Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis by Beth Macy. Beth holds a master’s degree from Hollins University. Her book Dopesick was shortlisted for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
Beth is a former reporter for The Roanoke Times from 1989 to 2014 writing extensively about the opioid crisis in Appalachia. Beth has written op-eds for The New York Times. She was awarded the 2010 Nieman Fellowship for Journalism by Harvard University.
From the moment I finished reading Dopesick my attention was drawn to the coming realize of this follow up book. Beth continues addressing the opioid crisis in America. In fact, Beth’s work remains simply R E Q U I R E D reading as this crisis continues devastating our country.
Raising Lazarus certainly moves beyond the Virginia coal mines found in Dopesick. This new book illustrates how America confronted the opioid crisis as COVID locked down the country.
Furthermore, this success is at the grassroots level, not from local or state politicians. There is an overwhelming sadness to read how so many died as pandemic restrictions that shut down critical treatment options.
In fact, Beth continues to demonstrate how bias by federal, state, and local officials directly impacted those addicted to opioids from receiving treatment. Why must America must continue repeating our history?
Bias from the 1980s remains firmly in place. Smoking crack cocaine was a black, inner city crime while white suburbs snorted powder cocaine. Beth is direct in confronting a growing lack of compassion. Yet this directly contributes to how misinformed they see addiction.
Yet another avalanche of deaths
Look no further than Chapter 12: You Literally Cannot Give a Shit. During the height of the pandemic, local conservative communities stopped needle changes. Somehow they view drug addicts as criminals. They failed to confront a 40-year bias.
So, as a refresher:
1. two types coca species native to South America are harvested and processed into powdered cocaine.
2. Opioids are synthetic. These very powerful drugs are not grown like coca plants. Opioids are engineered in bio-labs, primarily in China.
This is what local communities cannot seemingly understand. Yet somehow grassroots efforts are slowly turning the crisis around. However it remains an uphill battle to simply address the facts.
Playing with chemicals in the lab
By altering the chemical structure, fully synthetic opioids (methadone and fentanyl) trigger extremely powerful additions and just as powerful side affects. They view ‘addiction’ via a 40 year old cocaine lens. The drug world certainly changed with technology over the last 40 years. For those who prefer visuals: How much to kill?
Struggle for change
Many continue to simply misunderstood opioids as powerful synthetic drugs. Carfentanil is 100 time more powerful than Fentanyl and kills instantly. Hence, the number of times Beth shares stories of parents acknowledging the death of their children from a single opioid tablet is a devastatingly, sober reality.
In conclusion, Beth brings stories from cover to cover addressing how lawyers and families attempt to hold the Sackler family accountable for the epidemic caused by their product OxyContin. The uplifting element are grassroots efforts.