How the Opioid Crisis Started

Prosecutors, seeking to hold someone accountable for the opioid epidemic, have been targeting doctors, dealers and users themselves. But those who made billions of dollars from sales of OxyContin, a painkiller at the center of the crisis, have gone largely unpunished. Guest: Barry Meier, the author of “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic,” who has reported on Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

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