Thirty years before fentanyl and Latin American cartels became the story, the American opioid epidemic began legally, with a prescription pill. This DW documentary traces how Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, built OxyContin into a blockbuster by sending hundreds of sales representatives into economically depressed regions and pressuring doctors to prescribe it. Dr. Lou Ortenzio describes bringing the drug to his town of Clarksburg before becoming addicted himself, and former Purdue sales representatives turned whistleblowers explain how they were trained to tell doctors the drug carried little addiction risk. Prosecutor Maura Healey recounts her office's fight to hold Purdue accountable, and the film traces the company's ties to consulting firm McKinsey and advertising agency Publicis. Built from interviews with insiders, whistleblowers, and officials alongside previously unpublished archive material, the film lays out a system of regulatory influence and marketing that turned a painkiller into a national health disaster, the first half of a two-part account.