Reddit reviews Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

They absolutely played a major role. Read up on the subject. Pardue Pharma was moving MILLIONS of pills through backwater West Virginia pill mill towns with populations of 5,000. The lines were so long people would have pizza delivered while waiting. The town of Kermit, WV pop. 392 had their pill mills sell 9,000,000 opiate pills. This is 433 pills for every man. woman and baby in WVA.

Fuck these wholesalers, pill mills and manufacturers. Fuck their greed. Fuck their profits. They have imprisoned countless people in lifelong addictions for a better stock price. They have killed people to get their bonuses. They have destroyed towns, communities and families so they could get their BMW's. They have shifted BILLIONS onto the taxpayers to clean up this mess as much as it ever can be cleaned up. They should be sued to oblivion.

Just like the average Nazi guard didn't feel responsible for 6 million dead Jews, none of these corporate evildoers feel responsibility for this massive body count. But they participated and kept the profits. Stop defending them with "may have". They DID.

https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1620402505/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I'd be interested to hear why the people downvoting you are choosing to do so.

If people are interested in a source for stories like yours, I'd recommend Dreamland by Sam Quinones.

Ha, I was writing a book on that. Or was at least, until stupid Sam Quiznos beat me to it with his stupid book Dreamland that's actually really good and I'm just jealous he beat me to the punch.

Just finished up reading Dreamland, which I highly recommend. It's an incredibly well-researched look into the rise of opiate painkiller prescriptions and the parallel rise of black tar heroin in the United States. It covers the nation-wide effects of an drug epidemic, as well as individual stories from people affected personally. In the state of Ohio alone, between the years of 2003-2008, 50% more people died of heroin overdose than US soldiers in the entire Iraq war. That's in ONE state. The book is full of shit like that. Again, highly recommend.

Now I'm rereading What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Last time I read it was in high school and I loved it. But something about it this time around just isn't clicking with me - I'm not finding it as relatable. Sort of how when you first read Catcher in the Rye, you relate with Holden, then when you reread it as an adult you find him insufferable. It's still good, just a bit strange.

One of the few places where Trump's wall might actually do soem good. Most likely, that heroin was produced in Mexico and sold by illegal immigrants who are here for, perhaps, 6 months at a time.

See https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1620402505

For anyone interested in the subject but too lazy to read a book (Dreamland is excellent), listen to the 2-part Dollop series on Opium in the US (1 and 2). This issue represents the prototypical intersection of capitalist greed and human frailty. It was not an accident.

A big difference between Oxy and Vicodin is that Vic is harder to abuse because it contains Tylenol (acetominophen), and taking too much causes liver damage. Still addictive- it's an opiate- but Oxy is straight hydrocodone. Snortable, injectable, and for a long time, available in very high doses (up to 160mg pills).

Currently reading a great book on the subject: Dreamland. It details the rise of Oxy epidemic with the concurrent introduction of Mexican black tar heroin. Terrifically written, too.