Who is to blame for this crisis?
Well, if you listen to the president,
which, by the way, I don't recommend you do,
but if you do, he'll point his tiny little blame finger
where he normally does: south of the border.
Whether it's the opioids, whether it's drugs
as you hear in the traditional sense,
much comes through the southern border.
The opioid is a tremendous emergency.
And I tell you what, we've made a big impact,
but still, we need the wall.
One of the reasons we want the strong borders.
A lot of this stuff comes in from different places,
but it comes in from Mexico,
it comes along the southern border.
Man, Trump blames Mexico for everything.
The opioid crisis, factories closing,
crime in America.
I wouldn't be shocked if he's in bed with his wife,
and she's like, "What's wrong, Donald? Can't get it up?"
He's like, "It's these goddamn immigrants.
Not you, baby. The other ones, the other ones."
(laughter)
But in reality...
(cheering and applause)
In reality...
the opioid crisis is as American as baseball or student loan debt
because it wasn't Mexican drug dealers
that got people addicted, right?
That was the work of homegrown American doctors
like Barry Schultz.
In July, Schultz was sentenced to 157 years
for his role in fueling
the most devastating public health crisis
of the 21st century.
In one 16-month period,
DEA records show Barry Schultz dispensed
800,000 opioid pills from his office pharmacy.
When you're giving somebody 60 oxycodone a day,
how could they not abuse it?
(sighs)
60 a day is a large number, I admit.
That's a very large number.
But if it's taken properly...
How can you take 60 oxycodone a day properly?
Some people need that dose.
There is no scientific evidence to support that claim.
Goddamn, 60 oxycodone a day.
This guy deserves 150 years in prison.
I bet when they announced it in court,
he was like, "But that's a life sentence."
And the judge was like, "Well, no,
"not if you space it out properly.
It actually works out."
Now, the truth is as bad as this guy is,
doctors like this are basically low-level henchmen, right?
If you want to find the source of the opioid problem,
you have to go to the top of the cartel:
the pharma companies that make the drugs.
Former executives and managers for Insys Therapeutics
are on trial in Boston.
They're accused of bribing doctors
to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray.
Prosecutors say five Manhattan doctors were paid
more than $800,000 combined from Insys.
They were also treated to lavish dinners
and expensive strip club visits.
One of the former executives,
a former stripper turned saleswoman
who prosecutors say bribed doctors
and, in some cases, got personal with them
all so they would prescribe the company's drug.
That's right. This drug company
didn't just bribe doctors to push opioids.
They sent strippers to bribe the doctors.
And let me just say,
when a stripper starts paying you,
something fishy is going on, all right?
That just doesn't make sense. Doesn't make sense.
It's like a crackhead begging to give you five dollars.
"Hey, brother, you look like you could use some help.
Come on, man, take it."
Now, that's just one example of how drug companies
are pushing doctors to overprescribe opioids.
And that drug company is small-time
compared to the Pablo Escobar of opioids, the Sackler family.
We are hearing from the Massachusetts attorney general,
who blames the founding family of a pharmaceutical company
for helping create the opioid drug crisis.
In a lawsuit, the state targets Purdue Pharma
and eight members of the Sackler family.
It alleges they are personally responsible
for deceptively selling OxyContin.
The company admitted in federal court in 2007
that it had misled doctors and consumers
about just how addictive OxyContin can be.
The lawsuit contends that from 2008 to 2016 alone,
members of the Sackler family paid themselves
more than $4 billion in opioid profits.
That's right. This one family made $4 billion
by allegedly lying about how addictive opioids are.
That is straight-out evil.
If your product is addictive,
you have to be up-front about it.
I mean, that's why we always start our show
with the disclaimer, "Do not consume
"more three episodes of The Daily Show
if you're addicted to Africans with dimples."
All right? I have to warn people.
I could be a billionaire if I didn't show that warning.
I have to do that.
I don't want to do it, but I have to do it.
Your grandmother would be selling her VCR
to watch this show if I didn't give that warning.
And it's bad enough that the Sacklers reportedly lied
about how addictive their drugs were,
but according to the court filing,
they then turned around and blamed their victims
for getting addicted in the first place.
REPORTER: The newly unredacted complaint
points to a strategy allegedly employed
by the company to blame the addict.
In a confidential 2001 e-mail,
Richard Sackler, then Purdue chairman
and president, wrote...
(reading):
This is pure evil.
Like, genuinely pure evil.
They got people hooked on their product
and then tried to demonize them for being hooked.
This is like if a guy at Cinnabon was like,
"Have you tried the Cinnabon breadsticks?
"Have you tried the-- have you tried the Cinnabon Stix?
"Yeah? Oh, and have you had-- Uh, you've got to try
"the Caramel PecanBon. Yeah, yeah.
"And you do not want to get on that plane
without the ten-piece CinnaSweeties!"
And then I'm like, "Okay, you got me. I'll try them all!"
And then he's like, "You fat (bleep), you disgust me."
"Wait, what?
What?"
And according to allegations in the complaint,
blaming the addict was just a small part
of the Sacklers' diabolical master plan, right?
Because once they got people addicted,
they tried to make money
treating the addiction that they caused.
And, believe it or not, that-that wasn't
even their most sinister idea.
The maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin
is now trying to get FDA approval
to label it as suitable
for use by children as young as six years old.
-Wow. Wow. -WOMAN: What?
Yeah, what? That's right.
Even after they knew full well how addictive their drug was,
they still wanted to make a version for kids.
Like, nobody should ever want kids doped up on opioids,
all right?
Like, unless they're next to me on a plane
and that little asshole is kicking my seat,
'cause, like, I'm try-- I'm trying to rest,
is what I'm saying. But other than that,
-no one should ever, -(laughter, applause)
should ever want to do--
Oh, actually, actually, also in restaurants, you know,
sometimes when they're running around, screaming,
and they throw the food. Those ones also.
But, other than that, a child is the most prec--
Yo, Jesus, movies. Movies as well. They never shut up.
The kid'll be talking, like, "Mommy, did you see--"
Yeah, we all saw it! We're watching the screen!
It's on the screen! Now shut up so I can watch Lego Movie!