Raw ‘Roseanne’ Tackles America’s Deadly Opioid Crisis

The latest episode of ‘Roseanne’ confronts America’s deadly opioid overdose epidemic and sees the eponymous star struggling to overcome her addiction to Vicodin.

Suffering from intense knee pain, an aging Roseanne’s scheme of hiding pain pills “all over the house” is discovered by her husband, Dan (John Goodman) in the episode, titled, “Netflix and Pill.”

“Let’s talk,” Dan says to his hungover wife.

“Not until I get a pill,” Roseanne responds. “I’m hurting.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of pills, Dan. I think you might have a problem,” Roseanne jokes.

The Conner family matriarch, feeling cornered, gets defensive: “Okay! I’m in pain. So I take a few extra pills. It’s not like I’m a drug addict.”

“I just didn’t say anything because we can’t afford the surgery. And I got these pills because I’m going to be dealing with this for a long time,” an emotional Roseanne admits to Dan. “You don’t have any idea how bad it hurts.”

Asked where the $3,000 deductible for her knee surgery will come from, Dan says, “Look, if it’s between you overdosing and me coming up with the money, I’ll figure out something.”

Roseanne Barr took to Twitter this week to implore President Donald Trump to develop a “drug/treatment to treat pain that is not addictive, that doesn’t further ruin our lives. @POTUS make this happen!!”

The Popular ABC comedy’s sober approach to America’s deadly drug addiction crisis is but the latest examples of the revived sitcom’s willingness to tackle topical issues with an iconic blue-collar comedy flare. The episode, however, serves as a serious warning to millions of Americans.

Compounding the ever-expanding death toll, some 1 million Americans dropped out of the labor force in 2015 as a result of their addiction to fentanyl, heroin, and prescription opioid drugs.

First Lady Melania Trump has promised to visit sites that work to help families of those struggling with addiction. Last month, she visited the “Prescribed to Death” memorial for Americans who have died from opioid addiction.

President Trump donated a portion of his salary to help fund the Department of Health and Human Services’ initiative to battle the opioid epidemic in America.

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson