
Netflix’s Painkiller: OxyContin and the Opioid Epidemic
Although the series is a highly fictionalized true story, every episode of Netflix’s Painkiller begins with a non-actor recounting when they lost their loved one to opioid abuse. At the start of the opioid epidemic, OxyContin’s spark lit the flame that would envelop many communities throughout the United States. Painkiller traces this epidemic’s origins and