[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
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[cheers and applause]
- Welcome, welcome, welcome
to "Last Week Tonight."
I'm John Oliver.
Thank you so much
for joining us.
And unfortunately,
we must begin yet again
with the 2016 election,
or, as you may know it,
"I honestly don't even
know if I can make it
"another two-and-a-half weeks.
"I've been drinking a lot
and lashing out,
and frankly my family
is worried 2016."
Now, the most anticipated event
of this week was on Wednesday,
with the final presidential
debate of this election season
and possibly ever.
Uh, it was the candidates'
last chance
to show that they can elevate
the tone of this campaign.
How did that go?
- Look, Putin...
Wallace: Wait, but--
- From everything I see,
has no respect for this person.
- Well, that's because he'd
rather have a puppet
as president
of the United States.
- No puppet.
No puppet.
- And it's pretty clear--
- You're the puppet.
- It's pretty clear
you won't admit...
- No, you're the puppet.
- That the Russian--
- That is a pretty
childish tone.
"No, you're the puppet"
sounds like something
teenage Pinocchio
would yell at Geppetto
before slamming
his bedroom door.
"You're the puppet!
You're the puppet!
I wish I'd never been carved!"
And look, I would love to say
that that was Trump's
low point of the evening,
but there were so, so many more.
- We have some bad hombres here,
and we're gonna get 'em out.
Nobody has more respect
for women than I do--nobody.
In the ninth month,
you can take the baby
and rip the baby out of the womb
of the mother.
- Well, let me translate that
if I can, Chris,
because, um--
- You can't.
- My Social Security
payroll contribution
will go up, as will Donald's,
assuming he can't figure out
how to get out of it.
Uh, but what we want to do
is to replenish the
Social Security trust fund--
- Such a nasty woman.
- Now, now, now, now, now.
Now, now.
To be fair, the questions that
the moderator asked there were,
"What is an offensive way
to describe Mexicans,
"state an objective falsehood,
"describe a nonexistent
medical process,
"mansplain in two words,
and incorrectly name your
favorite Janet Jackson song,"
so he kind of went
five for five.
But--but the most notable
moment of all
came when Trump was
simply asked whether,
given his constant claims
that this election is rigged,
he would accept the results
of the vote,
to which the easy
and only answer
is yes.
But he took a different path.
- I will look at it at the time.
I'm not looking at anything now.
I'll look at it at the time.
Wallace: Are you saying
you're not prepared now
to commit to that principle?
- What I'm saying is that
I will tell you at the time.
I'll keep you in suspense.
- What do you mean,
you'll keep us in suspense?
This is a presidential election,
not an "American Idol"
result show.
"Oh, I'll tell you whether
or not my followers
"will plunge the country
into anarchy
after the break."
Now, after significant
criticism,
Trump appeared to walk back
his statements the next day,
before throwing in a twist
at the last moment.
- I would like to promise
and pledge
to all of my voters
and supporters
and to all of the people
of the United States...
[cheers]
That I will totally accept
the results
of this great and historic
presidential election
if I win.
- [laughing]
Oh, you got us.
You got us.
That's so funny, 'cause we
thought you were gonna
say the rational thing
that would have put
the country at ease,
but instead, you pulled
the old switcheroo
and you continued to destabilize
the foundations
of our democracy.
Ah.
That is a solid bit.
Ah.
And look, as we have discussed
on this show before,
the odds of voter fraud
are very slim.
A study found that out of
the billion-plus votes cast
between 2000 and 2014,
there were just 31
credible instances
of voter impersonation.
By comparison, in 2009 alone,
there were 32 newborns
in the U.S.
named ABCDE.
And I would argue we should be
less worried about voter fraud
than we should be about those
But--but Trump and Clinton
didn't only share the stage
during the debates this week.
The following night, they were
at the Al Smith dinner
in New York,
an annual fundraiser
for Catholic charities
where traditionally,
presidential candidates
gently roast themselves
and one another.
