you read this book, you're gonna think about the whole situation completely different. I mean, when I read this book, I'd already been in addiction counselor for a long time, and I felt like, oh my gosh, like I might change my religion. Like it changes your whole headspace around this issue, because it really takes a look at addiction from an individual addict perspective, from a drug dealer perspective, from a research perspective, from a legal perspective, from a medical perspective. And by the time that you get to the end of this book, I'm telling you, if you hadn't read it, you're going to be thinking way differently. And that shift in thinking may help you understand a little bit better about the solution and about why and how we're chasing all the wrong solutions and why that's making the problem worse. So. So I will put a link to that book in the description in case you're interested in it and you want to check it out. It's written by this guy named Johann Hari, and he's got a really good TED Talk. You can check out that TED Talk if you want to. It's called everything you know about addiction is wrong. And that might be a good place to start. And then maybe if you want to get the book, get the book. But if you're interested in the history of addiction and the history of the war on drugs and sort of different ways of looking at it, different ways. The. The. These different countries have sort of gone about addressing it. Definitely. Check that out. Like I said, it is a total game changer. And if you're watching this video because you have yourself or a friend or a loved one who is addicted to opioids, then I strongly encourage you to keep Narcan on hand. If you don't know what Narcan is, it is the medication that can stop an overdose. And I don't. I know I'm getting a lot of viewers these days that live all over the world. So it's hard for me to know how it is in other countries, but here in the United States, you. Most anywhere you can get that without a prescription. It's actually the pharmacist that actually writes the prescription for you. And you can keep it on hand. We keep it in our office. And I suggest you keep it on you almost the same way, like in a first aid kit. Like, you might keep that stuff that you give people when they're allergic to bee stings. Portugal, etc. What? Did you say that again, Tanja? Is it legal there? Can you get Narcan? It's easy to administer. You're not gonna hurt anybody with it. So let's say you think someone's overdosed, but it's really something else, really heart attack or something. You give them this. It's not gonna. It's here. You need to go to an arts. What's an arts? Like a doctor, a specialist or something. You're not gonna hurt anybody with it. And I do have a video all about Narcan, and I will link it up here for you. Also in the description in the. In the end card, right here at the end. So. Oh, doctor, thank you for clearing that up. Thanks for hanging out with me. If you haven't watch the documentary, I do highly recommend it. And then I recommend you follow that up by reading the book, because it's going to change the way you think. See you next time.