
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
4.7
10
5
1
Hardcover
USD
23.8
$23.80
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780316551243 |
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Publisher: | Little, Brown and Company |
Publication date: | 08/07/2018 |
Pages: | 384 |
Sales rank: | 14,255 |
Product dimensions: | 6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.60(d) |
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Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America (Signed Book)
4.7 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
10 reviews.
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A vital read for anyone who trying to grasp the scope of the opioid crisis in America, and the monied interests who are still profiting from it.
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Beth is a stellar journalist, and this is her best book yet. She puts a human face on what seems to be an impossible epidemic. This book is both incredibly moving and inspiring.
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Dopesick is a well written book that looks at the opioid crisis from a new viewpoint. It is not easy to read, but it is important for us to read, and be aware of the facts of this crisis.
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The author did a good job of personalizing this epidemic and relaying the fear and frustration that their loved ones live with. I would like to hear more about the macro side of this. It feels like the medical community and the government have both failed our country in a myriad of ways, from health to economics. This is a sad reality.
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that this book was given 5 stars in the only two reviews, and yet under the title on the cover or first page, there are only 3 stars? Just sayin'.
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I have just finished reading this book, which covers the opioid crisis, located in my home region of southwestern Virginia. The details written by Beth Macy is shocking and saddening. Macy writes as a reporter but also as a person of compassion for the people who in some ways have been exploited by the big pharma and by certain “treatment” programs. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this topic. Just because we don’t know about it, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
I do feel the need to say that this does not include "everyone" in Southwestern Virginia and that this book should not be taken as stereotyping and painting a picture with a broad brush like Vance's Hillbilly Elegy did. As a resident of Appalachia, I disagree with Vance's portraiture of Appalachia and feel that he has sensationalized his story to line his pockets. And if those outside of Appalachia believe that everyone here is like this, they are very wrong.
While as a local resident, I know that we have an epidemic. I believe this book paints and accurate picture of some of the people in this region, but not all. Furthermore, this book has burdened me even more to do what I can to help fight this problem. I volunteer with an organization that serves the under served Appalachian woman and when I worked with the latest participants of the program this summer, all but one woman was attempting recovery from some type of addiction. When this occurred I realized that I needed to know more and understand better what these ladies experience. I am a educated native of the region and I live and I choose to stay here because this is my home and because I love my family.
For the most part people in this area just want jobs that will help them live a decent life and provide for their needs. This is their home and they want to stay here. There are local law enforcement and judicial officials that I am personally acquainted with who are quoted in this book. I know that these are good people who are trying to make a difference for our SWVA residents. The people of Appalachia do not want a handout but they do need help and this book sheds light of the kind of help many of them need.
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I'll be honest with you, before I requested this book from Netgalley, I asked myself - do I really need to read a whole book about the opioid crisis? Seriously - what is there left to understand?
Well - let me tell you. There was a lot left for me to understand.
The author takes us from when opioids where first introduced and slowly shows us how it has turned into today's epidemic. From the first individuals who tried to raise a cry of alarm to the multitudes of professionals and families who band together to tell their stories of lost patients and loved ones to bring a focus to this devastating situation. This angered me over the influence of big pharma (surprise!) and made me sad to read about all these families who's lives have been forever changed by this drug.
This book was so well written. Once I started it, I could not put it down. The author really does have a talent for making this very readable.
At a minimum, I think every parent who wants to say "not my child" needs to read this. And really it is a good wake up call for anyone who wants to say "not in my community".
Bravo Ms. Macy!
I received this from Little, Brown and Co. via Netgalley.
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This is a book that broke the heart of the journalist who wrote it many times over. Those who are wondering "How did we end up with this opioid epidemic?" will find the answers in this investigative exploration. This American-made tragedy began with a pharmaceutical company's deception, was supported by the medical community's complicity, and, fueled by greed and unlimited advertising budgets, resulted in a virality that spared no segment of the population. Beth Macy's writing style is to identify the disparate threads in a story, which she then weaves together to provide a complex, whole roadmap.
