BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD

This documentary examines the complexity of the opioid crisis in America and how and why it has disproportionately impacted Native American communities. Over a five-year period, pharmacy chains like Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS and major drug distributors such as Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson flooded Native American communities with opioid prescriptions at some of the highest rates in the United States, which had (and continues to have) catastrophic impacts on these communities.

 

The documentary also examines the US federal government’s crackdown on doctor-prescribed opioids in response to the opioid epidemic and the devastating impact this crackdown has had on chronic pain patients who rely on prescription opioids to function in their daily lives. Without proper medical pain management, some chronic pain patients are forced to seek other (sometimes dangerous) means of pain management, including turning to the streets to purchase opioids that are often laced with illicit and deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl.