This idea marked the start of a revolution that turned attitudes about opioids on its head and fundamentally shifted medical culture.Īmerican Overdose outlines three main components of the opioid epidemic: first, the negligent policies that allowed the greed and corruption of Big Pharma to profit off the suffering of their patients and new evidence on the FDA’s complicity in the matter second, the widespread addiction that ravaged American towns and cities and finally, the even more devastating arrival of the drug cartels that deliberately and catastrophically exploited the market for addiction.

If there was a risk of addiction is was due to a patient’s history of drug abuse. In the early 2000s pain specialists and primary care doctors, police and prosecutors, reporters and medical researchers all flagged the growing scourge of addiction and death. Within five years the drug pulled in more than $2 billion in sales, accounting for 80% of the company’s revenue. The messaging was far more successful than predicted. “Delayed absorption, as provided by Ox圜ontin tablets, is believed to reduce the abuse liability of a drug.” In one sentence Purdue Pharma (the pharmaceutical company responsible for launching the opioid crisis) had a marketing device that fooled the FDA and reassured doctors suspicious of prescribing narcotics. While other books dwell on victims, this book is unique in that it focuses on the perpetrators, the villains, to construct a picture of how Big Pharma adapted their strategy over time to discredit the evidence that mass opioid prescribing was creating an epidemic. In American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts, British investigative journalist Chris McGreal scrutinizes these questions by calling to account those who Americans look to protect them yet stand idly by as the bodies pile up year after year. Bush occupied the White House only begin to get the attention it deserves when Barack Obama was wrapping up his second term? How was the greatest drug epidemic in American history allowed to go virtually unchecked for nearly two decades and with still no end in sight? So how did a tragedy that began when Bill Clinton was president and surge through the years George W. It is the leading killer of people under the age of fifty, dragging down life expectancy in the US-a phenomenon unique in the developed world. It results in 90 American deaths a day and has eviscerated communities across the country. The opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history. This is a free-access event - entrance will be on a first-come, first-served basis. PLEASE NOTE: Submitting an RSVP for this event DOES NOT guarantee entrance. Please fill out the form at the bottom of this page if you plan on attending. 28 Adams Street (Corner of Adams & Water Street the Archway)

American Overdose by Chris McGreal