This should have been
an easy win for Trump,
because Hillary Clinton is,
to put it kindly,
less than side-splittingly
hilarious.
And Trump is basically
an insult comic writ large.
It is hard to imagine
a philanthropic event
he'd be better suited for
other than of course
a charity groping booth.
And yet--and yet, somehow,
somehow, he completely
lost the room.
- Hillary is so corrupt...
she got kicked off
the Watergate Commission.
[crowd booing]
Here she is tonight,
in public,
pretending not
to hate Catholics.
[crowd booing]
Everyone knows, of course,
Hillary's belief that
it takes a village,
which only makes sense,
after all, in places
like Haiti, where she's
taken a number of them.
[crowd booing]
- How are you blowing this?
It's a charity roast.
In fact, just watch the face
of the man sitting next to him
after that first joke.
It says--it says something
about how horrifying
Trump's speech was
that his expression is that
of someone who just realized,
"My God, I've been shot.
I've been shot."
And the crazy thing is,
of all the negative things
you--you could, should,
and are morally obligated
to say about Trump,
being unentertaining
is not one of them.
He is a born showman,
and that room
couldn't have given him more
of a home field advantage.
This wasn't a town hall
or a debate.
It was a $3,000-a-plate
fund-raising gala
at a moth-eaten Manhattan hotel
organized by
the Catholic Church,
a real estate-owning,
male-dominated,
sex scandal-plagued
organization
with whom Trump obviously shares
a uniquely unqualified
interior decorator.
I mean, just--just look
at the audience there:
white bow ties.
They are dressed like they're
about to play a game
of steerage darts
onboard the Titanic.
"Oh, terribly high-stakes,
steerage darts.
If you're not careful,
you could lose a dart."
But perhaps there
is no better index
of just how badly he did
than this.
- People were really cringing,
I think,
a lot of times
with Donald Trump.
I was sitting next
to Henry Kissinger,
and he said,
"This is not good."
- [chuckles]
- "This is not good."
- It's true.
Henry Kissinger thought
Trump bombed horrifically.
And Henry Kissinger
is pretty much
the world's leading authority
on horrific bombings.
And yet despite the audible boos
he heard during his speech,
Trump somehow did not seem
to be aware
of how badly he was doing.
- Hillary believes
that it's vital to deceive
the people by having
one public policy...
[crowd booing]
And a totally different policy
in private.
That's okay--I don't know who
they're angry at, Hillary,
you or I.
- It's you.
They're angry at you,
and I'll tell you why:
because you are treating
a benefit for needy children
like open mic night
at Rascal McBigot's,
Long Island's fourth-best
alt-right comedy club.
But perhaps the reason
that Trump did so poorly
is that the Al Smith dinner
is supposed to involve
a healthy share
of self-deprecation,
and he's almost pathologically
unable to acknowledge
any flaw or fault.
In fact, there was
one revealing moment
in Wednesday's debate
when Hillary Clinton hit
something of a nerve.
- There was even a time when
he didn't get an Emmy
for his TV program
three years in a row,
and he started tweeting
that the Emmys were rigged.
- I should've gotten it.
- Of course.
Of course.
Of course he wants an Emmy.
It's a woman, it's gold,
and it's proportionate
to his tiny hands.
It's basically Trump's
ideal mate.
And here's the problem.
Here's the problem here.
It increasingly seems like
if Donald Trump loses,
we are not going to get
the concession speech
that the country badly needs,
because he is medically
incapable of accepting
that he's a loser.
So we need to find a way for him
to give a concession speech
while he's still able to claim
that he won something.
And--and I think I might
have the answer here,
because I have a proposition
for Donald Trump.
Let's bet on the outcome
of this election.
I will take the side
that you win.
You take the side that you lose.
That way, if you lose,
you still win.
And--and--and as for
the stakes--
as for the stakes of the bet,
I have something
I know that you want.
