The Offspring don’t hold anything back in their new video for “The Opioid Diaries,” which takes aim at Big Pharma’s role in the United States’ ongoing opioid crisis.
In a statement on the song, Dexter Holland said, “I wrote this Offspring song about addiction. While drug addiction is certainly not a new issue, the opioid epidemic in America is different. It’s different because it was created by, and driven by, Big Pharma — and I wrote this song to say that the pharmaceutical industry should be held accountable for its consequences.”
Holland continues, “…And yet the larger problem still remains: What should we do to fight drug addiction? I say that until we stop treating drug addiction as a criminal issue, and start treating it as a medical issue, we’ll stay stuck in this vicious cycle of pain and suffering. I’ve never seen a social ill assuaged by punishment, but always and only by compassion. The right approach is not to jail people with addiction issues, but to get them the medical help that they need. We wouldn’t put our kids in a jail cell if they had cancer…and we shouldn’t put them there for addiction.”
Director Daveed Benito would add, “Producing this video was tough. Addiction is a heavy subject to take on, but it’s important to bring awareness to this crisis. My hope is that these visual metaphors shed more light onto this epidemic — an epidemic that does not discriminate with regard to race, wealth, or age.”
“The Opioid Diaries” is the latest single from The Offspring’s new album Let The Bad Times Roll, which was released in April.
