Lone ranger lawyer vs. opioid manufacturers and distributors

Lauryn Licari in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (2025)

Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Shannon E. Riggs, Tim Grant & Clay Tweel at DC/Dox

Clay Tweel, Tim Grant & Shannon E. Riggs at the Virginia Film Festival

Paul Farrell Jr.

With his hometown ravaged by the opioid epidemic, plaintiff attorney Paul Farrell Jr. sets out to take on giant pharmaceutical companies to recover enough money to make a lasting impact for the area.

Clay Tweel

The Bitter Pill

As &quot;The Bitter Pill&quot; (2024 release; 90 min.) opens, we are reminded that more than 400,000 Americans have died (and continue to die) from opioids. We then get introduced to Paul Farrell Jr., a plaintiffs attorney in Huntington, WV, grounds zero of the opioids crisis that is raging in this country. &quot;This is a war&quot;, fumes the mayor of Huntington. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is directed by Oscar-nominated documentarian Clay Tweel (&quot;Gleason&quot;). Here he tracks the years-long legal battle started by Paul Ferrell Jr. Against the manufacturers and wholesale distributors of opioids. Ferrell is determined to get to the bottom of it and expose it all. He is not interested in settling the lawsuit. His dogged determination is admirable, frankly heroic, given against whom he is doing battle. As you are watching this, your blood is sure to boil on more than one occasion. Kudos to the film makers who invested YEARS on this documentary.

&quot;The Bitter Pill&quot; was released and seen in 2024 at various film festivals across the country. I just caught it recently when PBS aired it as part of its POV ongoing series (it&apos;s now also showing on the PBS channel on YouTube, where I caught it the other night). If you have any interest in how a plaintiffs lawyer took on the opioid manufacturers and distributors, I&apos;d readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

As "The Bitter Pill" (2024 release; 90 min.) opens, we are reminded that more than 400,000 Americans have died (and continue to die) from opioids. We then get introduced to Paul Farrell Jr., a plaintiffs attorney in Huntington, WV, grounds zero of the opioids crisis that is raging in this country. "This is a war", fumes the mayor of Huntington. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is directed by Oscar-nominated documentarian Clay Tweel ("Gleason"). Here he tracks the years-long legal battle started by Paul Ferrell Jr. Against the manufacturers and wholesale distributors of opioids. Ferrell is determined to get to the bottom of it and expose it all. He is not interested in settling the lawsuit. His dogged determination is admirable, frankly heroic, given against whom he is doing battle. As you are watching this, your blood is sure to boil on more than one occasion. Kudos to the film makers who invested YEARS on this documentary.

"The Bitter Pill" was released and seen in 2024 at various film festivals across the country. I just caught it recently when PBS aired it as part of its POV ongoing series (it's now also showing on the PBS channel on YouTube, where I caught it the other night). If you have any interest in how a plaintiffs lawyer took on the opioid manufacturers and distributors, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

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The Bitter Pill

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