This PBS NOVA documentary looks at the brain science of opioid addiction, which has been sweeping across the United States in recent decades. The documentary takes a look at the roots of the opioid epidemic, which often started with prescription medications like OxyContin that were over-prescribed in places like West Virginia. Many recovering addicts tell their personal stories of how the pain drugs took over their brains and their lives. Scientists in the documentary look at the effects that opioids have over the dopamine system in the brain. Through analyzing the science, they de-stigmatize addiction and classify it as a disease rather than a moral failing.
Beyond prescription pain medication, the documentary looks at heroin and the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl, which has proved the most deadly. The last part of the documentary looks at the availability of treatment through drugs like methadone and life-saving interventions like naloxone. The potential for supervised injection facilities is examined in the city of Vancouver, which proved to be safer than using street drugs with potentially infected needles. Some of the failings of the U.S. war on drugs are examined, with its emphasis on abstinence and its lack of funding for treatment. It's an informative, if depressing, documentary on an opioid crisis that is still plaguing the United States with over 70,000 overdose deaths per year.