She's so small.
She's so shiny.
You don't even have to take her
furniture shopping.
Take the bet, Donald.
Take the f*cking bet.
And now this.
[trumpet flourish]
- In a moment, we'll be joined
by NBC News'
chief White House correspondent
Chuck Todd, who's in London
with the president, but first,
here's a clip from the great
movie "Love Actually."
It's been brought to the fore
so many beautiful times
in movies, my favorite
being "Love Actually."
We're gonna show
a clip from that.
Well, we still remember
this scene,
and we'll play it again,
probably tonight again,
from, uh, "Love Actually."
Like in that great, memorable
scene from "Love Actually."
Did you see the very popular
movie "Love Actually"?
- I did.
Matthews: I see him every time
I re-watch
that incredible movie
"Love Actually."
I think everybody on
the planet fell in love
with that guy Colin Firth
in "Love Actually."
One of my favorite movies,
"Love Actually."
My favorite movie,
"Love Actually."
Is "Love Actually"...
"Love Actually"...
And that reminded me
of this scene from the movie
"Love Actually," which I've
seen about a million times.
- Moving on, for our--
for our main story tonight,
I would like to talk to you
about dr*gs.
And I know, I know,
I already sound
like a middle school
health teacher
about to show you
a video like this.
man: The pattern is
generally the same.
Take a life of responsibility,
the inability to make
right choices,
add to it ignorance
and indifference,
and top it off with a desire
for escapism and kicks.
The sum total is then
conceivably found
in the bennies, the reefer,
the pot needle.
- Yes, the pot needle.
Now--now--now, you may laugh,
but that film works.
Think about it: when was
the last time that you saw
a pot needle?
Exactly.
Exactly.
But unfortunately,
America is now in the midst
of a new drug crisis,
and it seems that no one
is safe from it.
woman: Laura, Charlie's owner,
who asked us not to use
her last name,
says Charlie had to be
rushed to the vet.
You can't see the suspect
throw the dr*gs over the fence
in the video,
but that's Charlie,
and what she's eating is
a full bag of heroin.
- You can't process the fact
that your dog ate heroin.
- Yeah, and if she
can't process it,
imagine how it must have felt
for her dog when it kicked in.
"Who's a good boy?
I--I'm a good boy.
"I'm a really good boy.
I'm the best boy."
[exclaims]
But--but here's the thing:
even that lighthearted
local news story
had some chilling context.
woman: Here, Bishop runs
the Bark and Play
where it happened.
He says it highlights
a much bigger problem.
- This whole heroin problem
around here is--is ridiculous.
You know, we find needles.
We find everything around here.
And it's--it's getting
to the point
to where I can't let my
employees go outside.
- Okay, that is terrifying,
although, honestly,
rampant heroin abuse
near a doggie day care center
is the first case
that McGruff the Crime Dog is
actually qualified to solve.
But the thing is, that--
that is symptomatic
of the fact that America
is facing an epidemic
of addiction to opioids
like heroin and prescription
painkillers.
As of 2015, an estimated
were addicted to them,
and they're now involved
in almost 30,000 overdose deaths
a year in the U.S.
And the prevalence
of this problem
astonishes some people.
Just listen to Donald Trump
up in New Hampshire.
- They said the biggest single
problem they have up here
is heroin.
And I said, "How does heroin
work with these beautiful
"lakes and trees and all
of the beautiful--
it doesn't."
- Yeah, it does, though.
It does.
Heroin works
basically everywhere,
because it's heroin.
It's not a cell phone.
Heroin has full coverage.
So--so tonight,
we're gonna look at one
of the major causes
of this crisis:
prescription painkillers,
which are chemical cousins
of heroin.
Around 75% of heroin users
started with
a prescription opioid:
dr*gs like OxyContin,
uh, Vicodin,
and Percocet,
which some take recreationally
and others take as prescribed
by a doctor.
