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Mirkat

Mirkat Always Reading

I'm always reading something, usually multiple books at a time.

Dopesick

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America - Beth Macy

 

 

Beth Macy narrates this book herself.  She generally does a fairly good job with the narration, but there was one moment where someone directing the production should definitely have insisted she do a second take.  She began to read the word "similar" with the stress on the wrong syllable.  So it came out "sih-MIH..."  at which point, she came to a dead stop, paused, and then continued with "similar."

As a journalist covering the "opioid epidemic" beat in Roanoke, Virginia, Beth Macy got a close view of the devastation in Appalachian communities.  Before the crisis reached affluent suburban communities, the people she had come to know through her reporting were the "canaries in the coal mine."

 

Along with providing a historical overview of the prescribing of opioid and synthetic-opioid medications, Macy reports on interviews she conducted with addicts, heart-broken family members, drug dealers, and assorted other relevant individuals.

 

To a certain extent, I was already familiar with material Macy covered, but she deepened my understanding.  A major take-away is the need for a shift in focus from punishment/incarceration to treatment, including medication-assisted treatment.  And responsible prescribing practices.