Macy chronicles in-depth the battle to hold the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma financially and morally responsible for their role in America’s opioid epidemic. From the horrific loss of life and economic potential to reducing the nation’s average life expectancy, Macy demonstrates how no American is untouched by the crisis. She also weaves the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic into her analysis of what can only be described as a destructive tsunami of overdose deaths and injuries. Beth Macy digs deep into their struggles and reveals the terrible toll of the epidemic with a caring and compassionate lens. Raising Lazarus follows the people with boots on the ground in the opioid crisis-the volunteers, advocates, families, and survivors fighting to save lives and heal broken and battered communities. I give her a lot of credit for being so dedicated to research and activism for what she believes in. I suppose, if you are looking for reinforcement and facts to support your already established belief on the opioid epidemic and not to learn a more broad understanding, then this book is for you. Instead it uses the few personal stories that it does outline to reinforce the author's single belief on how to address the opioid epidemic. It never really brings the myriad of affected people to life. Instead, this book was basically a long biased political text book that never gets to the true "why" or "root" of the problem is works so hard to address. Users, their families, rehab programs, pharmaceutical companies, police, the courts, social services, law makers, etc. I was hoping for more of a personal account from all perspectives of people that touch this problem - which is, essentially, everyone. A complex story of public health, big pharma, dark money, politics, race, and class that is by turns harrowing and heartening, infuriating and inspiring, Raising Lazarus is a must-read for all Americans.Īs someone who works on a nearly daily basis with addiction, overdoses, heroin, etc., I was interested in a story that might bring a "human element" to the heroin addiction problem in the US. Bearing witness with clear eyes, intrepid curiosity, and unfailing empathy, she brings us the crucial next installment in the story of the defining disaster of our era, one that touches every single one of us, whether directly or indirectly. Like the treatment innovators she profiles, Beth Macy meets the opioid crisis where it is-not where we think it should be or wish it was. These heroes come from all walks of life what they have in common is an up-close and personal understanding of addiction that refuses to stigmatize-and therefore abandon-people who use drugs, as big pharma execs and many politicians are all too ready to do. Here we meet the ordinary people fighting for the least of us with the fewest resources, from harm reductionists risking arrest to bring lifesaving care to the homeless and addicted to the activists and bereaved families pushing to hold Purdue and the Sackler family accountable. As pending court battles against opioid makers, distributors, and retailers drag on, addiction rates have soared to record-breaking levels during the COVID pandemic, illustrating the critical need for leadership, urgency, and change. Meanwhile, there is scant consensus between law enforcement and medical leaders, nor an understanding of how to truly scale the programs that are out there, working at the ragged edge of capacity and actually saving lives.ĭistilling this massive, unprecedented national health crisis down to its character-driven emotional core as only she can, Beth Macy takes us into the country’s hardest hit places to witness the devastating personal costs that one-third of America's families are now being forced to shoulder. Nearly a decade into the second wave of America's overdose crisis, pharmaceutical companies have yet to answer for the harms they created. A “deeply reported, deeply moving” (Patrick Radden Keefe) account of everyday heroes fighting on the front lines of the overdose crisis, f rom the New York Times bestselling author of Dopesick (inspiration for the Peabody Award-winning Hulu limited series) and Factory Man.
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