But however it starts,
it can get out of hand fast.
- So how many,
if we start from this side,
have moved--moved from
prescription dr*gs to heroin?
Everybody.
man: Once people became
dependent on painkillers,
they said they'd do almost
anything to get them.
- One time, I--
I was hurting so bad
that I ended up punching a 4x4
and breaking all three
of these fingers and this bone
to get pain meds
from my doctor.
I did that several times--
- So you'd hurt yourself
in order to go to a doctor?
- Absolutely.
- I had nine teeth pulled out
of my head for prescriptions.
- At the time,
that's how my mind--
- To get a prescription?
- Yeah.
- I've been in with, like,
groups of people
where they've taken, like,
bats to their wrists.
man: Broke arms.
- Snapped 'em easily.
- Uh, I mean, how many people
do know someone that's died
of overdose from...
- Well, I mean--
- Everybody?
- This is happening everywhere.
The odds are, right now,
you probably know someone
who is struggling or who has
died from an opioid addiction.
Some towns have been devastated.
Just two months ago,
in and around
Huntington, West Virginia,
in one five-hour span.
And given their risks,
it's kind of amazing
how freely doctors
have prescribed them,
because there are a lot
in circulation.
- We have, currently,
nearly 250 million prescriptions
for opioids written every year.
That's enough
for every adult in America
to have a bottle of pills,
and then some.
- Holy shit.
And those bottles
aren't necessarily
sitting on a shelf unused,
like that bottle of wine
that you are saving
for a special occasion
that now serves as a reminder
that you haven't had
a single event in four years
that was deserving of getting
"fancy drunk."
No, the--these--
these pills are getting used
or falling into the hands
of others, from--
from those who are
already addicted
to just bored teenagers.
So how has this happened?
Because interestingly,
as recently as the early '90s,
doctors were excessively wary
of prescribing opioids.
- Back then, there was a thing
called "opiophobia."
A lot of health care
professionals did not
want to prescribe opiates at all
because they thought
you give the slightest amount,
you turn your patients
into addicts.
And so even people with,
uh, stage four cancer
weren't being given opiates.
They were left to suffer.
- Yes, "opiophobia,"
which is not to be confused
with "Oprah-phobia,"
which is the irrational fear
of screaming talk show hosts
giving you a brand-new
Pontiac sedan.
"Oprah, I can't afford
the taxes on this.
You haven't thought it through."
Now, obviously, that level
of under-treating pain
was a huge problem in itself.
And to their credit,
pain care advocates
worked to dispel
some dangerous myths.
But in doing so,
they made a key mistake,
as you will see right
at the end of this clip.
- Today, the federal government
said in a report
that about half of all
surgery patients
suffer needlessly because
doctors and hospitals
don't pay enough attention
to painkiller.
Health Secretary Louis Sullivan
talked about myths
that pain builds character--
myth, he said.
That infants don't feel pain--
another myth.
That elderly patients have
a higher tolerance for pain
or that painkillers
are addictive--
all myths.
- Okay, okay.
Okay, first, of course
babies feel pain.
How the f*ck did we
ever think otherwise?
But more importantly, the fact
that painkillers are addictive
was not a myth.
It's like a book
of Greek mythology
featuring the stories
of Zeus, Sisyphus,
Oedipus, and Yanni.
Come on, that last one
is very real,
and it cannot be dismissed.
And look, a nuanced discussion
between the medical community
about the complexities
of pain treatment
is clearly important.
The problem is,
that discussion became dominated
by the pharmaceutical industry,
who started amplifying
the message
that opioids should not just
be used for acute pain,
like that from cancer
or surgery,
but for all sorts of pain,
like arthritis and backaches,
which makes sense as a motive
coming from the pharma industry.
End-of-life pain care
is a narrow business.
It's hard to make a lot of money
off of a product exclusively
marketed to people
who are close to death.
