Date Published: August 7, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Source: RB Digital (Library ebook service)
Date Read: February 15-16, 2019
Blurb
Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of America's twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction. From distressed small communities in Central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs; from disparate cities to once-idyllic farm towns; it's a heartbreaking trajectory that illustrates how this national crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.
Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother's question-why her only son died-and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. In some of the same distressed communities featured in her bestselling book Factory Man, the unemployed use painkillers both to numb the pain of joblessness and pay their bills, while privileged teens trade pills in cul-de-sacs, and even high school standouts fall prey to prostitution, jail, and death.
Through unsparing, yet deeply human portraits of the families and first responders struggling to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus. In these politically fragmented times, Beth Macy shows, astonishingly, that the only thing that unites Americans across geographic and class lines is opioid drug abuse. But in a country unable to provide basic healthcare for all, Macy still finds reason to hope-and signs of the spirit and tenacity necessary in those facing addiction to build a better future for themselves and their families.
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Review
This is the book that picks up where Hillbilly Elegy leaves off. Macy takes one area of Va to do an exhausting investigation into the opioid epidemic. No stone is left unturned - from the teen parties where pills (such as Adderall, as many of these kids were diagnosed with some form of ADHD) are handed out like candy to the heroin dealers who make regular runs to either NJ or Baltimore for more product to the company and executives that pushed the pain management theory, along with heavy adverts for their wonder drug to the doctors that benefited greatly from the company and prescribed the drugs willy-nilly. The audiobook was read by the author and was very easy to stay connected in the book while doing chores or driving. The area of Va that Macy explores includes both rural and suburban towns and the bigger cities that are just down the highways, showing that this is not just a rural problem or just a white problem (she does go into why African-Americans are not in the same numbers as whites and therefore more vulnerable to go without help). Highly recommend.
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