Page 60 - Time Magazine, Sep. 17, 2018
P. 60
8 Questions
Beth Macy The best-selling author on dope
sickness, the opioid addict next door and holding
drug companies accountable
our new book, Dopesick: Dealers, have responded with decriminalization and
Doctors and the Drug have gotten their arms around their opioid
YCompany That Addicted problems. Look at Portugal. They’ve done
America, details the opioid crisis in a lot with expanding buprenorphine
the U.S. When did you first start to providers and cutting regulations, and
look at the opioid epidemic? I was a they’ve cut overdose deaths by quite a
newspaper reporter in 2012, in Roanoke, lot. We have more than 2 million people
Va. I had done reporting about what with opioid-use disorders in the U.S.
happens in communities when all Now, do the doctors need to prescribe
the jobs go away. You had these poor, less? Yes. But the horse is already out
distressed places where people were not DO THE of the barn. We need to treat addiction
only becoming addicted to painkillers, as the medical problem that it is.
but also starting to sell them as a way ‘ DOCTORS NEED
to pay their bills. And then you had the TO PRESCRIBE We often see it as a moral failing if
same thing happening in the wealthier LESS? YES. BUT people mess up in rehabilitation.
neighborhoods. How do we get over that? John Kelly
THE HORSE IS
[an associate professor of psychiatry at
Why do you think it took America so ALREADY OUT Harvard Medical School] says it takes a
long to wake up to the crisis? I think,think, O ’ typica
typical person with opioid-use disorder
OF THE BARNFTHE BARN
ned rural
four to
partly, the media sort of abandoned rural four to five treatment attempts and eight
years
America just when they needed us most. years to keep just one year of sobriety.
us most.
It’s a really tough problem to get better
for many
The newspaper where I worked for many It’s a r
from. Hopefully we’ll start to see teenagers
d down
years, the Roanoke Times, slowed down from.
coverage of rural areas. We weren’t telling under
understanding not to mess with this stuff,
n’t telling
this story because we didn’t even know it not ev
n know it
not even one time.
was going on.
What do people learn from listeningt
Wha
Do you think people fully understanderstand to people who use drugs? These peopleo peo
t
the epidemic? A lot of people still don’till don’t are de
are desperate to get treatment; they’re
desperate to get better. One person in
ween
know about the connection between despe
opioid pills and heroin and fentanyl. the bo
nyl.
the book says, At the end of your journey,
giving
Doctors are way better about not giving you’re not doing it to get high; you’re
you’re
doing it to keep from being dope sick.
kids 30 OxyContin for wisdom teeth doing
eeth
That’s a news flash to a lot of Americans.
anymore, but I tell everyone I know: That’s
ow:
Just be really careful. We ne
We need to bring it out from under the rug
and st
and start talking about it the way we talk
about cancer.
Do you think the conversation about
is changing around medication- n-
W
assisted treatment (MAT)? [This is What should happen next? Federalhat
method uses medication to leade
leadership. Accountability from drug
com
temper cravings instead of companies. Politicians that aren’t
in th
demanding abstinence.] The in the pockets of lobbyists and
rehab industry grew up treating cor
corporations. Opioid makers reportedly
alcoholism as abstinence- sp
spent more than $880 million on
only. Most treatment centers lobbyists and political contributions
l
between 2006 and 2015. That’s eight
don’t allow MATs. People assume e b
ti
they don’t want to get better, but I see times more than the gun lobbies spent.
I see
I try not to be too outraged, but I’m pretty
attitudes starting to change. I try n
outrag
outraged. As somebody in the book says,
Do you think people should be We should be sending helicopters like we do
We sh
with Zika. Where’s the urgency?
incarcerated for using drugs? No, INo, I with Z JOSH MELTZER
rld that
don’t. There are places in the world that —PAUL MOAKLEY
60 TIME September 17, 2018
