Alex Gibney has done it again.
This is a disturbing, powerful documentary that everyone in the country should watch. It details how the opioid epidemic was manufactured out of the greed of the pharmaceutical industry (all the way down to CVS). It is truly a horrifying expose.
But for scientology-watchers there is a special reason for giving this a look. It shows how those with money to burn are able to buy influence over law enforcement and legislators. It is grotesque, and it is exactly what scientology has done to head off investigations in the past.
Think back to the FBI scientology human trafficking investigation in 2009. I wrote an article about on this blog entitled Scientology, Lying and the FBI where I explained that scientology spokespuppet Karin Pouw had admitted they hired an attorney to make contacts within the Justice Department. Her name was Mary Carter Andrues and she had left the US Attorney’s Office in LA in 2007 after being chief of its Civil Rights Division which prosecutes human trafficking cases. Pouw confirmed Andrues had “dealt directly” with the DOJ.
In light of what you see in the documentary about how the investigations into the crimes of the drug companies and distributors were scuttled despite the best efforts of the law enforcement agents who were on the ground and had compiled overwhelming evidence — reflect on the admission of scientology as to how they went about scuttling the FBI investigation.
The justice system in the US is too often played by those with unlimited funds and unscrupulous former officials who trade their integrity for cash.
Alex Gibney and those like him who expose the sordid and corrupt realities of this world are true heroes.
If you haven’t yet watched The Crime of the Century, please take the time. Only one other documentary in recent time has been as important as this, and that is The Social Dilemma.
Not of the century. That would go to the US Congress and its “war on drugs” started in the mid 60’s that has caused more violent crime deaths of US citizens than soldiers killed during the Vietnam war.
This hits close to home. When I was 31 (I’m 45 now), I had back surgery after dealing with massive back pain for years.
My doctor had been prescribing Norco. After a couple years, she sent me to a pain management doctor who proceeded to give me 180 Norco per month, 90 Soma per month & Ativan (he said it was for sleep as I had a hard time sleeping due to the pain).
A couple years later I had the surgery, but needles to say, I was completely addicted to painkillers. But I needed more of them to get me through the post-surgery period so I wouldn’t be in extreme pain.
Getting off that crap was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. It was nothing short of brutal.
My next door neighbor died at 21 from this opioid crisis. I watched it. It truly was the crime of the century. Keep up the great work Alex Gibney.
The pharmaceutical industry are heroes. They developed vaccines quickly and saved many, many lives. I will still watch the documentary, as soon as I can.
Carol. In my opinion as for other businesses and industries, they are heroes as long as they do not cross the threshold of legality and the betrayal of those who buy from them and therefore trust.
Among other things, vaccines are no small business.
Someone has found it curious that several pharmaceutical companies have found in a very short time (and this is obviously excellent) each one its own version of the vaccine against Covid 19, but it is also curious that after 40 years no one has yet found anything in terms of aids vaccines or other diseases that are ravaging entire areas of the third world.
So I want to trust but for those who know what the process for approving a vaccine is, this absolutely includes testing before it is made available. But here it would seem that they have shortened this crucial phase. I repeat I want to trust but won’t call them heros yet.
From personal experience the corruption in government in the US is the same as it is in Russia I’ve witnessed and sometimes fought it successfully.
It’s stunning. I’m completely disgruntled in Washington DC.
And that is just talking from the c of s perspective.
I think this country is in for a very bumpy ride.
Mary,
I think so too.
I hope that all I’ve done to secure my family’s future will allow us to weather that storm. Hope all other personally responsible folks do too.
Glenn
For anyone who needs to know, this is a two part mini-series. It is rated 8.2 on IMDB which is extremely high. Here is some info from IMDB.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14055432
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Here is some similar info for The Social Dilemma:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/
Mike? I know Alex Gibney must be incredibly busy. But would there be any chance you might be able to get him to appear on an upcoming podcast? I would love to hear from him.
He was our guest on Episode 7
Doh! Boy do I feel stupid! I have no idea how I missed that.
Oh well. I know what I’ll be doing tonight.
OK. I listened to Episode 7 and it was really interesting. I only have one complaint and that is that at 45 minutes, it was one of the shortest podcasts of them all and Alex was so interesting, I just wish it could have been longer.
There was one truly wonderful moment in the podcast. That was when a group of cult members brought a box of so-called “evidence” to Larry Wright’s office in an effort to discredit him. They left that box in his office when they left and someone turned to Larry and said, “Well, now you have your book!”.
It turned out that Larry used the material left by the cult members in that box in large part to write his book. So this was another case of the cult shooting itself in the foot. They thought this material would be used to discredit Larry. But instead, it saved him enormous time and trouble and helped him to write his book. I found that to be hilarious.
It was a great example of the cult doing something really stupid that they thought would be helping them but it wound up hurting them. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why people are afraid of this group of “Keystone Cops”. The longer they keep fighting, the worse they find themselves due to their own stupidity.