Big Pharma

Episode 97: How Hepatitis Stigma Silently Kills with Nick Voyles

August 22, 2026 Narcotica Big Pharma, Criminal Justice, Episodes, News 0:49:23 0 Comments

When people say stigma kills, it’s not hyperbole. For some reason, it’s still totally socially acceptable in some circles to say that if someone gets an illness related to drug use, that they deserve it. Such sentiments aren’t just dangerous and untrue, they hold people back from getting what should be routine healthcare. Hepatitis C is a perfect example of this.

There’s a cure for hepatitis C, but millions still can’t get it due to high costs, insurance strangleholds and a lack of widespread testing. That leaves people vulnerable to liver cancers, liver failure and death — all of which is totally preventable. Stigmatizing attitudes from medical staff and the Kafkaesque hoops people have to jump through to get treatment are just some of the many artificial barriers that make people who use drugs more vulnerable to bloodborne diseases. This is, of course, outrageous.

On this episode of Narcotica, co-hosts Aaron Ferguson and Troy Farah speak with Nick Voyles of Bloomington, Indiana, where he is Program Manager at the Indiana Recovery Alliance. He also works nationally with Urban Survivors Union on viral hepatitis elimination and medication assisted treatment reform. He is a proud Patient Advocate for NVHR and believes in Harm Reduction. Nick is hepatitis C and interferon survivor, and his experience with intravenous drug use, incarceration, and homelessness fuel his advocacy. Radical Love and ‘Any Positive Change’ are the driving forces behind his work.

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If you liked this episode, here are others you might enjoy:
Episode 65: Restoring Trust in Doctors Amidst The Overdose Crisis with Dr. Ben Cocchiaro and Dr. Ashish Thakrar
Episode 71: Aduhelm, Obscene Drug Prices and Big Pharma Tactics with Dr. John Abramson
Episode 81: Harm Reduction Against the Prison-Industrial Complex
Episode 82: Drug War Activism and the Future of Harm Reduction with Louise Vincent

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Producers: Troy Farah, Aaron Ferguson
Music: Glass Boy / Nomad1 / Algorithms by Chad Crouch
Intro voice: Jenny Schaye
Image: Wikipedia

Episode 86: Why Naloxone Still Matters with Nancy D. Campbell

April 28, 2024 Narcotica Big Pharma, Episodes, Opioids 1:15:04 0 Comments

Naloxone is a miracle drug. Calling any drug a miracle can be problematic, but admittedly there are a few of them, in my opinion: penicillin, insulin, mifepristone and misoprostol, thorazine, viagra (cough, cough) and yes, naloxone. I think it qualifies as a miracle drug, something that works so well it is astonishing.

So many people fought so hard and for so long to have access to naloxone. It wasn’t always so available like it is in some places today. But the way that we are treating opioid overdose antagonists is changing. Many companies have price-gouged their way into profiting and exploiting a vulnerable population. They are bringing in naloxone analogs that they claim are more effective, without much evidence, but they do have serious side effects. And because the drug supply is only getting more and more unpredictable, with many non opioids entering the mix like xylazine and benzo analogs, naloxone may not help with overdoses of this kind. How can we navigate this shifting landscape?

Narcotica co-hosts Chris Moraff and Troy Farah speak with Nancy D. Campbell, author of the books Discovering Addiction and OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose. She is a historian of science who studies addiction research and treatment at RPI, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, including at the U.S Narcotic Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

Learn more about Nancy D. Campbell here.

Read “OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose” here: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12054.001.0001

If you liked this episode, here are others you might enjoy:
Episode 36: Moral Hazards and Naloxone, A Toxicologist’s Perspective with Ryan Marino
Episode 65: Restoring Trust in Doctors Amidst The Overdose Crisis with Dr. Ben Cocchiaro and Dr. Ashish Thakrar
Episode 73: Oh No! Not Naltrexone! with Nancy Curran

Follow Narcotica on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and support us on Patreon. We just opened a shop where you can order Narcotica merch: narcocast.myshopify.com Help keep this podcast ad-free! Your support is appreciated!

We’re on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Rate us! And thanks for your support!
Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel, Aaron Ferguson
Music: Glass Boy / Nomad1
Image: Image via VCU Capital News Service / Flickr // edit: Troy Farah
Intro voice: Jenny Schaye

Episode 71: Aduhelm, Obscene Drug Prices and Big Pharma Tactics with Dr. John Abramson

April 12, 2022 Narcotica Big Pharma, Episodes 01:02:28 3 Comments

It’s easy to hate the massive pharmaceutical corporations that extract obscene profit from the healthcare system—and there are many, many reasons why you should distrust these companies, although the situation is far more complex than “Big Pharma = bad.” But how did we get here? How did medical care get so expensive, so complicated and sometimes, so harmful?

Narcotica co-host Troy Farah speaks with Dr. John Abramson, a long-time critic of Big Pharma, whose new book Sickening untangles the many perverse incentives that dominate American healthcare. It helps explain why drug prices are so high, why medications that harm instead of heal are regularly approved by the FDA and much more, starting with the recent debacle over Aduhelm, an extremely controversial Alzheimer’s drug.

Follow Dr. Abramson on Twitter: @DrJohnAbramson and get Sickening: ow Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It here.

You can read Troy’s review of Sickening on Undark Magazine here: https://undark.org/2022/03/18/book-review-sickening/

If you liked this episode, here are others you might enjoy:
Episode 46: Behind The Pharmacists’ Counter with Jessica Moreno
Episode 30: Getting Wrecked with Dr. Kim Sue
Episode 65: Restoring Trust in Doctors Amidst The Overdose Crisis with Dr. Ben Cocchiaro and Dr. Ashish Thakrar

Follow Narcotica on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and support us on Patreon. Help keep this podcast ad-free! Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Rate us! And thanks for your support!

Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel
Co-producer: Aaron Ferguson
Music: Glass Boy / Nomad1
Intro voice: Jenny Schaye
Image: Rudolf Ammann / Flickr // edit: Troy Farah