Dopesick

America, we have a problem.

If you've been paying attention, you already know that. The grip of opioids on men, women and children has not yet reached its peak and we're losing hundreds of people a day. Dopesick explains how it started, how it's escalated and how turning our back on (and criminalizing) those within its grasp is doing nothing to stop the spread of this addiction.

I'm not sure why I picked up this book, but I'm wondering if it should be required reading for law enforcement, journalists, teachers, lawmakers... Anyone who encounters people in the throes of addiction could stand to learn a little more about how they got there. And, anyone with a voice that can effect change in this country should know better all the ways that we have failed.

Beth Macy's reporting here is outstanding and exhaustive. She reaches back not just to the beginning of the opioid crisis in America, but to the drugs that took hold of parts of our country centuries ago. Because we forget, we're allowing history to repeat itself.

Macy chronicles the rise of Oxy in rural Virginia, the trials of its creators, the heartbreak of the desperate mothers in its wake. She walks you through the brief path from prescribed painkillers to the desperation of heroin. You'll feel powerless reading it, you'll find yourself shaking your head. Maybe you won't exactly excuse the crimes committed by those chasing the next high, but maybe you'll give pause and realize... it can take - and, maybe has taken - hold of someone you love. My step-brother's daughter of an overdose a couple of years back. She had supportive parents, a loving family and every chance in the world. I hadn't seen her in years and couldn't imagine how that sweet little blonde girl with the big, beautiful eyes could end up dying with a needle in her arm.

You'll read how it has crept into our communities, then into our homes. How almost every adult interviewed in this book started their adolescence taking prescribed stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin and ended up, years later, addicted to heroin. About how almost no one noticed - until it was too late.

I can't imagine that feeling - what it's like to give up everything to chase that first high. I can't imagine finally being ready to get help, only to find that for every treatment bed available in this country, there are five people who want help.

The book is frustrating, terrifying, painstakingly told and excruciatingly sad. It will wake you up to the problems facing every community in this country - and, you may end up feeling powerless to help.