Do No Harm: The Opioid Epidemic

Mel Pohl MD DFASAM, (Chief Medical Officer, Las Vegas Recovery Center) - "Do No Harm does an excellent job of defining the causes and conditions resulting in one-quarter of a million deaths due to use of opioids - the main takeaway is that opioids are NOT the proper solution for the treatment of chronic pain.”

Lewis S. Nelson, MD, (Professor and Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School) - “The opioid epidemic is the culmination of misaligned incentives and poor regulatory oversight of prescribers, a cash cow for pharma, and an incredibly alluring drug for patients. Despite immense effort to gain control of the damaging and deadly crisis, we have made only marginal gains. The persistent yet changing landscape of the epidemic is testament to the profound effects that an opioid has on its users, whether through its exacerbation of pain, the search for the next best high, or the craving caused by addiction. Do No Harm presents this disturbing but important story.”

David Tauben MD (Chief of Pain Medicine, University of Washington) - Appreciate you and your Media Policy team’s enormous efforts that align and certainly support our shared public, community, and political education mission.

Greg Williams, MA (Executive Vice President, Facing Addiction with NCADD) - “Do No Harm: The Opioid Epidemic rightfully exposes the opioid lie we have been living in America for decades. This film and companion book can play a key role in educating communities about why opioid manufacturers should be held accountable for their calculated deception of health professionals and the general public. It’s time for accountability. It’s time for restitution. It’s time to help our communities heal and recover.”

Bob Elliott, National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, San Diego “The government calls this an emergency. Families call it a plague! The White House says that the opioid epidemic now costs the US Economy 504 billion dollars a year. The time for action is now. The time for communities to see this film is now.”

Bob Dorris, National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, San Fernando Valley, CA - “Those of us who work in addiction treatment and rehabilitation need to expand our abilities to provide knowledge. “Do No Harm” illustrates the unvarnished truth on how the medical profession and public were “duped” into creating an epidemic that could have been prevented.”

Anna Lembke (Assoc Prof-Med Ctr Line, Stanford University) - “Do No Harm unflinchingly exposes the role of the pharmaceutical industry in the creation of the current opioid epidemic, while also compassionately probing the suffering of its victims ... who include not only those who have died or become addicted to opioids, but their grieving parents and orphaned children left behind.”




Richard J. Jackson (Professor of Environmental Health, UCLA School of Public Health) - "Doctors, drug companies, and politicians must accept responsibility for their part in creating the cruel opioid epidemic, but alone they will fail to reverse its scourge. Community and family efforts, education and persistence, are inescapable treatment modalities. Do No Harm shows us the terrible pain, and who’s to blame, but also gives us hope with recovery strategies, not just for individuals, but for the nation."

Jane C. Ballantyne (Professor, Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington) - “Opioid drugs are great until they aren’t. They aren’t when they stop giving pleasure and pain relief, and start destroying natural pleasure and pain relief. Education is the strongest tool for prevention and Do No Harm is the best (or strongest) film I have seen in battling this epidemic.”

Michael Von Korff (Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle WA) - "Every clinician who prescribes opioids for chronic pain needs to watch this program. Until we are honest about the harm that has been done, and the role of well intentioned physicians in fueling the devastating epidemics of prescription drug addiction and overdose, we cannot begin to turn this problem around.”

Harry Wiland, Co-President and Co-CEO of Media Policy Center (MPC) (www.mediapolicycenter.org), with a MFA in Film & Television from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He is the Co-Executive Producer and Director of the documentary film and public television series Do No Harm. Wiland has produced public television and multimedia forover 30 years. In 2002, with Dale Bell, he founded the MPC located in Santa Monica, CA and developed its media model. He has been the Co-Executive Producer and Director of all of MPC’s major productions. In 2006, Harry was elected as an Ashoka Lifetime Fellows (ashoka.org). He is currently working on Our Kids: Narrowing the Opportunity Gap, a new 4-part series for PBS, hosted and written by Harvard Professor Robert Putnam. Since 1981, Wiland has been a director member of the Directors Guild of America and, since 2003, a member of the Television Academy. He lives in Venice, CA. The goal of Do No Harm: The Opioid Epidemic is saving lives through education.

Peter Segall is a journalist, writer, and researcher. He is experienced with both field reporting and intensive research for long form writing. He previously worked on the Media Policy Center’s documentary series, “Our Kids: Narrowing the Opportunity gap" based on the book "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis" by Harvard professor Robert Putnam. Before starting work at the Empire, his work as a journalist has focused on three areas: urban planning and infrastructure, education, and the pharmaceutical industry. Before working as a journalist he spent nearly three years living in Hanoi, Vietnam teaching English as a second language to children and adults at various levels. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2011 with a double major in Literature and History with related coursework in Political Science.

Lewis Nelson, M.D., Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and University Hospital. In August 2016, Dr. Nelson became the inaugural Chair of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, taking the helm from a series of formative and dedicated interim Chairs. He looks forward to sustaining the trajectory of progress that they have initiated and creating the premier academic department of emergency medicine in New Jersey and the region. His area of interests includes prescription drug abuse. Chief Advisor

Andrew Kolodny, M.D., Co-Director of Opioid Policy Research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP). Dr. Kolodny has been in the trenches of the war against the over-prescription of opioids and was the organizing force behind PROP in 2010. In 2016, the American Medical Association dropped pain as the 5th vital sign, recognizing and adhering to PROP’s findings. In true David and Goliath fashion, PROP continues to uncover the role of “big pharma” in the current opioid crisis. He served as an advisor to the Do No Harm documentary and will play an important role in the companion book as well.