The chief of police in the opioid-hit New Hampshire hometown of the FDA official who gave the thumbs up to Oxycontin wants to show him the damage the decision to legalize the drug has done even in rural America.

Chief Paul Smith only discovered through DailyMail.com that Curtis Wright was living in retirement in Littleton.

But while Smith didn't know Wright was in his town, he certainly knew who he was and his reputation for propelling the drug on to the market.

'I don't know Curtis Wright,' the chief told DailyMail.com. 'But if I was given the opportunity to speak to him, I'd give him the opportunity to come in and see what the epidemic has done in getting people addicted to these opiates.

'I would say to him, let's go do a ride-along. Let's go look and see the impact. Why don't we go look at the homeless camp and let's go look at some other places. Why don't you go down to the Serenity Center (a rehab facility) and see what the impact of the epidemic has done to us?'

Wright joined Purdue Pharma a year after he left the FDA where he paved the way for the legalization of Purdue's top-selling OxyContin

Chief Paul Smith would like to show Curtis Wright the hometown effects of his pushing through the legalization of OxyContin

Former FDA official Curtis Wright, whose role in the opioids epidemic is being reviewed thanks to the Netflix show Painkillers, now lives in retirement in Littleton, New Hampshire

Smith would like to show Wright the dark side of picturesque Littleton where his force has to spend untold hours arresting dealers and making sure addicts get help

We revealed on Saturday that Wright – who is facing new scrutiny thanks to the Netflix drama Painkiller – lives quietly with his wife Linda in a 2,500 sq ft hideaway cabin on the outskirts of Littleton, a town of 6,000 residents on the Vermont border.

When approached for his view on how he is portrayed on Painkiller, Wright, 73, barked: 'Go away. I don't talk to the press.'

Wright is the former high-ranking FDA official who propelled OxyContin through the legalization process in 1995 after originally fighting against it.

He then left government service and took a high-paying job with Purdue Pharma, the company that makes the drug.

His role in the opioid epidemic that has swept the country is spelled out in the hit new Netflix series Painkiller.

But Chief Smith, 55, has plenty he would like to tell Wright. he would tell him that OxyContin set the stage for the heroin epidemic and the increasing use of fentanyl.

And he would like to show him how police resources in the town are now tied up as they focus on arresting dealers and hooking addicts up with treatment centers.

'Three hundred thousand people dead,' he said, citing the U.S death toll from prescription opioid overdoses since OxyContin hit the market.

'We're on the receiving end. It hit the town of Littleton really, really hard. In 2017, we had 10 overdose deaths in Littleton, a town of 6,000. We had more overdose deaths per capita than Manchester, which is New Hampshire's biggest city.'

He said part of that reason is that his town lies on a major corridor with I-93 running through Littleton and I-91 passing nearby. Those two freeways give easy access to Boston and Montreal

Littleton lies on a major corridor with easy access to Boston where the fentanyl crisis has hit hard. On Atkinson Street in the Massachusetts capital addicts shoot up in full view

The opioid crisis has gone nationwide. Here users openly smoke drugs on the sidewalk of the Tenderloin area of San Francisco, where overdose deaths have rocketed

Smith's house in Littleton is modest but it sits on a 5.3 acre lot with great views of New Hampshire and neighboring Vermont

Wright lives in the 2,500 sq ft, three-bed, three-bath home that he and wife Linda bought for $380,000 in 2017

According to a 2019 survey by US News and World Report, New Hampshire has been hit worse than any other state apart from West Virginia by the opioid epidemic. The outlet said it had had 27.2 deaths for every 100,000 people over a five-year period.

Smith told DailyMail.com he binge-watched Painkiller last weekend. 'This is just really weird. I had no idea he lived locally.'

Smith isn't the only person in town who would like to have a word with Wright. So would recovering addict Caitlyn Hilliard, 33, who works at the Serenity Center.

'I'd really like to know why he approved OxyContin after holding out on it for so long,' she told DailyMail.com.

'Was it worth the impact it's had on so many people's lives, so many people of my generation who have lost so many friends to opiate addiction? Would he go back and make the same decision now, knowing where that choice would have led?'

'It's kind of shocking that he lives here,' said Hilliard.

'But it makes sense that somebody like him would come here to hide out and fly under the radar and nobody would know.'

'Honestly, that's crazy that he's here,' she told DailyMail.com. 'I watched three episodes of Painkiller, and it made me angry, really angry. I've lived with it with what I've gone through in my life.

'My childhood wasn't great, and I blame a lot of that on my mom being prescribed OxyContin,' she said.

'My mom was prescribed it at the beginning of 1998 when she broke her back, and she was on it for years, till I was 14,' Hilliard explained. 'So I watched what it did to her, and I had some negative experiences with it myself.

'The first time I did it, I was vomiting blood for hours.'

But another former addict Jaimie D'Allesandro has no wish to speak to Wright. 'Honestly, at this point in my life, in my recovery and in my faith with God, I could care less to even meet the man.

Painkiller co-creator Noah Harpster plays Wright on the Netflix show. He is portrayed as overweight and socially awkward and is manipulated by Purdue Pharma into paving the way for the legal sale of OxyContin

Painkiller is not the first time that Wright's role has been shown on television. Brian Keane played him in the 2001 Hulu series Dopesick

'I watched three episodes of Painkiller, and it made me angry, really angry. I've lived with it with what I've gone through in my life,' recovering addict Caitlyn Hilliard, 33, told DailyMail.com

Jaimie D'Allesandro started buying OxyContin on the streets, injecting it into his body, before he moved on to heroin. He's been in recovery for six years

'Me bashing the man and giving him my opinion of how I think he's a piece of cr*p is not going to do anything to help anybody. It's just going to mess with my inner spirit.'

D'Allesandro, 40, is now regional manager for White Mountain's Recovery Home. He became hooked on drugs after suffering a broken back.

After his doctor cut off his prescription, D'Allesandro started buying OxyContin on the streets, injecting it into his body, before he moved on to heroin. He's been in recovery for six years.

He became familiar with Wright's actions through the show Dopesick.

'The pain medication situation has directly affected my life, my family's life,' he told DailyMail.com. 'My father was prescribed OxyContin. He ended up dying of heroin withdrawal complications in 2017.

'The way that OxyContin was marketed and presented, and the way the doctors presented it, it was negligence,' D'Allesandro continued.

He too had no idea Wright was a local and was shocked to hear about it.

'It's interesting to know that this individual lives right here in Littleton,' he said.

'My personal blunt opinion is that anyone involved in that entire debacle was a wicked piece of sh*t,' he reacted.

'Big pharma, they don't give a crap about human beings. It's all about the bottom line and what they're making from a money perspective.'