American Overdose

A comprehensive portrait of a uniquely American epidemic--devastating in its findings and damning in its conclusions. Now updated with new details on Big Pharma lawsuits.

The opioid epidemic has been described as "one of the greatest mistakes of modern medicine." But calling it a mistake is a generous rewriting of the history of greed, corruption, and indifference that pushed the US into consuming more than 80 percent of the world's opioid painkillers.
Journeying through lives and communities wrecked by the epidemic, Chris McGreal reveals not only how Big Pharma hooked Americans on powerfully addictive drugs, but the corrupting of medicine and public institutions that let the opioid makers get away with it.
The starting point for McGreal's deeply reported investigation is the miners promised that opioid painkillers would restore their wrecked bodies, but who became targets of "drug dealers in white coats."
A few heroic physicians warned of impending disaster. But American Overdose exposes the powerful forces they were up against, including the pharmaceutical industry's coopting of the Food and Drug Administration and Congress in the drive to push painkillers--resulting in the resurgence of heroin cartels in the American heartland. McGreal tells the story, in terms both broad and intimate, of people hit by a catastrophe they never saw coming. Years in the making, its ruinous consequences will stretch years into the future.

Un portret cuprinzator al unei epidemii americane unic - devastatoare in constatarile sale si infricosator in concluziile sale. Acum, actualizat cu noi detalii despre procesele Big Pharma. Epidemia de opioide a fost descrisa drept „una dintre cele mai mari greseli ale medicinei moderne”. Dar a numi o greseala este o rescriere generoasa a istoriei lacomiei, coruptiei si indiferentei care a impins SUA sa consume mai mult de 80 la suta din analgezicele opioide ale lumii. modul in care Big Pharma i-a legat pe americani de droguri puternic dependente, dar coruptia medicamentelor si a institutiilor publice care permit producatorilor de opioide sa scape de ea. care au devenit tinte ale „traficantilor de droguri in paltoane albe.” Cativa medici eroici au avertizat despre iminentul dezastru.