Unfortunately, she was not able to draw that roadmap from the 10,000 foot level. Her journalist-journey put her face to face with a doctor and a nun who, as prescient canaries in coal country, turned activist when they realized what was happening to their community. These are true American heroes. In Tess and other young addicts, Macy finds heroines amid the heroin, and realizes that while she must be there as the tragedy unfolds in order to tell it, her humanity and compassion must be tempered with the ability to find some line to keep herself from being swallowed whole. Macy is a mom; she talks to mothers and daughters and sons and is heartbroken along the way, just as they are.
Then there are the dealers who are picking up the slack with readily-available heroin when the prescriptions and illicit pill pipeline evaporates. Heroin is the rabbit hole users willingly jump down to avoid being "dopesick." Here Macy explores what must have been dangerous territory. The roadmap follows the players as they regularly run their route from Baltimore to Roanoke, Virginia (where both Macy and I live). She encounters federal agents who make whatever progress they can in a game where, just like when a player is taken out in a video game, the game continues with a virtually unlimited number of alternate players. I've heard first- and secondhand accounts locally of drug deals going down in a downtown Roanoke restaurant/bar owned by a person of prominence. It was apparently a regular, weekly thing! The police were told what van and it was pointed out to them. Nothing changed. It wasn't until I read Macy's "Dopesick" that it clicked together. Holy crap -- that was one of the stopping points on the roadmap she drew! And that's the point -- this book hits home, locally and nationally.
Others may find their "aha" moment in other aspects of this brave tome, whether in trying to find a glimmer of understanding regarding the addiction of their child, parent, nephew, niece, uncle, aunt, friend, neighbor, coworker -- you need only point to a group of people in any given place and they know an addict, or are one.
This book does not really provide solutions, which is out of Macy's wheelhouse, but through her keen eye she presents concrete ideas of what might help and what isn't working. She seems right. I was listening to a radio program discussing a 12-step program that includes God or a higher power in their methodology, and they mentioned it has a less than 5% success rate. This addiction is a different animal than alcoholism. This addiction goes straight to the brain, and fast.
Read this book to gain a greater understanding of the moving parts that are the roadmap of this American tragedy. Read it to understand how it is affecting neighbors, family members, and communities. It's a memorable book that punctures the heart and lingers long in the mind.
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An important report that fairly clearly looks at opioid addiction in the United States without providing simplistic or unreliable information . This is one of the best news piece I have read about addictions. I worked at a probation officer for a quarter century with misdemeanor drug and alcohol related offenders. Ms. Macy better than anyone I have read knows how difficult this problem is. I highly recommend this work.
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To an opioid user, either on “legal” OxyContin or heroin, the goal is to avoid the debilitating withdrawal of being Dopesick. Most have only two options, steal or sell the same drugs to other, usually new, users to finance their own habit.
Moving from rural Virginia in 1996 to suburbs and cities by the mid-2000s, the opioid crisis is now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. More than 300,000 have died in the past 15 years and it is projected that the same number will die in the next five years.
This is a story of how doctors tried, and mostly failed, to alert the producer, the government, and finally the media to the very real dangers of OxyContin. But corporate and physician greed overrode the warnings. After the government did begin to notice the epidemic and strengthen the usage guidelines, users turned to illegal heroin to avoid the Dopesick caused by OxyContin withdrawal.
Dopesick has valuable information for anyone who has friends or relatives with an opioid problem. However, it doesn’t have many solutions. It does have one clear warning:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”—George Santayana
This same pattern of an overuse of a miracle drug becoming a scourge on the populace was first seen in 1864. Returning soldiers from the Civil War were prescribed morphine, which led to the same addiction and other social consequences as the OxyContin crisis. Hopefully, it will not take all the current addicts’ deaths to move past the OxyContin epidemic as that was the way the Civil War era issue was resolved. 3 stars.
Thanks to the Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for an advanced copy.
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