Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America

by Beth Macy

Van Zee sounded the alarm about OxyContin just as its makers were on the threshold of grossing its first billion on the blockbuster drug. And though he didn’t yet know it, he would spend the remainder of his career dealing with its aftermath—lobbying policy makers, treating the addicted, and attending funerals of the overdosed dead. But back in the early days of OxyContin, Van Zee was as puzzled as he was concerned. He told Sue Cantrell about a new condition he’d spotted among some of his older opioid addicts—skin abscesses caused by injecting the crushed-up drug. He was beginning to think that OxyContin, especially in its 40- and 80-milligram forms, was another animal entirely from the 10-milligram Percocet pills some teenagers used recreationally on the weekends. His region had long been home to prescription drug abuse, though to a much smaller degree; before OxyContin, Van Zee treated only one to three narcotic-dependent patients a year.