” is the first I can recall about the “treatment industry” itself, that multibillion-dollar sector dedicated to helping hard-drug users kick the habit, and its conclusion is startling: Addiction is a veritable money machine for doctors, therapists and pharmaceutical companies alike, a substantial number of whom thrive not on recovery but on repeat business.
“So how much are they paying you?” a seasoned customer asks Utah on his third day. A young actor with a dopey, childlike innocence, Kilmer gives the guy a blank stare in return. Utah had no idea that his fellow patients might be getting kickbacks; he’s there because he legitimately wants to quit. When we meet Utah and Opal, they’re leaning on convenience-store robberies and other degrading ways to score their next fix of crack or heroin, the couple’s poisons of preference. Of the two, Utah is more motivated to get clean, so he leaves Opal in Ohio and takes Wood’s invitation to New West — which feels every bit as glamorous as the movie’s opening infomercial suggests.
That’s just one of the scams Vin is running, all inspired by actual tricks opportunists use to game a system that was put in place to save lives. “Body Brokers” also shows Utah and Wood rounding up addicts to get Naltrexone implants — a pricey Frankenstein-like procedure, designed to block opiate receptors, for which a real-life San Diego doc was busted. These operations cost about $60,000 a pop, Vin explains, and a savvy surgeon can do 20 a day.