Morphine

Wiki - "The film takes place in the early 20th century. A young Russian doctor called Mikhail Polyakov (Leonid Bichevin) arrives at a small hospital in a remote village. Having freshly graduated from medical school, with little experience, he is the only doctor in the rural district. He works hard, earning the respect of his small staff (one paramedic and two nurses)."

I saw this on SBS on Saturday Sep 13th, 2014. As I watched it I realised I had heard of a British TV series re-make of the same story - with Daniel Radcliffe. It is an interesting documentation of morphine usage in the early 1900s. The Russian Revolution backdrop adds colour.

It does not have a happy ending, true, bit it is not the usual 'junkie-must-slide-into-death' stereotype.

http://www.morfiyfilm.ru/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186366/