Download or read book The Untold Story of the Opioid Crisis in American Healthcare written by Michael Vasquez and published by . This book was released on 2024-03-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I have personally witnessed the devastating impact of America's opioid epidemic. For over three decades, I worked in law enforcement and government, often in roles closely associated with the drug crisis. I began as a federal drug prosecutor in Los Angeles and served as the Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, the Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Director of INTERPOL Washington. With drug overdose deaths at record levels, it has become undeniably evident that change is imperative. Despite substantial investments directed at tackling this issue, a viable solution to liberate Americans from the grip of opioid addiction has remained elusive. Mike, leveraging his expertise in healthcare technology and firsthand experience in addiction treatment, has ingeniously developed technology that sets itself apart from the rest, offering a beacon of hope in the fight against opioid addiction." Uttam Dhillon Former Acting Administrator, DEA "Opioid Clinical Management is working diligently to leverage technology to reduce the impact of substance use disorders and improve mental health across our nation - a mission we share. As lead author of the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Law), I have dedicated my post-congressional career to drive change in our nation's healthcare system and Mike is just one example of how it can happen." Hon. Patrick J. Kennedy

Download or read book The Untold Story of the Opioid Crisis in American Healthcare written by Michael Vasquez and published by Michael Vasquez. This book was released on 2024-03-14 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I have personally witnessed the devastating impact of America's opioid epidemic. For over three decades, I worked in law enforcement and government, often in roles closely associated with the drug crisis. I began as a federal drug prosecutor in Los Angeles and served as the Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, the Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Director of INTERPOL Washington. With drug overdose deaths at record levels, it has become undeniably evident that change is imperative. Despite substantial investments directed at tackling this issue, a viable solution to liberate Americans from the grip of opioid addiction has remained elusive. Mike, leveraging his expertise in healthcare technology and firsthand experience in addiction treatment, has ingeniously developed technology that sets itself apart from the rest, offering a beacon of hope in the fight against opioid addiction.” Uttam Dhillon Former Acting Administrator, DEA “Opioid Clinical Management is working diligently to leverage technology to reduce the impact of substance use disorders and improve mental health across our nation – a mission we share. As lead author of the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Law), I have dedicated my post-congressional career to drive change in our nation’s healthcare system and Mike is just one example of how it can happen.” Hon. Patrick J. Kennedy

Download or read book Dreamland YA edition written by Sam Quinones and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an adult book, Sam Quinones's Dreamland took the world by storm, winning the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction and hitting at least a dozen Best Book of the Year lists. Now, adapted for the first time for a young adult audience, this compelling reporting explains the roots of the current opiate crisis. In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland. Quinones explains how the rise of the prescription drug OxyContin, a miraculous and extremely addictive painkiller pushed by pharmaceutical companies, paralleled the massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel. Introducing a memorable cast of characters--pharmaceutical pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, teens, and parents--Dreamland is a revelatory account of the massive threat facing America and its heartland.

Download or read book Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-09-28 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

Download or read book The Untold Story of the Opioid Crisis in American Healthcare written by Michael Vasquez and published by Michael Vasquez. This book was released on 2024-03-14 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I have personally witnessed the devastating impact of America's opioid epidemic. For over three decades, I worked in law enforcement and government, often in roles closely associated with the drug crisis. I began as a federal drug prosecutor in Los Angeles and served as the Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, the Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Director of INTERPOL Washington. With drug overdose deaths at record levels, it has become undeniably evident that change is imperative. Despite substantial investments directed at tackling this issue, a viable solution to liberate Americans from the grip of opioid addiction has remained elusive. Mike, leveraging his expertise in healthcare technology and first-hand experience in addiction treatment, has ingeniously developed technology that sets itself apart from the rest, offering a beacon of hope in the fight against opioid addiction.” Uttam Dhillon Former Acting Administrator, DEA “Opioid Clinical Management is working diligently to leverage technology to reduce the impact of substance use disorders and improve mental health across our nation – a mission we share. As lead author of the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Law), I have dedicated my post-congressional career to drive change in our nation’s healthcare system and Mike is just one example of how it can happen.” Hon. Patrick J. Kennedy

Download or read book The Least of Us written by Sam Quinones and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book American Overdose written by Chris McGreal and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive portrait of a uniquely American epidemic -- devastating in its findings and damning in its conclusions 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.

