I have watched this movie due to the fact I live in WV and know many of the same type of people who are in this documentary. The Documentary follows several people in Oceana, WV. Most who have lost everything including their kids due to drug abuse. I want to say it does explain who the pill epidemic started, its was due to the coal miners in the area getting pain from the hard work the mines bring. The mines a lot of the time have their own doctor who wrote out pain medication, anything to get the miners to keep working. Once they were on Max dose and stopped working, and they had to quit, they found out they were addicted. The younger people who don't work in the mines claim that there is nothing else to do, that a lot of their dad's were coal miners and had a lot of money and that's how they would use. No one saw it as a bad thing because the drugs they were using, doctors gave out. It goes into the hospitals as well as with a dentist. They talk to several people from a young mother who lost her kids, to man who lived under a bridge. It really eye opening how a drug can control you. Some of the people are clean in the film, but most are ongoing users. There is ongoing drug use and needles as well as how people are getting drugs in the city. Its sad but an interesting look into an ongoing problem all over the USA.

This documentary seems terribly unfinished. Nothing about how the drugs flow in, why the law enforcement cannot stem the tide, why the residents of this small community seems especially prone to addiction (i am sorry - but just "there is nothing to do here" is a major cop out!).It appears the documentary makers latched on to a good topic - drug addiction in rural town USA - along with its related social ills - but then just had no direction of where to take it, apart from having a series of interviews. Unfinished - which is a shame, because so much more could have been done.

I'm from Sweden to start with, so seeing these images about an out of control drug situation is very unfamiliar experience. It shows the basic human individual level experiencing the drugs effects, from current users to moms and from lawyers to friends. And it's a very sad picture that's being painted. Many fighting for their lives or rather the meaning of it, and they can't seem to get a grasp on what to do. But there it stops. And it keeps on pounding us with interviews, as a previous commenter noticed, and it doesn't lead anywhere. Ecxept maybe shining some light on this "local" problem. And sure, with that being the producers intention , then they did a good job.For me, it fails to dive into the bigger picture. Every individual is responsible for their own actions in the end. And trough awareness and love most problems can be fixed by that individual. But we have another big problem here, an elephant in the room. And that's the pharma-industry that's lurking behind this, making BILLIONS on making people addicts every year. Never mind these "drugs" are being sold on the streets "illegaly" and turning peoples lives into a living horror. They're sold LEGALLY to people who know nothing better about true natural health, also making them addicts in the process. And the documentary misses to point out that entirely. It's a societal problem, not just local... even if it's a hard pill to swallow for some.And let me just say to people living there and maybe reading this. Such a wonderful place you have! What nature and surroundings! That alone should be sufficient for the youths to find activities in! And there's a lot of room for business(hiking canoing etc) and local farming also i would assume. Use the nature but don't exploit it. Become active and start groups who focuses on making your town as self-sufficient as possible, and keeping the people involved so they may find a way out of the bad spiral. If you think the government will save you think again. If you take a look at the rest of America then you'd understand. Like the mother said to her son in the movie: "i can't do it for you, only you can." Sums this up well.With love and friendship.

Oceana, West Virginia is the setting for Sean Dunne's startling portrait of a town beset with prescription drug abuse. Oxyana is the nickname given to the once proud Appalachian coal mining community of 1,400, and the name of this startling documentary which received its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19. Dunne & his crew spent 21 days of filming in the summer of 2012 in Oceana. Oxycana presents the people through a series of incredibly candid interviews. The director conducted open-ended interviews and is able to gain their trust by asking non-judgemental questions. Addiction to pain-killers like OxyContin & Percoset is the reality facing two generations of residents, and the film depicts pregnant mothers expressing fears about what lies ahead for their children. We see addicts shooting up so "the pain goes away" and youth mourning the loss of their friends and family, taken away by overdosing. This is Dunne's first documentary feature, and demonstrates a remarkable skill in allowing them to tell their stories. Oxyana could be set anywhere in North America, and the brutal reality it depicts is not easy to watch and reveals a tremendous talent in documentary film making.