For a few years at the beginning of this century Paul Volkman ran one of the most extensive opioid pill mills in the country—dispensing narcotic painkillers across a three state area. When police finally raided his operations they found safes full of cash and guns as well as prescriptions for an unfathomable amount of pain pills. Desperate people were just one step away from fatal addictions.
In 2012 the DEA sentenced Volkman to four consecutive life sentences—the harshest punishment of any doctor during the opioid epidemic on record. While we have all heard the story of how Purdue Pharma made billions by pushing addictive pills to the masses, I never knew very much about the foot soldiers on the front lines.
This week I had the opportunity to talk with the investigative journalist Philip Eil who wrote a book on Paul Volkman’s life and maintained a correspondence with him for almost 15 years. His impressive investigation drew on more than 4000 pages of court records as well as some of the footage that I began the video above with.
I’m still on vacation out in the wilds of Idaho but have a new video lined up next week that I think you will enjoy.
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