If people could just understand that number one, a lot of people weren’t to get high, but because they’d been addicted to this drug, some of them initially through no fault of their own, maybe that would go a long way towards the public understanding and reducing the stigma that prevents some of these people from getting life-saving treatment.
Night sweats, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, restless legs it’s a physical pain that everyone I spoke with would spend avoiding feeling. Would you describe some of the symptoms you’ve witnessed of someone being dopesick?īeth Macy: Sure, almost to a person, everyone I’ve interviewed said it’s like the worst flu times a hundred. Addicted users eventually don’t use drugs to get “high,” but to help ease the debilitating sickness that comes from quitting cold-turkey. Hart Fowler: The title of the book “ Dopesick” refers to the nightmarish and extremely painful symptoms a heavy drug-user experiences during withdrawal. What follows is that interview, edited for clarity and length. In “Dopesick,” Macy traces how the profit-driven Purdue Pharma, a drug company, began aggressively encouraging patients of the time to take Oxycontin for pain and how the cycle ultimately led to the abuse of heroin when those opioids in pill-form became harder and harder to come by.ġ00 Days in Appalachia’s Hart Fowler recently spoke with Macy about the book, and what it was like to be among the first reporting on-and paying attention to-the opioid epidemic.
The Times’ staff– mainly Laurence Hammock– covered the stories of the addicted and their families, the corrupt doctors that both over-prescribed opioids and dealt with the aftermath, as well as the cops, the judges and the first-responders caught up in the encroaching epidemic.Īs the epidemic continued to grow, Macy found she had enough compelling material to turn the reporting into a book. Thirty years ago, she worked as a beat reporter for The Roanoke Times, southwest Virginia’s largest newspaper, focusing on social and economic trends and how they affect ordinary people. In her new book “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors And The Drug Company That Addicted America,” journalist-turned-author Beth Macy claims central Appalachia as the birthplace of the modern opioid epidemic.
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