What caused this? And what has happened since then, in response?

When COVID-19 hit, opioid-related overdoses really started to spike, by about 30 percent. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. In her latest book, Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis, Macy moves beyond “how did this happen” and towards “how do we stop it?” Emphasizing the need for harm reduction, she seeks solutions that can save lives. In her 2018 book Dopesick, adapted into a Peadbody-winning Hulu series, Beth Macy recounted how Purdue Pharma’s Sackler family aggressively marketed Ox圜ontin, triggering what we now know as the opioid epidemic. The crisis bears little resemblance to its origins. Fatalities from illicit opioids now dwarf those from prescription drugs, with far more people dying of illicitly manufactured fentanyl than ever died of Ox圜ontin annually. More than one million Americans have died in just over two decades, with more than 107,000 people dying in 2021 alone.

33 E 17th St, New York, NY 10003Since Beth Macy’s first book on the overdose crisis, the death toll has risen steeply.

©1997-2023 Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Inc. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).Ī full transcript of this episode is available here. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky. Beth joins us on the show to talk about harm reduction, meeting people where they are, organizing at a local level, the lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and the behavior of the Sackler family, activism, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Her new book, Raising Lazarus, takes a new approach to our ever-growing crisis, focusing on solutions and the people bringing those solutions to our communities. So, I thought, I'm going to start a book in the parking lot of a McDonald's dumpster in a dying town and show you how, in the most unlikely places, magic is happening.” Beth Macy’s 2018 bestseller Dopesick and the Emmy-nominated Hulu streamer it inspired have helped changed our national conversation about Opioids and addiction. “And so, then I thought, Who do I most admire? Who taught me the most, and also, they're doing it for completely selfless reasons, right? And I thought, Oh, that moment and the parking lot.

Raising lazarus dopesick