These days there seems to be a never ending flow of new documentaries related to the opioid drug crisis which really gives you an idea of how prevalent this issue is becoming. In the United States alone over 115 people die every day from overdosing on these drugs with the likes of fentanyl playing a major part as it is being used as a cutting agent but is thousands of times stronger than heroin.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total “economic burden” of prescription opioid misuse in America is $78.5 billion a year. However the United States are not alone when it comes to opioid epidemics, their neighbour Canada has also be badly hit and this is where this film comes in.

Painkiller delves into the Canadian opioid epidemic, featuring interviews with families who have lost loved ones, as well as healthcare workers and policy experts who question a health system that favours corporate profits over patients.

It all stems from the late 1990s when pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, oh how they were ill-advised.