Dopesick (book)

Author Beth Macy worked as a journalist for the Roanoke, Virginia–based newspaper The Roanoke Times from 1989 until 2014. In 2012, following the completion of her first book, Factory Man, Macy was assigned a story by the newspaper to report on a local teen who had died of a heroin overdose. Macy's subsequent reporting on the topic prompted her to suggest heroin and opioid abuse as the subject of her next book. Her New York City–based publishers, having already seen a heroin epidemic in their city, didn't see the topic's novelty, and Macy ended up writing Truevine as her second book instead. The 2015 publication of the opioid study Dreamland by Sam Quinones, combined with further research into the effect of the drugs on America, brought the issue further into the public consciousness, and Macy began writing Dopesick soon after. ==Synopsis==

Dopesick combines an overview of the history of opioid prescription and abuse in the United States with interviews and anecdotes from people whose lives the drugs have affected. The book goes back to the Civil War and the widescale distribution of morphine to wounded soldiers, followed later by Bayer marketing of heroin as safe and effective, in displaying the history of careless treatment of opiates by many in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. Macy traces the more recent epidemic to Purdue Pharma and their 1996 release of the opioid painkiller OxyContin. Teens who had tried pills embraced heroin as an easily obtained alternative, with one remarking, "I did my first bag of heroin before I drank my first bottle of beer." Finally, the book examines the science behind medication-assisted treatment, which involves the monitored use of an opiate-derived medicine to combat addiction. ==Reception==

Dopesick received generally positive reviews. Jessica Bruder of The New York Times Book Review called it a "harrowing, deeply compassionate...masterwork of narrative journalism." Janet Maslin of The New York Times said that "no matter what you already know about the opioid crisis, [Dopesick's] toughness and intimacy make it a must." Entertainment Weekly David Canfield called Macy a "terrific reporter" and said Dopesick was a "definitive attempt at confronting the epidemic, from its source to its current scale." Brian Volck of The Christian Century praised the book's thoroughness but likened its portrayal of so many affected people and their heartbreaking stories to a "mass of indistinguishable misery like characters in a 19th-century Russian novel." It was a New York Times best seller and received the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology. ==Adaptation==

In 2020, it was announced that the streaming service Hulu was adapting Dopesick for an eight-episode limited series. Michael Keaton was signed to star in the series, which would be led by showrunner Danny Strong and director Barry Levinson. She was also an advocate for the show's inclusion of the benefits of medication-assisted treatment, which Patrick Radden Keefe said was "hugely important" in helping the American viewing public begin to talk about such measures in combating the epidemic. It received critical acclaim and was nominated for 14 Primetime Emmy Awards, with Keaton winning for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. It also received a 2021 Peabody Award in the entertainment category. ==References==