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

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America is a 2018 nonfiction book in which journalist Beth Macy describes how a liberal prescription policy for opioid drugs like OxyContin led to a heroin epidemic in rural Appalachia and adjacent suburban communities. The book is the first in a two-book series on the opioid epidemic; the second, Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis, is due for publication in 2023. Macy has won national awards for her journalism and nonfiction on overlooked corners of America. Hulu adapted Dopesick as a limited dramatic series that won a Peabody Award for achievement in broadcasting. This guide is based on the 2018 print edition published by Little, Brown.

Content Warning: This book includes descriptions of substance abuse, violence, sex-trafficking, and profanity.

Summary

Dopesick is an account of how the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, introduced opioid painkiller OxyContin in 1996 and touched off a wave of addiction to opium-derived drugs in rural America. Macy uses anecdotes, interviews, research from on-the-ground volunteers and doctors, and scholarly sources to provide an exhaustive picture of the corporate greed that created the opioid epidemic.