Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.32 (834 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B00UJZVD52 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 387 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-10-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
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 - addiction like no other the country has ever faced. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive - and extremely addictive - miracle painkiller. How that happened is t
"Nicely researched, enjoyable readbut chronic pain sufferers get short shift" according to JKReads. This was a thoroughly researched book and I enjoyed Mr. Quinones's writing style. I was able to get clear mental pictures of the places and people he describes. I had no idea of the heroin trade and while I was aware that heroin addiction had spread to the heartland alarmingly, the complex system of the cartels was certainly eye opening. I also was vaguely aware of the 'pill mills' going on in Florida and other states primarily in the eastern part of the US, after reading this book I can say I not only know but am alarmed at how easy. "Extraordinary Investigative Journalism" according to Drake. I have been immersed in American cardiology for many years with little awareness that many thousands-- often young and privileged-- have been dying of the narcotic epidemic described so well in this book. The strangling web of causes, you will learn, includes misinterpreted medical research leading to deadly malpractice, shady doctors, the rusty economic meltdown, criminal behavior by Big Pharma, the easy penetration of Mexican heroin into the U.S., the economic desperation of Mexican small town culture, highly effective just-in -tim. Overly lyrical and rambling Amazon Customer The prescription epidemic and its ties to the rise in heroin addiction is a fascinating subject and I was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately, what I found was a disjointed collection of anecdotes and an exhaustive look at the same issue from thirty different perspectives. This book could have easily been 100 pages shorter and lost none of its power.Additionally, the author's efforts to add color to the narrative don't always land, or are used so often that they lose all meaning. For instance, he refers to one traffic