"This book grew out of my 2018 book Dopesick. It sprang from the gut-wrenching stories I heard and the tough questions I was asked by hundreds of readers who reached out to me at presentations I gave and via my social media accounts."
Beth Macy's Dopesick took readers into a world I'm sure most of us privileged and motivated enough to read the book found horrifying. It's a world of people getting hooked not from street pushers but from prescriptions written by respected white coated professionals, the doctors wined and dined by the Sackler family's Purdue. We got to know the victims, the heart broken family members who lost loved ones, and the people working valiantly to save the precious lives.
With Raising Lazarus Macy takes us back to these communities where addiction and death rates, in the wake of the pandemic, continue to skyrocket. Again we meet those trapped in addiction, the loved ones grieving the loss of sons and daughters, and the warriors delivering hope to homes, parking lots, and trap houses. She describes some of the roadblocks standing in the way of change.
One is the sheer overwhelming poverty of the region. Many people with substance use disorders (Macy tells us not to say addicts) don't have the basics most of take for granted: shelter, food, and access to Healthcare. They also exist in a larger context of community poverty and lack of opportunity in places where the factories that previously provided decent livings had pulled out with nothing taking their place.
Another is the cruel stigma surrounding substance abuse. We learn about woman whose beloved son's struggles didn't elicit the sympathy, empathy, visits, and casseroles showered on a family whose child battled cancer. Even those addicted through the complicity of big pharma and the medical professionals' complicity are seen as criminals rather than people grappling with chronic medical conditions...
...fragile people often forced to go through agonizing withdrawal in jails rather than offered medically appropriate treatments.
Every now and we get glimpses of how the best legal talent money can buy shields the Sacklers from ever facing the consequences of their evil.
If you want to really understand this twentieth century tragedy and maybe be part of the solution you'll find both Dopesick and Raising Lazarus to be must reads.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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