Download or read book The United States of Opioids written by Harry Nelson and published by Forbesbooks. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Harry has written a powerful book . . . . The United States of Opioids is a call to action and tangible steps that we can all take. Harry delivers insights into the challenges facing our health system―doctors, hospitals, and addiction treatment providers―but also offers steps that we can all take as parents and with everyone else in our lives”--Lisa Marie Presley

Download or read book Drug Dealer MD written by Anna Lembke and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The disturbing connection between well-meaning physicians and the prescription drug epidemic. Three out of four people addicted to heroin probably started on a prescription opioid, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the United States alone, 16,000 people die each year as a result of prescription opioid overdose. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of the prescription drug epidemic is that it’s built on well-meaning doctors treating patients with real problems. In Drug Dealer, MD, Dr. Anna Lembke uncovers the unseen forces driving opioid addiction nationwide. Combining case studies from her own practice with vital statistics drawn from public policy, cultural anthropology, and neuroscience, she explores the complex relationship between doctors and patients, the science of addiction, and the barriers to successfully addressing drug dependence and addiction. Even when addiction is recognized by doctors and their patients, she argues, many doctors don’t know how to treat it, connections to treatment are lacking, and insurance companies won’t pay for rehab. Full of extensive interviews—with health care providers, pharmacists, social workers, hospital administrators, insurance company executives, journalists, economists, advocates, and patients and their families—Drug Dealer, MD, is for anyone whose life has been touched in some way by addiction to prescription drugs. Dr. Lembke gives voice to the millions of Americans struggling with prescription drugs while singling out the real culprits behind the rise in opioid addiction: cultural narratives that promote pills as quick fixes, pharmaceutical corporations in cahoots with organized medicine, and a new medical bureaucracy focused on the bottom line that favors pills, procedures, and patient satisfaction over wellness. Dr. Lembke concludes that the prescription drug epidemic is a symptom of a faltering health care system, the solution for which lies in rethinking how health care is delivered.

Download or read book Empire of Pain written by Patrick Radden Keefe and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From the prize-winning and bestselling author of Say Nothing. "A real-life version of the HBO series Succession with a lethal sting in its tail…a masterful work of narrative reportage.” – Laura Miller, Slate The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with drama—baroque personal lives; bitter disputes over estates; fistfights in boardrooms; glittering art collections; Machiavellian courtroom maneuvers; and the calculated use of money to burnish reputations and crush the less powerful. The Sackler name has adorned the walls of many storied institutions—Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, but the source of the family fortune was vague—until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis. Empire of Pain is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d’Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. It follows the family’s early success with Valium to the much more potent OxyContin, marketed with a ruthless technique of co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug’s addictiveness. Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Empire of Pain is a ferociously compelling portrait of America’s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super-elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed that built one of the world’s great fortunes.

Download or read book Undoing Drugs written by Maia Szalavitz and published by Hachette Go. This book was released on 2021-07-27 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From “one of the bravest, smartest writers about addiction anywhere” (Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author)—the untold story of harm reduction, a surprisingly simple idea with enormous power Drug overdoses now kill more Americans annually than guns, cars or breast cancer. But we have tried to solve this national crisis with policies that only made matters worse. In the name of “sending the right message,” we have maximized the spread of infectious disease, torn families apart, incarcerated millions of mostly Black and Brown people—and utterly failed to either prevent addiction or make effective treatment for it widely available. There is another way, one that is proven to work. However, it runs counter to much of the received wisdom of our criminal and medical industrial complexes. It is called harm reduction. Developed and championed by an outcast group of people who use drugs and by former users and public health geeks, harm reduction offers guidance on how to save lives and improve health. And it provides a way of understanding behavior and culture that has relevance far beyond drugs. In a spellbinding narrative rooted in an urgent call to action, Undoing Drugs tells the story of how a small group of committed people changed the world, illuminating the power of a great idea. It illustrates how hard it can be to take on widely accepted conventional wisdom—and what is necessary to overcome this resistance. It is also about how personal, direct human connection and kindness can inspire profound transformation. Ultimately, Undoing Drugs offers a path forward—revolutionizing not only the treatment of addiction, but also our treatment of behavioral and societal issues.

Download or read book Facing Addiction in America the Surgeon General s Spotlight on Opioids written by and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Prescriptyion Opioid Analgesic Use Among Adults United States 1999 2012 written by Steven M. Frenk and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Pain Killer written by Barry Meier and published by Random House. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter who first exposed the roots of the opioid epidemic and the secretive world of the Sackler family behind Purdue Pharma, Pain Killer is the celebrated landmark story of corporate greed and government negligence that inspired an upcoming Netflix series. “This is the book that started it all. Barry Meier is a heroic reporter and Pain Killer is a muckraking classic.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain Between 1999 and 2017, an estimated 250,000 Americans died from overdoses involving prescription painkillers, a plague ignited by Purdue Pharma’s aggressive marketing of OxyContin. Families, working class and wealthy, have been torn apart, businesses destroyed, and public officials pushed to the brink. Meanwhile, the drugmaker’s owners, Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, whose names adorn museums worldwide, made enormous fortunes from the commercial success of OxyContin. In Pain Killer, Barry Meier tells the story of how Purdue turned OxyContin into a billion-dollar blockbuster. Powerful narcotic painkillers, or opioids, were once used as drugs of last resort for pain sufferers. But Purdue launched an unprecedented marketing campaign claiming that the drug’s long-acting formulation made it safer to use than traditional painkillers for many types of pain. That illusion was quickly shattered as drug abusers learned that crushing an Oxy could release its narcotic payload all at once. Even in its prescribed form, Oxy proved fiercely addictive. As OxyContin’s use and abuse grew, Purdue concealed what it knew from regulators, doctors, and patients. Here are the people who profited from the crisis and those who paid the price, those who plotted in boardrooms and those who tried to sound alarm bells. A country doctor in rural Virginia, Art Van Zee, took on Purdue and warned officials about OxyContin abuse. An ebullient high school cheerleader, Lindsey Myers, was reduced to stealing from her parents to feed her escalating Oxy habit. A hard-charging DEA official, Laura Nagel, tried to hold Purdue executives to account. In Pain Killer, Barry Meier breaks new ground in his decades-long investigation into the opioid epidemic. He takes readers inside Purdue to show how long the company withheld information about the abuse of OxyContin and gives a shocking account of the Justice Department’s failure to alter the trajectory of the opioid epidemic and protect thousands of lives. Equal parts crime thriller, medical detective story, and business exposé, Pain Killer is a hard-hitting look at how a supposed wonder drug became the gateway drug to a national tragedy.

