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A review by adamgolden
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy
4.0
(4.5/5★)
The opioid epidemic has been gaining a lot of traction over the last few years, as more and more people are giving up their lives for these dangerous drugs, whether they are prescribed by a doctor by way of pills, or found in the more rudimentary form of heroin on the streets. However, as Beth Macy clearly points out, this has been an issue for far longer than just the last twenty years, although the recent rise in overdoses and severe addiction has brought much more attention to the American public conscious. Concentrating primarily on Purdue Pharma's relentless assault on pushing drugs such as Oxycontin to doctors around the country, Macy follows the stories of a handful of different people that have succumbed to these drugs, and how in turn their families are affected. Rehabilitation facilities are also a focus, essentially showing how most of them are scams, and are totally ineffective in the long term.
As someone who has a family member that went through multiple back surgeries and now has to take prescription opioids on a daily basis, there is one aspect that this book could have focused on more - the fact that, just because you take opioids for pain, doesn't mean that you are an addict, or you are taking them for a recreational high. Some people genuinely need pain relief, and while I think we are moving in the right direction by curtailing the use of these medications, people that need them, or have been used to the idea of having them, should not be looked down upon.
The opioid epidemic has been gaining a lot of traction over the last few years, as more and more people are giving up their lives for these dangerous drugs, whether they are prescribed by a doctor by way of pills, or found in the more rudimentary form of heroin on the streets. However, as Beth Macy clearly points out, this has been an issue for far longer than just the last twenty years, although the recent rise in overdoses and severe addiction has brought much more attention to the American public conscious. Concentrating primarily on Purdue Pharma's relentless assault on pushing drugs such as Oxycontin to doctors around the country, Macy follows the stories of a handful of different people that have succumbed to these drugs, and how in turn their families are affected. Rehabilitation facilities are also a focus, essentially showing how most of them are scams, and are totally ineffective in the long term.
As someone who has a family member that went through multiple back surgeries and now has to take prescription opioids on a daily basis, there is one aspect that this book could have focused on more - the fact that, just because you take opioids for pain, doesn't mean that you are an addict, or you are taking them for a recreational high. Some people genuinely need pain relief, and while I think we are moving in the right direction by curtailing the use of these medications, people that need them, or have been used to the idea of having them, should not be looked down upon.