Honestly, I don't know
how Fox News even does it.
I have no idea.
I--it's a mystery.
Volume, I guess.
But I--I don't know.
And--and within
the pharma industry,
the loudest voice was Purdue.
In 1996, they released
the blockbuster drug OxyContin,
and they marketed it
to doctors aggressively,
giving out swag like,
uh, fishing hats,
uh, swing music CDs
bearing the slogan,
"Swing in the right direction
with OxyContin,"
and Oxy-branded
stuffed plush toys.
And if you think we didn't
get hold of one of those,
you have clearly never
watched this show before,
because yes, here he is.
And yes, he is
my new best friend,
and yes, his name is Harold.
And I've got to say, Purdue,
this is the perfect
choice of mascot,
because much like a gorilla,
OxyContin might seem appealing,
but if you're not careful,
it will tear your
f*cking life apart.
Won't you, Harold?
Yes, he will.
Purdue also distributed
inspirational videos
like "I got my life back"
featuring seven patients
whose lives were turned around
by the magic of OxyContin.
- Since I've been on this
new pain medication,
I have not missed
one day of work,
and my boss really appreciates
that Lauren is there every day.
So I'm able to be
very productive.
And one of the things that's
really dear to my heart
and, uh, which I'm especially,
um, excited about
is just the fact that
I'm able to spend time
with my grandchildren.
It's amazing just to be able
to keep up with them
and not have to, uh,
always constantly tell them,
"Grandma can't play now.
Grandma can't do this.
Grandma's hurting.
Grandma's back hurts."
- That's genuinely sweet.
And it's also
a powerful message,
although I will note,
"It makes time with your
grandkids more fun"
could apply to literally
any drug.
"Hey, kids."
[sniffing]
"Uh, Grandpa's gonna
take you to the park.
"I'm gonna--I'm gonna
take you on the swings.
"I'm gonna push you real high.
"And then we're gonna
stay up all night,
"and I'm gonna come up
with inventions,
"and you're gonna
write them down.
"And you're gonna write
them down fast.
We're having quality time!"
[sniffing]
And it--it wasn't just--
it wasn't just
uplifting stories.
Other Purdue videos sought
to reassure patients
who might have been nervous
about taking such a strong drug.
- Less than 1% of patients
taking opioids
actually become addicted.
- Less than 1%.
And I know it may seem like
they are pulling that number
out of their ass.
But they actually pulled it
out of the letters
to the editor section
of "The New England
Journal of Medicine."
Seriously, this is it.
That paragraph is
the whole thing.
It wasn't peer-reviewed,
and it was only about
short-term use of opioids
in hospitals.
But it became the main source
for that 1% claim.
And letters pages are not
a solid source for information.
Just this month,
a Pennsylvania newspaper
published a letter, uh,
featuring a man's question
about Hillary Clinton's
fitness for office,
uh, because, and I quote,
"What if that time
of the month comes?"
To which the obvious answer is,
one, she's 68,
and two, f*ck you.
Maybe just a little bit.
But--but--but even if doctors
started noticing that a lot more
than 1% of their patients
were getting addicted,
Purdue had a ready answer:
"What if they're not?"
Because they had doctors
on their payroll
like Alan Spanos,
who were happy to explain
the helpful new concept
of "pseudo-addiction."
I'll let him tell you about it.
- Pseudo-addiction
is when a patient
is looking like a drug addict
because they're pursuing
pain relief.
So pseudo-addiction is
relief-seeking behavior
mistaken as drug addiction.
- Wow, that is so convenient.
That is like Chipotle going,
"Have you heard of this
fascinating new thing
"called 'pseudo-diarrhea'?
"It--it looks a lot
like diarrhea,
"but it's not diarrhea.
And the cure may actually
be more tacos."
And Purdue's overall message
of a quick, easy cure for pain
was very appealing,
especially for primary care
doctors who might only have
So it is no wonder
that by the year 2000,
doctors were writing
nearly 6,000,000
OxyContin prescriptions per year
and its sales were more
than even Viagra.
