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Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic?
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12 reviews of this product found across Reddit:
I think Trey also mentioned this book early in the Beacon run. I read it last year or so, blown away by the narrative, research and epic tragedy. Can’t recommend this more.
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1620402521/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabt1_qcKWFbQP9E58H
First few chapters of Dreamland cover Sackler's early career in depth. Fascinating insight on the history of opioids in the US.
I live in Missouri and if it wasn't on the news I wouldn't know it's happening - don't know anyone who has been affected. It's really bad though, if you're interested in a good book on it I would suggest Dreamland.
It's more fulfillment than poverty--lots of rich people are addicts, but have the resources to keep a rough over their head. UBI is still poverty, and doesn't solve the problem of what to do when someone uses the given income. I've seen this with family--they've got to help themselves or they never get better.
https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1620402521
For those looking for more information on the boom of opiate prescriptions in America, I suggest reading the book Dreamland by Sam Quinones. It's a fantastic history of opiate abuse in America.
It would need to be a multi-step approach:
First, increasing the availability of and lowering the cost of methadone clinics and treatments centers in small towns and rural areas will go a long way. The majority of these opioid deaths are the result of black market heroin and fentanyl analogues. They are inherently more dangerous because of a lack of quality control and regulation. Providing a regulated, known dose, even if it's in the form of legal opioids like methadone, suboxone or oxycodone, will go a long way to reducing overdose deaths. That should be the first priority, along with increasing the availability of Narcan autoinjectors and nasal sprays.
The next step would be providing treatment services to help people get clean and stay clean. More treatment centers and halfway houses would be necessary, as would cost subsidies from the government to allow low-income people to attend.
The third step would be an increase in education about the differences between types of opioids (oxy vs. street heroin/fentanyl) and risk reduction methods for both. Preferably at the middle and high school level. And preferably not in the vein of disastrous programs like D.A.R.E. It should be done in a non-judgmental way by academics and healthcare professionals, not police.
Finally, steps should be taken to minimize opioid prescriptions for chronic, non-terminal pain and the diversion of drugs when they are prescribed. The advent of opioids is one of the most significant advances in modern medicine. It has allowed people with acute and chronic pain to live better lives. However, opioids should almost never be prescribed long term for anything but incurable, terminal diseases. The trade off of risk vs. reward is simply too great. When long term opioid therapy is chosen, it should be handled by pain management physicians, and treatment compliance contracts should be clearly laid out and agreed upon by both the physician and the patient before therapy is initiated.
There is no easy answer to this problem. Any one of these steps will likely help the problem, but it will take a comprehensive, multi-prong approach to really address the problem. It doesn't help when we have politicians arguing that opiate addicts are subhuman and should be allowed to die off. That won't help anyone. That's a good way for some areas to lose half a generation of young people.
EDIT: For anyone who wants to learn more about the issue, I highly recommend Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones. This should be required reading for anyone interested in the many facets of the opioid epidemic.
This is part of it. Several other factors played a part and formed quite a "perfect storm" that ended up as "The Opioid Crisis".
I strongly recommend anyone curious to read the book Dreamland, which not only is very informative on all these points, but is also devastatingly well written!
If you're not a reader and/or crave immediate satisfaction, this Econtalk episode with the author is a decent substitute.
Totally False. Read Dreamland. Sam Q does a ton of research into the topic. And it's almost all Mexicans selling opiates to middle class white kids. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of Death amoung young people now. Very few people die of meth overdoses
That was caused by our own pharmaceutical companies pushing opiates like OxyCotin to doctors while claiming they were non-addictive. Since they "aren't addictive" the doctors would then over-prescribe these medications and >!people got addicted!<. There were tons of pill mill doctors making bank by prescribing drugs to addicts, no checkups required.
Once the DEA cracked down on the prescription opiates, the addicts then switched to cheap black tar heroin from Mexico. If you want more detail here's a good book about it.
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