
From the introduction of Ox圜ontin in 1996, Macy investigates the powerful forces that led America's doctors and patients to embrace a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. From the labs and marketing departments of big pharma to local doctor's offices wealthy suburbs to distressed small communities in Central Appalachia from distant cities to once-idyllic farm towns the spread of opioid addiction follows a tortuous trajectory that illustrates how this crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.īeginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy sets out to answer a grieving mother's question-why her only son died-and comes away with a gripping, unputdownable story of greed and need. The characters and their world come alive,Īnd the characters and its world still live on.Ĭonversation Starters is peppered with questions designed toĪnd invite us into the world that lives on.In this extraordinary work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of a national drama that has unfolded over two decades. The New York Times called the book a “harrowing” and “deeply compassionate” look at the national opioid emergency.ĮVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER The opioid crisis seems to be the one thing that unites Americans no matter where they located or which social class they belong to.ĭopesick became a bestseller for The New York Times immediately after its release in 2018.

These people range from high school football players and cheerleaders from upper-class families to the poor farmers trading their livestock for drugs. She tells the stories of Americans whose lives have been greatly affected by prescription painkillers. Macy takes the reader through the history of the opioid addiction crisis.

Opioid addiction has been a struggle for Americans for over twenty years. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy | Conversation Startersĭopesick by Beth Macy takes a look at the central point of the opioid crisis in the United States.
