SocProf reviewed American Overdose by Chris McGreal
Review of 'American Overdose' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
If Americans had better health benefits such as paid sick leave, maybe they wouldn't need as many painkillers and opioids. Which might also be why the opioids epidemic is unique to the US.
McGreal's book is a perfect case study in the importance of C. Wright Mills's sociological imagination. Look for the intersection of social structure, history, power, and social location. This is what the book does. Because the epidemic is not a question of people with failing morals, defective hillbilly culture and other such nonsense. The book demonstrates that the structure of development, regulation, approval, distribution, prescription, and delivery of opioids is truly what was at the root of this, along with the powerful entities backing the spread of opioids for everything, pain as the 5th vital sign, and the data-less idea of an epidemic of pain. There is the power of Big Pharma, its sales reps and lobbyists, …
If Americans had better health benefits such as paid sick leave, maybe they wouldn't need as many painkillers and opioids. Which might also be why the opioids epidemic is unique to the US.
McGreal's book is a perfect case study in the importance of C. Wright Mills's sociological imagination. Look for the intersection of social structure, history, power, and social location. This is what the book does. Because the epidemic is not a question of people with failing morals, defective hillbilly culture and other such nonsense. The book demonstrates that the structure of development, regulation, approval, distribution, prescription, and delivery of opioids is truly what was at the root of this, along with the powerful entities backing the spread of opioids for everything, pain as the 5th vital sign, and the data-less idea of an epidemic of pain. There is the power of Big Pharma, its sales reps and lobbyists, and their influence in Congress and government agencies, along with that of the medical profession. All of this goes beyond the unsavory characters the book also describes. And the selection of depressed areas such as poor counties in West Virginia, as the "target" for mass dumping of Oxycontin.
As I often tell my students, nothing ever happens by chance in society. An epidemic of addiction to opioids does not just happen. The book shows how it was constructed back in the 1990s, and has morphed over several decades with no clear end in sight.