Download or read book The Opioid Fix written by Barbara Andraka-Christou and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why medication-assisted treatment, the most effective tool for battling opioid addiction, is significantly underused in the United States. Bronze Winner of the 2021 IPPY Book Award in Health/Medicine/Nutrition, Gold Winner of the 2020 Foreword INDIES Award in Health America's addiction crisis is growing worse. More than 115 Americans die daily from opioid overdoses, with half a million deaths expected in the next decade. Time and again, scientific studies show that medications like Suboxone and methadone are the most reliable and effective treatment, yet more than 60 percent of US addiction treatment centers fail to provide access to them. In The Opioid Fix, Barbara Andraka-Christou highlights both the promise and the underuse of medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Addiction, Andraka-Christou writes, is a chronic medical condition. Why treat it, then, outside of mainstream medicine? Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews with people in recovery, their family members, treatment providers, and policy makers, Andraka-Christou reveals a troubling landscape characterized by underregulated treatment centers and unnecessary ideological battles between twelve-step support groups and medication providers. The resistance to MAT—from physicians who won't prescribe it, to drug courts that prohibit it, to politicians who overregulate it—showcases the narrow-mindedness of the system and why it isn't working. Recounting the true stories of people in recovery, this groundbreaking book argues that MAT needs to be available to anyone suffering from opioid addiction. Unlike other books about the opioid crisis, which have largely focused on causal factors like pharmaceutical overprescription and heroin trafficking, this book focuses on people who have already developed an opioid addiction but are struggling to find effective treatment. Validating the experience of hundreds of thousands of Americans, The Opioid Fix sounds a loud call for policy reforms that will help put lifesaving drugs into the hands of those who need them the most.

Download or read book In Pain written by Travis Rieder and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NPR Best Book of 2019 A bioethicist’s eloquent and riveting memoir of opioid dependence and withdrawal—a harrowing personal reckoning and clarion call for change not only for government but medicine itself, revealing the lack of crucial resources and structures to handle this insidious nationwide epidemic. Travis Rieder’s terrifying journey down the rabbit hole of opioid dependence began with a motorcycle accident in 2015. Enduring half a dozen surgeries, the drugs he received were both miraculous and essential to his recovery. But his most profound suffering came several months later when he went into acute opioid withdrawal while following his physician’s orders. Over the course of four excruciating weeks, Rieder learned what it means to be “dope sick”—the physical and mental agony caused by opioid dependence. Clueless how to manage his opioid taper, Travis’s doctors suggested he go back on the drugs and try again later. Yet returning to pills out of fear of withdrawal is one route to full-blown addiction. Instead, Rieder continued the painful process of weaning himself. Rieder’s experience exposes a dark secret of American pain management: a healthcare system so conflicted about opioids, and so inept at managing them, that the crisis currently facing us is both unsurprising and inevitable. As he recounts his story, Rieder provides a fascinating look at the history of these drugs first invented in the 1800s, changing attitudes about pain management over the following decades, and the implementation of the pain scale at the beginning of the twenty-first century. He explores both the science of addiction and the systemic and cultural barriers we must overcome if we are to address the problem effectively in the contemporary American healthcare system. In Pain is not only a gripping personal account of dependence, but a groundbreaking exploration of the intractable causes of America’s opioid problem and their implications for resolving the crisis. Rieder makes clear that the opioid crisis exists against a backdrop of real, debilitating pain—and that anyone can fall victim to this epidemic.

Download or read book Dopesick written by Beth Macy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-09 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a major TV series on Disney+ 'A shocking investigation... Dopesick is essential' The Times 'Unfolds with all the pace of a thriller' Observer 'A deep – and deeply needed – look into the troubled soul of America' Tom Hanks 'Essential reading' New York Times Beth Macy reveals the disturbing truth behind America's opioid crisis and explains how a nation has become enslaved to prescription drugs. This powerful and moving story explains how a large corporation, Purdue, encouraged small town doctors to prescribe OxyContin to a country already awash in painkillers. The drug's dangerously addictive nature was hidden, whilst many used it as an escape, to numb the pain of of joblessness and the need to pay the bills. Macy tries to answer a grieving mother's question – why her only son died – and comes away with a harrowing tale of greed and need.