Since 2015, Fentanyl overdoses have been rising dramatically. Rates have soared by 2000% in San Diego. ibid.
The company told me nothing ever. ibid. salesman/whistleblower
Late in 2020 the Trump administration rushed to make an announcement for the presidential election. Pleading guilty to three felony counts. The Sackler family would pay a $225 million fine. Purdue Pharma would plead guilt to kickbacks and fraud. And promise to pay fines totalling $8.3 billion. ibid.
Purdue is in bankruptcy and only has about $1 billion which a whole bunch of creditors are already fighting over. That money is never going to be paid by the company or anybody else. ibid.
A cruel irony: the only way the company could pay damages was to increase its sales of drugs, including Oxycontin. ibid.
[jaunty music] Liverpool. A world city at the heart of the new county of Merseyside. It’s a city full of contrasts. A kaleidoscope of contradictions … Liverpool Narcos I: Heroin, public information film, Sky Documentaries 2021
We don’t class ourselves as being English: we’re the People’s Republic of Liverpool [laughs]. ibid. old lady in greenhouse
We have a degree of accepted lawlessness here. It’s like Cowboys and Indians. They don’t follow the rules ’cause they’re outlaws … the epicentre of drugs … Welcome to Liverpool. ibid. comments
What was it about Liverpool that made it such a big player in thee drug trade? The docks? ibid. Michael Showers, the boss
The hard part was getting it off [ship]. Customs were very very alert in Liverpool. Our firm had people who had relatives in senior positions. And that was it. It was just a matter of choosing the right time for them to take it off. Then pass it over to our sales division. And our sales division did their work. And then when I came home, just counted the money. ibid.
Pleading guilty at 15 to something I hadn’t done was my greatest regret. My greatest regret. Because that started it all. ibid.
In the ’80s a number of things conspired to bring brown smoke-able heroin to Liverpool … 47% of black workers unemployed, 43% of white workers [news clip] … No opportunities whatsoever … Young people weren’t of any value to society, or so they felt. And then of course we had the Toxteth riots in ’81 … A visitor from the US came I n the 80s and said, This is like Beirut. This is like bombed-out shell, a husk of a city and a number of other things … ibid. comments
The game-changer was a cheap, high-grade smoking heroin became available. It was from Pakistan. And I’ve got Pakistani family. So I immediately kind of seized the opportunity to capitalize on that. Yeah. ibid.
Samples: if you went to source in Pershawa, you can buy a kilo over there for £2,500, 3K. Yeah, and that would be 80-90%. ibid.
It was like total destruction. It spread like cancer. Straightening out your foil, putting in your little bit of powder, at the corner where you wanted it. Getting a little pleat in your foil. Tilting it was little bit. Your flame underneath the powder. And then inhaling. Everything seemed to slow down a bit. You feel comfortably numb. No more worries, no stress, nuttin’, just comfy. ibid. Billy Moore
It was an epidemic that happened in this city. You know this city was flooded with narcotics. ibid.
Everyone’s on heroin? How the hell did that happen? ibid.
Operation Rainman surveillance … Suddenly, these guys were doing seriously well. And flaunting it. And that kind of rankled with us. So we kind of took that personal. ibid. rozzers
This was the early ’80s. You drove round in a white Rolls Royce? ibid. rozzers to Showers
So in 1983 the police tried to prosecute Michael Showers for the second time in short succession. On this occasion is was for possession of a fire-arm, cannabis, and heroin. The case collapsed in court. And Michael Showers to this day maintains that the case was never legitimate against him. In effect he was fitted up. ibid.
British Customs subsequently bring the heroin into the UK. ibid.
Rozzer: You were convicted of smuggling heroin?
Showers: Yes, convicted on fabricated evidence by Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise. ibid.
And he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Which for that amount of drugs was extraordinary … The system wanted to make an example of him … ibid.
In 1991 Michael went to prison for 20 years. He served 10. Then in 2010 he was arrested in Turkey and charged with intent to supply heroin internationally. He denied the charges but was sentenced to 10 years in a Turkish prison. He returned home to Liverpool in 2016. ibid.
