John Oliver hires actors to unbury Sackler deposition on opioids crisis
Last Week Tonight brings in famous actors to read Big Pharma depositions the families behind them would rather bury
John Oliver addressed America’s opioid crisis on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight – his second chapter in “a story of how major companies acted wildly irresponsibly, skirted any meaningful consequences, and for the most part, avoided public scrutiny”.
He started by examining prominent drug distributors – companies like Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen – who are supposed to monitor the ordering and delivery of controlled substances. To illustrate “how badly they failed to do that”, Oliver pointed to the town of Kermit, West Virginia, where in two years, McKesson shipped film million pain pills to a town of 400 people.