And remember, that was a drug
that had the distinct advantage
of being sold by Bob Dole,
the red-hot,
late-'90s "it" boy.
However, evidence
started piling up
that it was far riskier
than promised,
with headlines like
"OxyContin Abuse Is Increasing"
and "OxyContin abuse
called 'a plague,'"
or, as I'm sure Purdue
would call it,
a "pseudo-plague."
And--and even the stars
of Purdue's
"I got my life back" video
were not immune from this trend,
because a later investigation
discovered
two out of the seven of them
died as active opioid abusers.
And that grandmother
you saw earlier
became addicted and nearly
lost everything.
- I lost my house.
Oh, yeah, I've lost cars.
I've lost--
I lost a lot.
A lot.
I--I've lost a lot
to keep, um, the high
and taking that drug
when I did lose my job.
Mm-hmm.
Had I not lost
my medical insurance,
well, as I said, if I was to go
to the mailbox once a month
and I would find a bottle
of OxyContin in it,
I'd probably still be on it,
and I'd probably be dead.
- Think about that.
Losing her health insurance
might have saved her life.
That is an irony so deep
it would vaporize
Alanis Morissette
into a cloud of f*cking steam.
Now, by now, I'm guessing
you are pretty angry at Purdue.
So you may be glad to hear
that in 2007,
they admitted
some responsibility
in a lawsuit so big, it actually
led the evening news.
- Good evening.
The maker of a hugely
popular painkiller
has some pain
of its own tonight.
The company and its top officers
will pay $634 million in fines
for lying to the public.
- Wow.
You know they f*cked up
if they had to pay
over $600 million
for misleading marketing,
because you get a lot
of leeway on that.
That's why Dunkin' Donuts has
not yet been sued for saying,
"America Runs on Dunkin'"
when we all know their
real slogan should be,
"Sometimes You Can't
Find a Starbucks."
And--and look, it wasn't just
Purdue pushing the envelope.
Cephalon paid
a $444 million settlement
for over-marketing dr*gs
and INSYS has been investigated
for some of its practices
surrounding a drug they made
containing fentanyl,
an opioid which can be 100 times
more powerful than morphine.
Their drug is only approved
for cancer patients,
but INSYS is accused
of not just pushing it
for non-cancer patients,
but even helping convince
insurance companies
to pay for it.
And to do that,
according to one ex-employee,
they used a particularly
shady technique.
- If you don't have cancer
and breakthrough cancer pain,
no insurance company is gonna
pay for this medication.
So if you call up
and you tell them
that the patient
doesn't have cancer,
it's automatically denied.
- So instead,
what were you doing?
Nixon: They would always ask,
"Does the patient have cancer?"
"Uh-huh."
That's what we would say.
- So you'd do, "Uh-huh"?
You would--
- Right.
- Say yes.
- But I'm not saying,
"Yes," right?
I would just say, "Uh-huh."
- Isn't that a yes?
- Well, and that's what
they did think.
Um, but I wasn't
blatantly saying yes.
- Oh, my God.
Except everybody knows
"uh-huh" means yes.
If you go to Thesaurus.com
and type in "uh-huh,"
literally the first word
that comes up is "yes,"
followed by options such as
"absolutely,"
"definitely,"
"unquestionably,"
and "yep."
And--look, and at this point,
I--I should say that Purdue
and Cephalon's, uh, owner
told us that those practices
were in the past.
And INSYS has denied wrongdoing
and didn't respond
to any of our questions,
not even with a "nuh-uh."
But at a certain point,
the question has to become
less "What did we do wrong?"
and more "What do we do now?"
Because these dr*gs are still
the most effective solution
for certain types of pain,
and many patients need them.
So we can't get rid of them,
but we have to be
much more careful
about how they're prescribed.
