A comprehensive portrait of a uniquely American epidemic -- devastating in its findings and damning in its conclusions The opioid epidemic has been described as "one of the greatest mistakes of modern medicine." But calling it a mistake is a generous rewriting of the history of greed, corruption, and indifference that pushed the US into consuming more than 80 percent of the world's opioid painkillers. Journeying through lives and communities wrecked by the epidemic, Chris McGreal reveals not only how Big Pharma hooked Americans on powerfully addictive drugs, but the corrupting of medicine and public institutions that let the opioid makers get away with it. The starting point for McGreal's deeply reported investigation is the miners promised that opioid painkillers would restore their wrecked bodies, but who became targets of "drug dealers in white coats." A few heroic physicians warned of impending disaster. But American Overdose exposes the powerful forces they were up against, including the pharmaceutical industry's coopting of the Food and Drug Administration and Congress in the drive to push painkillers -- resulting in the resurgence of heroin cartels in the American heartland. McGreal tells the story, in terms both broad and intimate, of people hit by a catastrophe they never saw coming. Years in the making, its ruinous consequences will stretch years into the future.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED for the 2021 BC Book Awards' George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature SHORTLISTED for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes, for both the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes SHORTLISTED for the 2021 J. W. Dafoe Book Prize SHORTLISTED for the 2020 Lane Anderson Award “Overdose is a necessary and searching investigation into a devastating epidemic that should never have happened. Benjamin Perrin painstakingly shows that it need not continue if we, as a society, heed the evidence.” —Gabor Maté M.D., author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction An astonishing and powerful look at the ongoing opioid crisis North America is in the middle of a health emergency. Life expectancies are declining. Someone is dying every two hours in Canada from illicit drug overdose. Fentanyl has become a looming presence—an opioid more powerful, pervasive, and deadly than any previous street drug. The victims are many—and often not whom we might expect. They include the poor and forgotten but also our neighbours: professionals, students, and parents. Despite the thousands of deaths, these victims have remained largely invisible. But not anymore. Benjamin Perrin, a law and policy expert, shines a light in this darkest of corners—and his findings challenge many assumptions about the crisis. Why do people use drugs despite the risk of overdosing? Can we crack down on the fentanyl supply? Do supervised consumption sites and providing “safe drugs” enable the problem? Which treatments work? Would decriminalizing all drugs help or do further harm? In this urgent and humane look at a devastating epidemic, Perrin draws on behind-the-scenes interviews with those on the frontlines, including undercover police officers, intelligence analysts, border agents, prosecutors, healthcare professionals, Indigenous organizations, activists, and people who use drugs. Not only does he unveil the many complexities of this situation, but he also offers a new way forward—one that may save thousands of lives.

Using the examples of Vioxx, Celebrex, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, and anti-depressants, Overdo$ed America shows that at the heart of the current crisis in American medicine lies the commercialization of medical knowledge itself. Drawing on his background in statistics, epidemiology, and health policy, John Abramson, M.D., an award-winning family doctor on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School, reveals the ways in which the drug companies have misrepresented statistical evidence, misled doctors, and compromised our health. The good news is that the best scientific evidence shows that reclaiming responsibility for your own health is often far more effective than taking the latest blockbuster drug. You -- and your doctor -- will be stunned by this unflinching exposé of American medicine.

An estimated 69000 people die each year from opioid overdose. Opioid overdose is easily reversed with the opioid antidote naloxone and with basic life support. Such care is generally only available in medical settings, however. These guidelines recommend that people who are likely to witness an opioid overdose, including people who use opioids, and their family and friends should be given access to naloxone and training in its use so that they can respond to opioid overdose in an emergency if a medical response is not available. Naloxone can be injected or administered intra-nasally and has minimal effects in people who have not used opioids. While naloxone administered by bystanders is a potentially life-saving emergency interim response to opioid overdose, it should not be seen as a replacement for comprehensive medical care.

The instant-answer guide clinicians turn to first for on-the-spot treatment of poisoning and drug overdose emergencies A Doody’s Core Title for 2021! “...a great addition to any emergency department library when rapid reference is needed to treat and diagnose the poisoned patient.” -- Annals of Emergency Medicine (Reviewing previous edition) Designed to be used during toxicologic emergencies where every moment counts, Poisoning & Drug Overdose, Seventh Edition delivers critical information on the effective diagnosis and treatment of drug-related emergencies and chemical exposures. This at-a-glance guide is enhanced by detailed tables and charts, extensive cross referencing, and a comprehensive index featuring generic, chemical, and brand names. Poisoning & Drug Overdose is divided into four sections: Section 1 leads readers through initial emergency management, including treatment of coma, hypotension, and other common complications; physical and laboratory diagnosis; and methods of decontamination and enhanced elimination of poisons Section II provides detailed information on 150 common drugs and poisons Section III describes the use and side effects of 60 antidotes and therapeutic drugs Section IV describes the medical management of chemical spills and occupations chemical exposures and includes a table of more than 500 industrial chemicals • Thoroughly updated to reflect newly released drugs, new information on existing drugs, and coverage of the latest black box (and other) warnings • NEW to this edition: information on drug-environmental exposure interactions, coverage of environmental toxins such as mold, asbestos, and others

The opioid crisis in the United States has come about because of excessive use of these drugs for both legal and illicit purposes and unprecedented levels of consequent opioid use disorder (OUD). More than 2 million people in the United States are estimated to have OUD, which is caused by prolonged use of prescription opioids, heroin, or other illicit opioids. OUD is a life-threatening condition associated with a 20-fold greater risk of early death due to overdose, infectious diseases, trauma, and suicide. Mortality related to OUD continues to escalate as this public health crisis gathers momentum across the country, with opioid overdoses killing more than 47,000 people in 2017 in the United States. Efforts to date have made no real headway in stemming this crisis, in large part because tools that already existâ€"like evidence-based medicationsâ€"are not being deployed to maximum impact. To support the dissemination of accurate patient-focused information about treatments for addiction, and to help provide scientific solutions to the current opioid crisis, this report studies the evidence base on medication assisted treatment (MAT) for OUD. It examines available evidence on the range of parameters and circumstances in which MAT can be effectively delivered and identifies additional research needed.

Dr. Emma Steele is baffled when she finds herself dressed in mental health blues, tied to a stretcher in her own ED. She was hunting for a killer. She found him. Just as he found her. He planted evidence accusing her of his crimes. She's innocent, so she'll be free soon. She has friends who'll help.Twice wrong.Things can't get any worse.They do. Her challenges: A community decimated by the raging opioid epidemic. A charming psychopath dealing in drugs and sex. A daughter who hates her. An ex who doesn't. Blood, guts, and death. Betrayal. And wine. Overdose is a captivating page-turner for medical junkies. Growing suspense, breathless twists and turns, crisp dialogue, unforgettable characters, and dark ER humor. A cocktail of medicine and suspense in the vein of Gerritsen, Cornwell, and Cook.You'll love OVERDOSE if you crave ER drama with split seconds separating life from death. You'll love it if blood, drugs and dislocated joints give you the warm fuzzies. You'll love it if you long to see what's inside the mind of a serial killer. OVERDOSE: An ER life novel with strong, flawed characters entangled in complicated relationships, life and death fights, and wine. Mostly red.