The United States is fighting a forever war at home, against far-right extremism. Join host Ben Makuch as he exposes domestic terror groups and breaks down what you need to know - and how they might be stopped.
Painkiller: America’s Fentanyl Crisis - UPDATE: The End of Pain
For over 30 years, Danny Elliot suffered from severe chronic pain, the aftermath of nearly getting electrocuted to death in a home accident. The only thing that eased his pain was the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, which was prescribed to him by a doctor.
But in recent years, it had become almost impossible for Danny to obtain fentanyl—even with a prescription. With illicit fentanyl made by Mexican cartels causing thousands of overdose deaths, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been cracking down on all sources of supply—including doctors suspected of operating illegally and over-prescribing. A week after the DEA’s visit to Danny’s third doctor in four years, he killed himself. His wife of 25 years, Gretchen Elliott, also took her own life at the same time.
VICE News correspondent Keegan Hamilton first spoke to Danny two years ago for an episode of the podcast series “PAINKILLER: America’s Fentanyl Crisis”. This week, he went to Danny’s funeral and talked with friends and family who told a story of a tragedy that was as predictable as it was avoidable.
This story was reported and produced by Keegan Hamilton and Jesse Alejandro Cottrell. It was edited by Stephanie Kariuki and Annie Aviles.
VICE News Reports is produced by Sam Eagan, Sophie Kazis, Adreanna Rodriguez and Adriana Tapia. Our senior producers are Jesse Alejandro Cottrell, Janice Llamoca and Julia Nutter. Our supervising producer is Ashley Cleek. Our associate producer is Steph Brown. Sound design and music composition by Steve Bone, Pran Bandi, and Kyle Murdock. Annie Aviles is our Executive Editor and Janet Lee is Senior Production Manager for VICE Audio. Fact Checking by Nicole Pasulka. Our theme music is by Steve Bone. Our host is Arielle Duhaime-Ross.
Special thanks to Meg Driscoll, Leah Feder and Shirley Ramos.
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1 Nov 2022
8: A Forever War
After years of reporting, Ben interviews the leader of The Base, Rinaldo Nazzaro, to press him on his lies.
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1 Nov 2022
7: Training Grounds
One side effect of the war in Ukraine is that the battlefield has become a space for neo-Nazis from around world to network and gain military experience. Ben travels to Lviv to investigate.
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