And to their credit,
the CDC issued voluntary
guidelines this year
suggesting doctors use
non-opioid therapies
when possible and,
if and when one is needed,
to start patients
with a lower dose
and a shorter supply,
a technique that they call
"start low and go slow,"
which does sound good,
but also sounds like how your
creepiest high school friend
described cunnilingus.
"Dude, start low,
"go slow,
"and afterwards,
take her to Friendly's.
"Chicks love
root beer floats, dude.
"They love them, dude.
"Low and slow.
Low and slow, dude.
Low and slow."
Look, and while--
while all that sounds great,
unfortunately,
not all areas of the country
have access to alternative
pain treatments.
- It's easy to say,
"Use some non-opioid
alternative,"
but in a lot of rural areas,
patients don't have access
to things like physical therapy
and mindfulness meditation,
and insurance companies
won't pay for it.
- And that is a big problem,
because even in a rural area,
alternative pain treatments
should be at least
as easy to find
as Waffle Houses,
which, like heroin, are both
hazardous to your health
and dangerously addictive.
And--and to put it mildly,
it does not seem that
the pharmaceutical industry
is expecting any major reversals
in opioid sales anytime soon.
In fact, they are now
marketing extra dr*gs
to fight one of opioids'
side effects:
constipation.
[toilet flushing]
[melancholy string music]
♪
man: If you need an opioid
to manage your chronic pain,
you may be so constipated.
It feels like everyone can go,
except you.
[laughter]
- You know painkillers
are powerful
if people use them
despite the s--
the side effect "being jealous
of a dog's butthole."
And that commercial aired
during the Super Bowl this year,
which means, A,
it is a big business,
and B, I can only assume
there was a reverse commercial
during the Puppy Bowl
featuring a jealous dog
and a sh1tting man.
But we cannot just work
to prevent future addicts.
We're going to need to do more
to help the millions
that already exist,
which means more investments
in treatment programs
as well as increasing
availability
of dr*gs like nalox--
naloxone,
commonly used in a nasal spray
to rescue people from overdoses
because, as this firehouse
makes clear,
it is a tool that they use
with depressing frequency.
- So every single firefighter
in the Revere Fire Department
knows how to use this--
has been trained on this?
- Yeah.
- Has used it.
- Yes, we--
- And has used it?
- Yes, uh, from the chief down.
We tend to have more
overdoses than we do--
- Fire?
- Fires.
So it's a piece of equipment
that we can't go without now,
just like we have the hose.
- It's true.
Firefighters might be more
likely to use a nasal spray
than a hose,
which is really going to f*ck up
those hot firefighter calendars,
because something about
an overdose-reversing
nasal spray isn't quite as sexy.
It's still sexy, but just
not quite as sexy.
It is still sexy, though,
just not qui--
but still--
and that's not the point.
The point is,
there is no
one simple answer here.
Not all opioid addicts will
respond to the same treatment,
and not all people in pain
will find relief
from alternative therapies.
This is going to take
a massive effort
and a significant investment.
It won't be cheap,
it won't be quick,
and it won't be easy.
And it is hard
not to be angry
at the drug companies
like Purdue,
whose promise of cheap,
quick, easy pain solutions
helped put us
in this f*cking mess.
Because while they may not
be solely responsible,
if you were to ask me if they
bear significant blame
for reckless, greedy behavior
which contributed to this
massive public health crisis,
I might not say yes, exactly,
but I would definitely say,
"Uh-huh."
man: Elected officials:
whether at the local,
state, or federal level,
these are the men and women
who diligently make us look
like f*cking idiots
for electing them.
Let's meet another
in our ongoing series...
This week's person
who somehow got elected:
Glenn Grothman,
U.S. Representative from
Wisconsin's 6th district,
the picturesque home
to cheeseheads
and that creepy prosecutor
from "Making a m*rder*r."
