#DOPE SICK ENDING EXPLAINED FREE#

However, he eventually manages to free himself from his shackle by breaking his foot with a toilet tank lid. Sadly, the American opioid epidemic is far from over, but shows like 'Dopesick' thankfully mean that we continue to talk about it.Following the ending of Saw II, Detective Eric Matthews is trapped in the dilapidated bathroom after being chained to a pipe by Amanda Young. The writers of the study have called for an 'antiracist public health approach' to the crisis, stating there has been a 'shift in the demographics' since the events depicted in 'Dopesick' took place. As noted by KQED, racial bias means the problems of these communities remain underreported, while Black Americans are more likely to face incarceration in the face of fewer safety nets and services through which to combat the effects of addiction.Īs NPR reported in September 2021, opioid death rates among African Americans are growing significantly faster than among the general population, with a 38% increase in contrast to an apparent plateau among other communities. But the truth is that the opioid crisis and the ensuing drug overdose pandemic have disproportionately affected non-white communities in the U.S.

Stephen Lloyd, a Tennessee doctor who developed a 100-pill-a-day addiction to Ox圜ontin before becoming a commissioner in the state's substance abuse services department and a vocal campaigner in the battle against opioid addiction (via the Tennessean).Īs NPR's Eric Deggans has noted, the show's rural Appalachian setting means that the episodes almost exclusively focuse on white victims of the opioid epidemic. The creators of 'Dopesick' have claimed that the character is emblematic of the situation many doctors across America found themselves in as a result of Purdue Pharma's deception, while the story of Finnix's own addiction was informed by that of Dr. Fennix is depicted as a hard-working doctor who has his patients' best interests at heart, but who, despite his initial misgivings, is won over by the compelling pitch of Billy Cutler (Will Poulter), a Purdue Pharma salesman pushing Ox圜ontin on unsuspecting doctors.īut was Dr. Samuel Fennix, saying that the quality of the writing on the show meant that there was very little he had to invent himself. In an interview with USA Today, Michael Keaton described the pleasure he took in portraying Dopesick's lead character, Dr. Sackler oversaw the reformulation the drug with a newly-developed coating that supposedly gave the drug a slow release action and reducing the risk of opioid addiction, and rebranding it as Ox圜ontin.

As Stat describes, in the late 1980s Sackler, who was then assistant to his father, the president of Purdue Pharma, concocted a scheme by which to circumvent the company's bestselling opioid painkiller, MS Contin, going off-patent. According to The New Yorker, Arthur passed on the belief to the younger Sacklers that they should 'Leave the world a better place than when you entered it.' In the second half of the 20th century, the Sackler name became synonymous with philanthropy and patronage of the arts, while they expanded their wealth to become one of the richest families in America.īut the actions of Richard Sackler would see the family rebranded in the 21st century as 'the family that built an empire on pain,' per The New Yorker. Both were doctors, and the two shared options in the company with their older brother, Arthur, a psychiatrist. Sacker's father, Raymond, bought Purdue Pharma in 1952, along with his brother, Mortimer.

Dope sick ending explained