“The Orlando Sentinel on October 19, 2003 began a devastating, five-part, front-page series entitled “OxyContin Under Fire: Pain Pill Leaves Death Trail”—thousands of words in articles and sidebars, with more reporting in the weeks and months that followed.
“The Sentinel series eerily prefigured today’s opioid epidemic: thousands of lives shattered, broken, and lost as a result of taking oxycodone, some through “accidental addiction” caused by casual overprescribing; others through abuse. In the process, the drug created a law enforcement crisis of illegal trafficking through bogus pain clinics, “pill mills,” and legitimately prescribed drugs diverted for profit and recreational use.”