By 1999, the Williamson Wellness clinic, founded in a small West Virginia town by a former undertaker who used to run a prostitution ring, has begun drawing patients from far and wide as word spread its doctors prescribed large amounts of opioid painkillers on demand.
The clinic sits in the heart of the region that rapidly became the epicenter of the opioid epidemic.
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, launches a huge marketing campaign for the drug, falsely claiming it is less addictive and more effective than other opioids.