The Pharmacist

Having come to terms with the killing of his son, Pharmacist Dan spots dangerous irregularities in the prescribing of wonder drug oxycontin, he begins his quest to tackle a Doctor, who's handing them out like sweets.

This is without a doubt, one of the best documentaries I've seen on Netflix, it's an insightful, no holds barred, emotional series, which explains one man's battles for the truth, for justice, he dares to take on the big boys.

Very well made, edited and put together, it links up well, and each episode is different, it progresses well, each episode providing a base for the following one.

Dan, I salute you, , definitely something of a crusader, you can't help but wonder how many more would have died, had he not pushed and pushed.

I'd heard of oxycontin, but I had no idea just how bad things had gotten with it, staggering the people involved, the corruption etc.

I applaud Netflix for making this, it's not often you hear of any criticism of the big pharmaceuticals, this series doesn't pull its punches.

Staggering, 9/10.

Purdue pharmacy ruined the lives of countless Americans pushing heroin as a prescription drug.

This documentary effectively shows the local and national effects going thru the lens of 'the pharmacist'. The execs at Purdue and the FDA have blood on their hands.

It's truly disgusting what greed and no moral compass can drive people to do. Truly sickening. I hope kids can watch this and avoid opiates, because once you start it's really hard to stop.

This centers around one man, Dan Schneider, who goes out on a quest to find answers about his son's death after the son gets murdered during a failed drug deal. In the way the story starts, you could never guess how it all would unfold. Dan is an amazing storyteller, and to top it off he has also documented, filmed and recorded almost everything that has happened to him since the 80's. Because of how well documented this story is, and how much material they presented to me as a viewer, I felt that the story was as nuanced as it gets. They basically left no stone unturned.

From the son's murder to the investigation of the doctor, this documentary also makes you empathize greatly with Dan's frustrations over the different situations and systems he was dealing with. And even though I have read a lot about the opioid crisis and the Purdue cases etc, I feel like I got a very unique insight of the micro and macro causes and effects of the opioid crisis. I think that a documentary like this one can really make people start questioning how complicit the drug companies, but also more importantly - the authorities have been during this epidemic.

It's pretty rare to see the story of a person who has actually acted to make a difference and change the world. Dan's story is just that. At times it's easy to dismiss him as a bit of a wacko who's struggling to keep going after a huge loss and gets carried away, but I think that might be because it's hard to imagine caring so deeply about something that you're willing to go to extreme lengths to make it happen. Absolutely heartbreaking, but also incredibly beautiful.

My goodness, is this something... I was expecting something good seeing as it's a docuseries from Netflix and they always tend to make good ones, but this, this is a whole new level of good from Netflix.

I wouldn't really qualify it as eye opening to me because even being from Portugal, as a biochemist I've always been quite aware of the opioid problem in the US and I don't think this series could ever apply to anywhere else in the globe, but it sure showed me some new perspectives into it. The greed and lack of moral values, the arrogance of executives, it's just appalling... Imo, however, the most important part in here is that it shows law enforcement is way under-prepared for this kind of problems. All throughout the series we could see the inaction of law enforcement, either because the law itself was not properly put together for these situations or because they simply didn't know better. Some food for thought...

Anyway, the best part of the documentary is that it goes full circle, it doesn't leave you hanging for answers, and maybe in the future they can make a second part, as we're only now entering the real fight against big opioid pharma. My only real problem with it was the timeline in the first and second episodes, which could have been better, but other than that, very well done, thoroughly recommend. And a big salute to Dan Schneider, the man whose stubborn persistence even through despair led to all of this!