Antagonist documentary

My name is Ben Westhoff, and I'm the author of the best-selling book Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic. Since the book's release, I've traveled the country, reporting on the crisis and speaking with people who have lost family members and friends to fentanyl. They all want to know the same thing: How can we stop this epidemic?

I don't have a silver bullet, but I believe we can save countless lives with a very powerful tool that is rarely employed, the opioid treatment medication naltrexone.

It's best known as the Vivitrol shot, and it protects users from the effects of opioids like fentanyl and heroin for 30 days. It functions like a vaccine, or an insurance policy, against opioids, and has saved the lives of thousands of addicted users

Naltrexone is the first non-addicting opioid drug. It should have revolutionized opioid treatment. Instead, it was buried by special interest groups, and as a result, is almost never mentioned in the media. Many treatment centers don't offer it.

I found the story of naltrexone's suppression so compelling that I am directing a documentary film about it, called Antagonist. It is my first full-length film, and I am incredibly excited. I have already completed much of the reporting.

Antagonist continues my work from Fentanyl, Inc., using my investigative reporting skills to tell the story of the opposition to naltrexone, which gained FDA approval in 1984 to prevent relapse in patients detoxed from opioids. In 1994 became the first drug approved in 50 years for the treatment of alcoholism.

Many believe naltrexone’s discovery should have been a “penicillin moment.” Chemically, it’s known as an “antagonist” that blocks the effect of every known opioid, including heroin and fentanyl. And unlike the two other FDA-approved opioid treatment medicines, methadone and buprenorphine, it is not addicting.

The development of both naltrexone and methadone were funded by the Nixon administration, and over the decades a war for hearts and minds ensued. Naltrexone's detractors insisted that the drug causes liver damage, and it originally came with a black box warning to this effect, but it was removed when this claim was debunked.

Antagonist draws on archival footage from The Farm, the federal treatment center based in Kentucky that included New York jazz greats and William S. Burroughs as patients, and tested methadone and naltrexone. It features interviews with doctors, researchers, policy experts, historians, and patients. The film shows why naltrexone has been called a “wonder drug;" because of the way it moderates endorphins, it holds great promise in the treatment of conditions including meth addiction, Crohn's disease, anorexia, self-mutilation, long Covid, and even sex addiction.

So why isn't naltrexone better known? Antagonist uncovers the role of the highly-profitable special interest groups that have worked to block it. These groups claim that addictive disorders are incurable. Naltrexone, however, debunks this enduring myth, giving patients the hope of breaking free from drugs and thriving once again.

Naltrexone has its shortcomings, including that patients who take it must have no opioids in their system, which is a tall order for some. But for many others, including addicted users who have just gotten out of prison (and thus are detoxed), naltrexone is often effective. For highly motivated individuals it's also beneficial; pilots and doctors, for example, can return to work on naltrexone, but not on methadone or buprenorphine. Antagonist doesn't argue that antagonists (like naltexone) are superior to agonists (like methadone), only that naltrexone should be a part of the recovery conversation.

This film could not be made without you. I've been working on this project part time for about a year, and plan to make it my full time work once it's funded. Thank you for your support!