“Dopesick” was followed by Ryan Hampton’s “American Fix” and Patrick Radden Keefe’s bestseller “ Empire of Pain.” Barry Meier’s book “ Pain Killer” started the conversation in 2003, and Sam Quinones contributed “ Dreamland” in 2015. Macy was neither the first nor the last to tackle the subject.

Driven by corporate greed, piled on top of bureaucratic mismanagement and indifference, the opioid epidemic has ruined millions of lives via addiction, death and the trauma of families ripped apart - and that number grows daily. Macy couldn’t shake the crisis in part because it has never let up, but also because she approaches her work with a journalistic passion that can cross over into advocacy. I was so depressed and didn’t see any hope,” Macy says by video from her home in Virginia shortly before the publication of, yes, her new book on opioids, “ Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis.” “There was no way I could do another book on opioids. When Beth Macy finished her 2018 book, “ Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America,” she was done with the subject. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores.

Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis

Author beth macy