Netflix's 'The Pharmacist' sheds empathetic light upon the opioid epidemic

The Pharmacist is not your typical Netflix original docuseries: It's a work of true justice rather than true crime, telling the story of a civilian hero rather than an enigmatic murderer.

Its protagonist is Dan Schneider, a valiant and determined pharmacist from St. Bernard Parish, located outside New Orleans, Louisiana. The docuseries recounts a two-year period in Schneider's life: from when his son (and namesake), Dan, was randomly shot and killed while buying drugs in the 9th Ward of New Orleans in 1999, to solving his son's murder case in 2001, and correctly identifying the initial inner-workings of the opioid epidemic, also in 2001.

Channeling the grief he felt after losing of his son, Schneider visited the site of the murder, got in contact with local residents, identified eye witnesses, and persuaded them to testify. Schneider was able to give his son's case his undivided attention and focus after, much to his dismay, the local authorities were not. "I guess some people would call me obsessive," Schneider concedes in the docuseries' first episode.

Fresh off his amateur detective triumph, Schneider also conceived that local authorities were not adequately responding to the emerging signs of the opioid epidemic in St. Bernard Parish. At his job as a pharmacist at Bradley's Pharmacy, Schneider noticed an uptick in Oxycontin prescriptions (both in how often the drug was prescribed and an increase in dosage per patient over time). Schneider concluded, correctly, that patients were abusing Oxycontin for recreational purposes — and that doctors were profiting off their patients' addictions.

Throughout his investigation into his son's murder, Schneider records himself on a tape recorder detailing recent developments and expressing his own thoughts and emotions. What seems to be a positive way to self-soothe after losing his son becomes a diligent documentation of suspected illegal happenings: Schneider recorded his interactions with pharmacy patients who were trying to fill faulty Oxycontin prescriptions and his calls with local authorities and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Even though Schneider couldn't arrest doctors profiting off their patients' opioid addictions, he called attention to the opioid epidemic 10 years prior to it being declared a national problem.

Although the docuseries includes relevant voices from the DEA and local Louisiana law enforcement officers, Schneider is its main narrator (both via tape recordings and recent interviews). Disclaimer: If Schneider doesn't win you over with his sweet quirkiness within the first few minutes of his monologue during the first episode, this isn't the docuseries for you.

In his investigations of both his son's murder and the dealings of a local, nefarious opioid prescriber, Schneider encounters many false positives. Because viewers are following a civilian alleging and solving serious cases, the narrative of The Pharmacist doesn't feel wholly linear, related, or cohesive. It consistently and unfailingly meanders. Although that could be the docuseries's fatal flaw, it isn't: What The Pharmacist lacks in suspense and speed it makes up for in heart, emotional resonance, and ultimate gratification.

Home video footage of Schneider with Danny and daughter Kristi. Credit: netflix

The Pharmacist is local, personal, and intricate. It's a human interest story that incrementally examines how the loss of a loved one motivated a father to feel an immense amount of responsibility to his community. In that way, the docuseries is noble, quirky, and very bittersweet.

With regard to the opioid epidemic, the series examines its small-scale and suspicious beginnings; however (save a few words on screen as an epilogue) The Pharmacist focuses on Schneider's own efforts and doesn't give viewers an overview of the entire epidemic or succinctly epitomize other dynamics at play in its narrative, such as the racial divides contained in New Orleans or the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.

That said, The Pharmacist is an encapsulation of grief that is all too common, and presents a fateful slice of history knowing what we do now about opioid addiction and big pharma. The docuseries's specificity is moving. From his own corner of the world, Schneider did a lot of good.

The Pharmacist is now available to stream on Netflix.