April 24, 2025

The Opioid Crisis: An American Epidemic

After making his first documentary – Kids are Dying – Michael DeLeon, who runs Steered Straight, travelled throughout the U.S. to nearly 40 states to talk to people about the opioid crisis. He speaks with parents who have lost a child, professionals in the field, addicts in recovery, as well as celebrities to create this eye-opening film. It seems that everyone shares one common belief: the opioid crisis is an epidemic that has gone on for far too long.
April 24, 2025

Opioid Nation: An American Epidemic

This news investigation by Click Orlando covers the opioid crisis and “explores the lives of those faced with addiction.” They talk with several recovering addicts who provide a grim and honest look into the realities of opioid addiction, and analyze fentanyl specifically and its extreme potency and profitability. There’s also a very emotional part about babies born with an Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and the impact addiction has on children. Additionally, the importance of Narcan is highlighted as a relatively cheap way to save lives, but not everyone in society agrees. You’ll also learn about a controlled environment that uses virtual reality to help addicts recover – an addition to traditional therapeutic treatments – and other ways of practicing recovery principles.
April 24, 2025

Fentanyl: The Drug Deadlier than Heroin (VICE)

In 2015, close to 300 people died from fentanyl in Alberta. Many of these deaths were caused by bootlet, non-pharmaceutical pills. VICE presents an immersive and personal feature film about the fentanyl crisis in Canada, told from the perspective of a community of drug users. The struggles of one young man in this documentary is particularily important. He is an active drug user who continually attempts to seek support. In one scene, he goes to a publicly funded treatment center, expressing his urgent desire for help. However, he is told he cannot begin the program until he is sober for 5 days – he must find the ‘willpower’ to go through withdrawal, despite being homeless and alone. Later on in the video, he tries to find help again, but he is told the waitlist is going to be a few months. One of the last things he says is, “Honestly, if I can’t get clean at this point, I think I’ll just kill myself. I can’t do this any more.” His story is a very realistic depiction of how hard it is to receive help and is a testament to the fact that people struggling with addiction need support immediately, because many often shy away once told they must wait.
April 24, 2025

Kensington: Inside America’s Largest Open-Air Drug Market

Peter Santello creates “videos about a world the media fails to capture” (source). In this video, he travels to Kensington, Philadelphia to speak with a local man named Buddy Osborn, who reached out to him to tell him about “the horrific realities of open-air drug markets.” Buddy and his organization, The Rock, help “to get kids out of crime and drugs and into a healthier environment built upon confidence and clarity.”
April 24, 2025

What Makes Ecstasy So Dangerous? (VICE: High Society)

British people statistically take more MDMA in one session than any other country on the planet. And not just a little bit more: on average, Brits take 420 milligrams per session. To put that in perspective, Germans, the same people who invented minimal techno and nightclubs that stay open for 60 hours – take only 200 milligrams. It’s still one of the safest drugs to take, but last year, ecstasy-related deaths reached their highest level in a decade, and now it’s back in the headlines. Some people say it’s drug dealers’ responsibility for selling pills that are dangerously strong and cut with adulterants. Other people point to the government, who have failed to reduce the supply of ecstasy and are refusing to embrace harm reduction strategies that have worked in Europe. Of course it’s also possible that the issue lies with British drug users themselves, who sometimes need reminding that the barometer of a good night out isn’t how much of your tongue is left at the end of it. In this episode of High Society, we find out what’s making ecstasy so dangerous again, and how that danger can be reduced.
April 24, 2025

Zombies of Nairobi: Street Youth Addicted to Inhalants

A population of young people in Kenya, known as the “Zombies of Nairobi,” wander the streets in a daze, seemingly half alive due to consuming dangerous inhalants. The campsites where they live are filled with mounds of garbage and create a desolate and grotesque environment. Deprived of even the most basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter, these children suffer daily. Tragically, the cause of their zombie-like state is due to the glue-sniffing epidemic that has gripped Nairobi’s street youth population. The side effects of inhaling dangerous substances can lead to a loss of concentration, lack of coordination, hallucinations, and even aggression towards others.
April 24, 2025

Overdose Crisis on the US-Canada Border: Steel Town Down

Tens of thousands have died of an opioid overdose across the US and Canada in 2017, with the death count surpassing the peak of the AIDS epidemic. The weight of the crisis in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario falls on a handful of people struggling to keep their fellow community members alive, similar to countless towns in North America. Steel Town Down is an intimate portrait of the only harm reduction worker in town and a family desperate to save their son from becoming another victim of the crisis.
April 23, 2025

Only Need to Win Once (Gambling Addiction Short Film)

Teenager Brady Thornhill takes out a loan from an online PayDay Loan site in order to fuel his gambling addiction. However, he loses all his money again and Bailiff Liam is sent to collect on the debt. This causes Brady to spiral into a cycle of short term loans and online casinos, until his depression and entrapment takes its final toll.
April 23, 2025

The Ketamine Time Bomb (VICE: High Society)

Ketamine has become the generation-defining drug for young Brits. A report from November 2020, stated 1-in-30 young people admitted to taking the drug in the past year – the highest number since records began and far more than other countries in Europe. The latest figures also suggest that ketamine is now the fourth drug of choice for young people behind cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine. There is a certain cognitive dissonance at the heart of Generation K: On the one hand, we see it as a silly, wonky horse tranquilliser. On the other hand, it is literally a horse tranquilliser… A horse tranquilliser that can make you piss blood. As it has grown in popularity, so have bladder injuries and addictions. In this report, Matt Shea gets deep into the UK’s Generation K, and finds out how a party drug can go too far.