Grothman was elected
to Congress in 2014,
but before that,
he spent 22 years
in the Wisconsin
state legislature
making his name as a fiscal
and social conservative,
taking bold stances
such as speaking out
against an equal pay law.
- Senator Glenn Grothman said,
"You could argue that money
is more important for men.
"I think a guy
in their first job--
"maybe because they expect to be
a breadwinner someday--
may be a little more
money-conscious."
man: Yes, Glenn Grothman talks
like a character
out of "Mad Men"
and dresses like a contestant
on a 1987 episode
of "Jeopardy!",
which is not to say
Glenn Grothman
does not support women.
He loves all of them,
even the single moms.
- I know a lot of gals
who are having kids
out of wedlock,
and I love them.
I've been outside
abortion clinics,
and I've encouraged them.
man: See?
Would a man who hates women
go talk to them outside
of abortion clinics
or end that same speech
this way?
- Our country is not
gonna survive
if we continue this w*r on men.
Thanks for having me.
[cheers and applause]
man: But if there's one issue
dear to Glenn Grothman's heart,
it's racism,
or as he calls it...
- Well, this is one more example
of, I think, screaming rashism
where obviously none exists.
The idea that somehow--
you know, opponents say,
"It's rashist,"
is ridiculous.
man: Yes, for some reason
Glenn Grothman
pronounces this word
"rashism," which is weird,
because he clearly
has no problem
making an "S" sound.
- Governor Walker is gonna
be giving the tech schools,
the schools, the prisons,
the counties, the cities,
all less money.
man: And Grothman's
obsession with "rashe"
is especially strange,
given that his district
is so overwhelmingly white.
It wasn't just the location
of the state's
It was also the birthplace
of OshKosh B'gosh,
the closest wardrobe equivalent
to dressing your child
in an actual banjo.
But that doesn't mean Grothman
can't link rashism
to any story.
Take Planned Parenthood.
- Given the rashist background
of Planned Parenthood,
and not liking people
who are not white,
I wonder if one of the reasons
why Planned Parent
likes to do these, uh,
sex-selective abortions is--
disproportionately are done on
people of an Asian background.
man: Incidentally,
that's 100% falsh.
But that's just scratching
the surface of Grothman's
rashe-based opinions.
He's also opposed to making
Martin Luther King Day
a holiday.
- I would bet the vast majority
of African-Americans,
as the vast majority
of everybody else,
isn't doing anything
for Martin Luther King
on Martin Luther King Day.
I think most employees
who are off
are shopping at the mall.
Maybe they're taking
an extended vacation
somewhere over the weekend.
Let's be honest.
man: And that's not the only
African-American holiday
he opposes.
- Wisconsin state senator
Glenn Grothman
isn't backing down
on his stance
that the African-American
holiday Kwanzaa
should "die a quick death."
- I think the underlying
problem here
is not enough TV types,
when they talk about Kwanzaa,
talk about the horrible,
rashist, violent past
of its founder.
- Grothman says Kwanzaa
is a holiday that, uh,
quoting here, "Almost no
black people today care about."
man: And if you're wondering
how he can be so sure,
don't worry, he checked.
- I spent some time--
happened to be at the Rose Bowl,
and I spent some time
interviewing, briefly,
California or Arizona
or people getting on airplanes,
and none of them
celebrated Kwanzaa,
so I don't think Kwanzaa's
really important
to the average African-American.
man: That's a flawed study,
though it was published
in "The New England Journal
of Harassing Strangers Who Are
Just Trying to Board a Plane."
But Glenn Grothman knows,
whether it's African-Americans
at airports
or women at abortion clinics,
everyone's entitled
to his insane opinions,
and that's why it's
so remarkable
that Glenn Grothman
is a politician
who somehow got elected.
- That's our show.
Thank you so much for watching.
See you next week.
Good night.
[cheers and applause]
03x27 - Opioid epidemic in the United States
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American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver.
American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver.