Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company Who Addicted America by Beth Macy. Beth holds a master’s degree from Hollins University. She was a 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. In addition, Dopesick was shortlisted for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
Additionally, by June 2020 Hulu broadcast a limited series (eight episodes) based upon the book starring Michael Keaton. This is the second book of five that I chose to read to understand the crisis.
Beth has taken time to interview parents of children who died from opioids. In fact, this book moves from the local drug dealer in Virginia in 2012 to the Sackler family and beyond. However, Beth also begins by sharing how a single batch of opioids in Huntington West Virginia would cause 26 overdoses in a single day. This was due to Carfentanil, a synthetic opioid imported from China via the internet. In fact, Carfentanil is 100 times more powerful than Fentanyl, which is roughly 50 times more powerful than heroin.
