What readers think of Dopesick, plus links to write your own review.

Dopesick should be read by every parent, educator, student and citizen. If you or you know someone within this opioid epidemic cycle, this book explains why. Why is you loved one addicted? Why can’t he or she stop on their own? Why can’t they get the rehab he or she needs? Who is truly responsible. This book answers all those questions and more. As a parent and teacher who also has friends and neighbors, no book has made me learn as much as this one on a topic we tend to want to avoid. Buy this book and read it, to make sense of this opioid epidemic.

This book depicts the opioid crisis very well, along with the history of our region and nation. I felt that you gave a very good description and background to how everything went out of control, and so fast; along with everyone's guilt/part in the matter. Excellent reading!!!

Macy's book is very well documented. The references are extensive & many of the sources are primary e.g. interviews with addicts, family members, texts, etc. The book is over 500 pp. Really its two books in one. The first is the story about Purdue Pharma - this is excellent. The 2nd part digs deep into personal experience of heroin addicts and dealers living along the I-81 corridor from Roanake to Baltimore. I found this part tedious and way too descriptive.

For me this was a book that needed a bit of time, after reading, to be able to review it. The author Beth Macy is a favorite author of mine. I enjoy the way she lays her information out. Every book I have read by her was about a vastly different subject, but all were researched well and, although non fiction, were presented in a story-like offering.

Obvious by the title, this book speaks to the opioid scourge that is, and has been, striking destruction across the United States since the 1996 introduction of Oxycontin. This book covers the first onset by the Pharma Manufacturing Company to the latest remarks by U.S. President Trump and the various drug use bringing us to that point.

Pharma put the drug out for pain relief, doctors were ignorant of the addiction abilities and Pharma claimed that any addiction was minor in comparison to pain relief. Millions of pills went into unsuspecting hands. The Appalachian area was hardest hit. People were losing jobs, economy was at an all time low, depression was rampant. It was not unheard of for over 60,000 pills to be distributed in one week in this area. Martinsville Va had more Oxycontin prescribed than any other place in the United States. Teen football players were dying of overdoses.

These overdose deaths have gone on for years. In the last 15 years 300,000 deaths have been caused by the wrongful use of Oxycontin. That same number, 300,000 deaths, will happen again, within the next 5 years. By the year 2020 more deaths will have been caused by the overdose of Oxycontin than all deaths caused by HIV-Aids, since the beginning of the Aids epidemic.

Macy humanized this story by telling the personal battles of a number of people, both those addicted and the families of those who have passed. She chose the Roanoke area as her research grounds.

The word "Dopesick" refers to the sickness that a drug addict experiences when they are coming down off their drug of choice. This is the point in time that addicts are at their worst. They will usually do anything to get their hands on drugs to prevent that feeling. Hence, the circular trap - they are no longer seeking that 'high', but seeking a fix to prevent being dopesick.