This documentary examines the devastating impact of the opioid crisis on Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where addiction, overdose, and limited treatment resources have placed enormous strain on a small community. Through the experiences of a dedicated harm reduction worker, people living with opioid use disorder, and a family desperately trying to save their son, it explores the realities of addiction while highlighting the importance of compassion, harm reduction, and community support in the face of an ongoing public health crisis.
TOPICS: Canada, Fentanyl, Harm Reduction, Opioid Crisis, Opioid Use Disorder, Opioids, Overdose, Personal Stories, Poverty, Stigma, Youth
This documentary explores Boston's Methadone Mile, an area where addiction treatment services exist alongside homelessness, open drug use, and illicit drug markets. Through interviews with healthcare professionals, people living with addiction, individuals in recovery, and street-level dealers, it examines the challenges of recovery in an environment where support and relapse triggers often coexist. The film also explores the policies and circumstances that contributed to the area's development and the ongoing efforts to address the crisis.
This documentary travels across Canada to examine the country's overdose crisis through the experiences of advocates, families, frontline workers, and people directly affected by substance use. Focusing on harm reduction, it explores the efforts being made to prevent overdose deaths, reduce stigma, and improve access to support and life-saving services. Through personal stories and community initiatives, the film offers a broad look at one of Canada's most urgent and ongoing public health challenges.
Filmmaker Michelle Wong shares the story of her brother Phillip, whose struggle with gambling addiction had a devastating impact on both his life and those closest to him. Speaking with family members, friends, and professionals, she pieces together the events that shaped his addiction while exploring the emotional toll it left on those closest to him. Through personal reflection and expert insight, the documentary offers a moving examination of gambling disorder, loss, and the lasting effects of addiction on individuals and families.
Joy's story explores the devastating consequences of gambling addiction after she embezzled $700,000 employers to support her gambling. As she awaits sentencing, she reflects on the choices that led to her crimes while trying to help both herself and her children understand the grip of addiction. Alongside her personal story, the documentary features insights from addiction professionals who explain the psychological and neurological factors behind gambling disorder, offering a broader understanding of how behavioural addictions develop and why recovery can be so challenging.
Inside one of Kabul's largest drug rehabilitation centres, A Second Shot offers a stark look at addiction in Afghanistan through the experiences of residents, families, volunteers, and staff. The documentary follows those living inside the centre as they endure severe withdrawal, homelessness, poverty, family breakdown, and limited access to medication and basic care. Set against Afghanistan's strained healthcare system and declining international aid, it explores the human consequences of addiction and the challenges of providing treatment with few resources.
This documentary investigates Afghanistan's booming opium trade and the complex challenges driving one of the world's largest illicit drug economies. Travelling from poppy fields to addiction hotspots, the film examines how poverty, conflict, corruption, and political instability have fueled both heroin production and widespread drug use. Through interviews with farmers, law enforcement officials, healthcare workers, and people affected by addiction, it explores the limitations of anti-drug efforts while highlighting the far-reaching consequences of the opium trade for Afghanistan and the international community.
TOPICS: Afghanistan, Drug Trafficking, Heroin, Homelessness, Law Enforcement, Poverty, Public Health
Hamilton Morris explores the science and history of ketamine through conversations with artist and writer Timothy Wyllie, as well as doctors, therapists, and other experts. Travelling to India to investigate the drug's production and use, he examines ketamine's medical applications, recreational use, and emerging role in mental health treatment. By combining personal perspectives with scientific discussion, the episode offers an accessible look at one of the world's most distinctive psychoactive substances and the evolving understanding of its effects on the mind.
