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PBS News Hour

How drug companies helped drive the opioid crisis

The abuse of opioids has become a major public health concern; more than 28,000 people died by overdose in 2014. According to reporting by STAT News, drug companies downplayed the addictive effects of opioid drugs in the late 1990s, assuring doctors that they could be safely used for chronic pain and incentivised their use. Hari Sreenivasan talks to journalist David Armstrong.

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