Gail was on HBO documentary “Warning: this drug may kill you”.

Teenager Brendan was prescribed opioids following surgery to remove a cyst; four years later, addiction claimed his life. His parents, Brian and Gail, had supported his efforts to get clean. Fresh out of rehab, however, Brendan overdosed, and was revived by Narcan — a drug that can reverse heroin overdose, but often leaves addicts more vulnerable. Unaware of the withdrawal symptoms he was facing, Brian and Gail were devastated to find their son collapsed in his bedroom, having overdosed again, this time fatally.

 

With nearly a hundred Americans dying everyday from opioid overdoses, the U.S. currently faces the worst drug epidemic in its history. More people die from opioid overdoses annually in the U.S. than from car accidents or gun homicides, a number that has quadrupled since 1999

 

The documentary tells devastating personal stories of families who have lost a loved one to an opioid overdose, all of them the result of addictions that started with doctors’ prescriptions of dangerous painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet. Also featuring harrowing pictures and cellphone videos, the documentary puts a human face on the epidemic of U.S. opioid addiction and its grave consequences when it debuts.

WARNING: THIS DRUG MAY KILL YOU takes an unflinching look at ordinary people whose lives turned on a dime after minor and major ailments led to the over-prescription of highly addictive opioids, which are often the gateway to heroin. The film shines a light on the role the pharmaceutical industry and the medical establishment have played in the alarming rise of opioid prescriptions.