« "The Pharmacist" Discussion

Lynne Trench

Question 1

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How did this series help you to understand the Opiate Crisis better?  What did you learn that you didn't know before?
18 replies
  1. Post by Anna Lowe
    Question 1
    The series, The Pharmacist, helped me understand the Opiate Crisis better. It combined classroom material and reality to help me understand the depth of Opiate addiction. In the series, I learned how addicting opiates are; however, something I learned that I did not know/wasn't aware of is the amount of deaths caused by opiates. 
    4 replies
  2. Parent of this post↑ Reply to ALAnna Lowe from Richard Gory
    Question one
    I would definitely agree with Anna. When you are in class just looking at the Powerpoints you do not get the full picture of how bad things were but when you can see it and hear from people it really puts things into perspective. And I would not have thought some town in New Orleans would have had the most overdoses in the country. 
  3. Parent of this post↑ Reply to ALAnna Lowe from Jordyn Delmonte
    Re: Question 1
    I agree with this the series showed me real life opiate addiction. Its different than just talking about it in class than really seeing it happen to people.
    1 reply
  4. Parent of this post↑ Reply to Jordyn Delmonte from Kathryn Joseph
    Re: Question 1
    I agree with these replies, because it's one thing to understand drug use and the opiate crisis in a classroom setting, but it's another to see the reality of it all. Especially how it effects not only the addict, but the family and community around them. 
  5. Parent of this post↑ Reply to ALAnna Lowe from Milan Liederbach
    Re: Question 1
    I agree seeing The Pharmacist helped me understand visually the opiate crisis better. and it was more of a real-life eye-opener compared to reading or learning about it in class.  
  6. Parent of this post↑ Reply to ALAnna Lowe from Samuel Cortez
    Re: Question 1
    It makes sense that there would be a huge market for such strong painkillers. The scary part is how addicting they are and the intense high they can provide. I wonder how far out were are from eliminating these undesirable side effects without losing any of the desired effects of the drug.
  7. Post by Essence Allen
    Question 1
    This series helped me understand it from people who experienced it on a more personal level and not just from a classroom level. It shows not only how people's drug addiction can drive them to do almost anything and everything, but how money can lead you to so effortless lead ruin someones life. I think you can just forget that the addictions can go both ways. It also just showed how the drug really does effect people who are in pain and how the pressure of everyone doing it can bring you to the state of addiction. This series was very interesting to me and eye opening for me.
    1 reply
  8. Parent of this post↑ Reply to EAEssence Allen from Makala Irvin
    Re: Question 1
    I agree with Essence. This series was interesting because it exposed the truths about the beginnings of the opiate crisis. I learned how easy it was for people to get pain medicine based on their subjective pain. Oxycotin was initially used for good intentions, true pain management, but it turned into a twisted mess of abuse. Through this series, I not only learned the facts about the crisis, but I also saw the raw emotions of those who were affected by it. 
  9. Post by Noah Lunsford
    Question 1
    This series helped me understand the Opiate Crisis a lot better. Since I've known about it, I've always thought of the Opiate Crisis to be when doctor's thought opiates (like OxyContin) were safe and therefore prescribed them a lot more; I thought the Opiate Crisis was spawned by ignorance of the drug. After watching The Pharmacist, I realized just how corrupt and ugly the system was. Doctors like Dr. Cleggett who were "prescribing" opiates were not writing up prescriptions for legitimate reasons but rather for the money involved. I was honestly shocked at how irresponsible and apathetic some of these trained professionals were being, and I could not believe that the country was having such a difficult time at stopping their wrongdoings.
    1 reply
  10. Parent of this post↑ Reply to NLNoah Lunsford from Arthur Green
    question 1

    I agree with Noah, this opioid epidemic is caused because of the highly paid doctors prescribing more opiates than needed. People like “Dr. Clegett” are the reason the opioid crisis is such a problem. These unruly doctors are making a dishonest penny and it is killing “more than 130” people DAILY in the crisis. It is terribly sad people will kill people for an extra hundred dollars. Those numbers are devastating to hear, and the doctors proceed to keep doing it. Before the show I didn’t realize how many people were affected by this epidemic. It was a great documentary and I learned lots on the topic. 

