Prescription Thugs Page #10

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almost all medicine is poison.

It's something

that's foreign to our body,

that one part

of our body or another

is going to have to react to,

as like an invading force.

Now, sometimes

it reacts a good way

and we get better,

but there's

a price for the poison,

is what I like to say.

So, you know,

in America we have...

We say we have

a war on drugs, right?

Yup. War on drugs.

No, man. No.

F***, man.

It's a war on money.

It's who can get

the most amount of money,

you know what I mean?

I made my money

in a lot of wrong ways

back in the day, too,

you know what I mean?

Everybody's on the take.

Yeah, f*** yeah, man.

I would be, you know.

Yeah.

But why

is nobody stopping it?

Why is nobody stopping

a machine that prints money?

Like the government.

I don't want to answer that.

You know the answer to that.

Everybody who's watching this

knows the answer to that.

Why does big oil

get government subsidies?

Because they sponsor

campaigns. Okay?

Why is Big Pharma allowed

to continue to make money?

Because they're

one of the most powerful

lobbying interests in the world.

I think we're at a point where

the United States and Europe

and most major companies

need to ask themselves

whether the health care

economy is sustainable

with these companies in it,

and I think,

the way they're operating,

it's not.

This is where we need

some political leadership.

But finding political

leadership

might prove to be harder

than you think.

In 2013, Big Pharma

spent close to $226 million

on lobbying our government with

an army of 1,445 lobbyists.

Congress only has 535 members.

So, that means Pharma spent

upwards of $422,000

per congressman, making sure

the US government knew

exactly what Pharma wanted.

That's a lot of influence.

And in 1992, Congress passed

the Prescription Drug

User Fee Act, which allows

pharma companies to pay

a fast-track fee to the FDA

of up to $350,000 per drug

to speed up

the approval process.

Like the FASTPASS line

at Disneyland, their drugs

get bumped to the front

of the line, and the result?

More drugs hitting the market

and Pharma's profits exploding.

If success is measured

by return on the dollar,

the pharmaceutical industry

made a killing.

- Maybe Horshu was right.

- Maybe everybody is on the take.

They say if you have a problem

in America, you can visit

your local congressman.

I tried it in my last film.

Maybe it will work better

this time.

This is California Congressman

Ted Lieu.

In a state with one

of the highest rates

of opium addiction and

overdoses in the country,

Congressman Lieu, unlike

a lot of other politicians,

is actually trying

to do something about it.

For a long time we've had

a war on illegal drugs.

These are legal drugs

that are killing

far more people,

and we need

to have systems in place,

where we can identify

someone that may be

abusing these painkillers.

The CURES system,

for example, is a database

that would let pharmacies

and doctors know if a patient

is going to multiple pharmacies

and multiple doctors,

trying to get the same

prescription medication.

Is there any sort of motion

to make the CURES program

or a program like it national?

So, it would be great

if there was a national

fully-funded program.

As you know, it's been difficult

to get things

through Congress these

days, so I don't have

high hopes for that,

so the individual states

I believe will have

to pick up the slack.

What's your feeling on

the medical marijuana stuff?

Well, people are not dying

from medical marijuana.

They are dying

from legal prescription drugs,

especially these

powerful painkillers.

I had a question

for you because I think

this is pretty crazy.

It's like you can just go

on Craigslist, right,

and you can type in,

like, OxyContin, Xanax,

whatever you want,

and you can just

pull it up and get it,

and they've done

stuff like outlawed

escorts on Craigslist,

Right.

But they haven't

done anything about

the prescription drugs.

How do we get people

like that to cooperate?

I did not know that

until you told me.

So, let me ask you this.

When you put

that in a Craigslist,

is it a doctor

that issues a prescription,

or do you just get something

mailed to your home?

No, it's some dude, you know.

And you just get it...

Oh, you go meet

some shady guy

in some shady part of town.

And you have, you know,

pink, delivery only,

$10, and click on it.

Minimum $10.

Must have address.

Discreet delivery.

Must have callback number.

Limited amount.

Send email to

Wait for callback or text tone.

That's illegal.

So, they could just stop this.

Well, they could put in

these words and say,

"Anything with this word

will be removed."

I got it.

I mean, it could be

that simple, right?

Yeah, that's crazy.

Thank you.

Look at this, it's a box of 'em.

Oh, my goodness.

Hey, I have a little

more than ten.

I only want to sell all at once.

That's just illegal.

That's amazing.

Okay. All right.

Thank you.

Thanks for showing that to me.

Thanks. Cool.

Senator Lieu's holding

a press conference

to have Craigslist stop

letting people advertise

prescription drugs

on their website,

and this is all

because of this film,

which is kinda crazy.

It's interesting

that you can make a movie

and actually affect a change

in people and affect things

that happen every day,

and maybe save some lives

along the way.

If not, then I just ratted out

all these people's drug hookups,

and they'll probably hate me,

but I wasn't the guy

that shut down the prostitutes,

if anybody

out there's wondering.

If you're on Craigslist

selling dope,

we're gonna put you in jail,

and that's my message to you.

Senator Lieu.

Thank you.

Thank you,

Assistant Chair Pentis.

More people die from

prescription painkillers

than cocaine

and heroin combined,

and Craigslist

is helping facilitate this.

That's why last month,

Nevada State Senator Segerblom

and I sent an letter

to Craigslist, asking them

to take down these ads.

To date, they have not.

We're calling

again for Craigslist

to immediately ban

these ads, the same way

that Craigslist did so

with prostitution ads.

This is a huge problem.

It's time for Craigslist

to do the responsible thing,

which is ban these ads.

The whole reason

why I knew about buying

drugs on Craigslist

is because I've done it.

I'm not happy to say

that I've done it,

but I have done it,

and I think that that's

the only way you can

affect change,

is to go out and be honest

with people and tell them

what you did,

and I was addicted to pills

'cause I had a hip problem,

but it's no different

from somebody

who gets addicted to it

'cause they like to be high.

My brother died,

and a big reason why he's

not here is prescription drugs,

and so till

you see that happen,

till you see people

go down that path,

people think it's a joke,

but it's not a joke.

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