In 1974 there are 460,000 heroin addicts in the US. Almost half are in New York. Narco Wars: The Mob s2e1: The Heroin Don, National Geographic 2021
We racked up big debts to pay for all that lovely stuff ... Our love affair with shopping became a dangerous addiction. Robert Peston Goes Shopping II, BBC 2013
Bowie and his friend Iggy Pop chose to relocate to Berlin to overcome their addictions. Discovering: Bowie, Sky Arts 2013
Australia is home to an estimated 70,000 Meth addicts. The World’s Most Dangerous Drug, National Geographic 2006
Meth is one of the most addictive substances on the planet. As much as 92% of users relapse after treatment. ibid.
Methamphetamine – the most addictive illegal drug in America. Frontline: The Meth Epidemic, PBS 2006
Leonard v Duran III 7th December 1989: But also they’re addicted. Every one of them is addicted. To his love of attention and that’s why they fight. Charles Farrell, The Kings IV: A Champion Never Quits, DiscoveryPlus 2021
Two bottles of rye. You know what brand, Mr Brobie, the cheapest. The Lost Weekend 1945 starring Ray Milland & Jane Wyman & Phillip Terry & Howard Da Silva & Doris Dowling & Frank Faylen & Mary Young & Anita Sharp-Bolster & Lilian Fontaine et al, director Billy Wilder, Don
That’s the nice young man who drinks. ibid. lady in street
Let me have my vicious circle. ibid. Don to Nat the barman
It shrinks my liver, doesn’t it? It pickles my kidneys, yes? But what does it do to my mind? ibid.
He’s a sick person. ibid. Helen to brother
You better eat something sometime. This is the morning. ibid. Nat the barman
Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. ibid. Don to Nat
I’m not a drinker; I’m a drunk. ibid. Don to Helen
Most men live lives of quiet desperation. ibid. Don to Helen
One’s too many, and a hundred’s not enough. ibid. Nat
This is Hangover Plaza. ibid. Nurse
Little tiny turkeys in straw hats, midget monkeys coming through the keyholes. ibid.
You’ve forgotten what it feels like to be well. ibid. her to him
First you take drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you. F Scott Fitzgerald
Growing up with a dad that is an alcoholic has shaped so much of who I am and affected me probably more than I was ever aware of. I don’t think I’m an alcoholic, but I have got a problem with alcohol. Vicky Pattison: Alcohol, Dad and Me, Channel 4 2022
For 75 years in the UK one organisation has been providing a lifeline to thousands of people. I’m an Alcoholic: Inside Recovery, BBC 2022
There are almost 5,000 AA meetings in the UK every week. ibid.
There were so many ways that he hid things. I was so scared that he would die. Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, wife, BBC 2023
I am terrified of relapse … I want to find what’s working for people. ibid. Matt
It was not rock n roll. It was not fucking glamorous. It was really sad. ibid.
Why do so many people struggle like I do? And what treatment is out there to help us? ibid.
Over the last few decades I have relapsed repeatedly. ibid.
You’re a little kid. And you’re chasing oblivion. ibid.
‘We’ve evolved from this. It didn’t win.’ ibid. Matt’s brother
By the age of 22 I was completely addicted to drink and drugs. ibid.
I wanted to make a documentary about alcoholism … Months of research produced four patients, simply the only four patients to agree my intrusions, to my filming their hell, and I was grateful. Rain in My Heart, Paul Watson reporting, BBC 2006
Toni binge-drinks, mindless orgies of booze, pernicious parties she must quit or die; Mark – his poison is vodka, two bottles a day; Nigel has been dry for four years but alcohol has left him damaged; Vanda drinks to wash out the monsters that mess her mind. ibid.
‘Everything we do here is too late; we’ve missed the boat by miles.’ ibid. doctor
‘I drink because there’s nothing else to do. Boredom’ … Two days later Toni was dead. Toni Bailey was 26 year old. ibid. Toni