    1 reply
  11. Parent of this post↑ Reply to AGArthur Green from Angelina Piccini
    Re: question 1
    I also agree with Noah. I did not previously have a lot of knowledge on the opiate crisis, so this documentary really opened my eyes to it. I used to think that the doctors that prescribed these opiates did not know how addicting they really are. In fact, what was really happening was that the doctors were told to sell the drugs without telling the patients the addictive and detrimental effects. The pharmaceutical companies made serious money off of the addictions of many patients to opiates.
  12. Post by J'shell Rice
    Re: Question 1
    This series helped me to understand the Opiate crisis because it showed me how so many people struggle with opiate addiction and how they will do anything to get the drug. One thing that I learned that I didn’t know before was that the doctors who were giving out the drug without it being prescribed and kept as a record is one of the main reasons so many people became addicted and why it became a crisis. Too many people made too many bad decisions when it came to providing the drug instead of trying to put an end to it. 
  13. Post by Lynne Trench
    The Opiate Crisis
    After taking this class, you have a good understanding of what the opiate crisis is, and what the many contributors are.  What may have started out as a good faith effort to improve treatment of chronic pain, quickly devolved into a perfect storm that has taken and ruined many lives.  We need to hold the big Pharmaceutical companies accountable, as well as doctors who are capitalizing on the backs of their patients.  
  14. Post by Milan Liederbach
    question 1
    overall this series was a very eye-opening show that expanded my knowledge of the opiate crisis. it was more educational to be able to see it affect people's lives rather than just reading about it in class. Before watching this film, I thought the opiate crisis could be bad, but after watching the film it has shifted my thinking to see the real-life effects and depth it had on people's lives.
  15. Post by Heather Khamis
    Question 1
    Going into this series, I was confused about the opioid crisis as a whole. We had gone over it briefly in class, but, it did not add up to me how doctors could assume that prescribing Oxycontin would not lead to addiction, and how this opioid could have less addictive properties in general. This series confirmed my suspicions and surprised me in how involved Purdue was in the entire crisis, it was shocking how far Purdue was willing to go for the money. It really shows as a reminder in how companies like this should be held accountable earlier on, and how more precautions need to be in place to prevent epidemics like this from happening. 
  16. Post by Eleanor Grace Tsuruda
    Question 1
    This series helped me understand the opioid crisis by bringing to light how big and how serious. You hear about it on the news but seeing it literally down the street from where I live brought a whole new perspective on it. For our generation seeing it in a form of a Netflix documentary makes it more real than just seeing a report if the news. The location of the crisis probably did more to wake me up than anything. As I have been studying about opioids I pretty much was going through the motions. Yes, it is a drugs. Yes, it has bad consequences. Yes, people are abusing it. But this series stopped me in my tracks. When the series first opened I was a little bored but, when the people started to look like and sound like people I know it had glued to the TV. I couldn't stop watching I watched all the episodes back to back. How could this pills cause so much pain, sorrow and trouble. The crisis was suddenly very real and present. This caused me to want to know more about this drug. Now it seems every time I turn the TV on I see commercials about OxyContin and Prude Pharma and frankly when I go out I'm looking to my left and right thinking about the crisis. 

    I learned how such a tiny amount can kill you. Also just how addictive it was. I've never heard of pill mills. Just how hard it is to fight this corruption. 

  17. Post by Ashley Williams
    Re: Question 1
    For some reason I thought the Opiate Crisis only affected a few people in a couple areas. However, people would travel wherever they could to get OxyContin or other opiates. Dr. Clegget's pill mill received customers from as far as Tennessee. Before watching this series I didn't realize that there were pill mills and how harmful big Pharma companies were. I figured people would just sell it on the street. It is mind-boggling to see the destruction doctors can do to people for money. Their occupation was to help people and they gave them an addiction or even death. Many people turned to these drugs for their "euphoric high." It is wonderful that one pharmacist had the heart and drive to try to discourage and prevent this drug use. Many other pharmacies, policemen, even the FBI wrote him off as a nosey commoner, when he was only trying to save lives.
  18. Post by Michael Dakis
    Re: Question 1
    It helped me better grasp the crisis by putting classroom material and real-life next to each other, really demonstrating how they overlap. Before this documentary and class in general, I didn't realize that opiates are deadly or addictive, I really didn't know much about them I just thought they were only used in the past mainly in China. I didn't truly know the grasp that opiates have on people today.
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