Most of his focus rests in central Appalachia with families from both the Kentucky and West Virginia sides of the small town of Williamson. By focusing on first-hand accounts by family members from across the United States, McGreal respectfully but unabashedly puts a face to the epidemic.

In the second 'act,' McGreal uses this data to inform the reader of the scale of the epidemic while also juxtaposing the statistical account of loss with personal stories. This quote encapsulates the resulting damage of the pharmaceutical companies' ability to win the war for more prescribing. As Congressman Harold 'Hal' Rogers put it, 'That's enough painkillers to medicate every American adult around the clock for a month'' (xv). Through a linking of research and investigative journalism, he outlines the massive profits made by the company, as well as the ease with which pill mills developed across the country.Īmerican 'doctors wrote more than 200 million opioid prescriptions a year. His focus lies with the rise and broad distribution of Ox圜ontin. Using interviews, McGreal demonstrates the problematic way in which pharmaceutical companies lobbied Congress to strengthen legislation and regulations in their favor to ensure easier prescribing of their products. Much of this section outlines the nefarious ways in which the pharmaceutical companies, such as Perdue Pharma, lobbied doctors, politicians, and the FDA into believing their drugs were 'non-addictive' forming. This shift, driven by fraudulent research and the idea of monumental profit, opened the door for the real antagonist of the story-pharmaceutical companies. During this time, physicians began focusing on the benefits of opioids in palliative care. In the first 'act,' McGreal focuses his discussion on the shift in the prescribing of opioids in the early 1980s. More broadly he walks the reader through the history and thusly politics, of the overprescribing of opioids. He grounds the astronomical number of deaths through firsthand experiences of users, suppliers, doctors, researchers, and law enforcement. McGreal, a former reporter for the Guardian, brilliantly weaves a tapestry of storytelling through his explanation of why so many Americans have lost their lives to opioid addiction.

Unlike many scholars and reporters of the opioid epidemic, McGreal tries to provide a face to the lasting loss of life caused by the overprescribing of opioids in the United States. Chris McGreal's American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts is full of stories from people like Davis. She deals with the aftermath of the opioid epidemic daily. These are the words of Dee Davis, founder of the Center for Rural Strategies. 'The kind of damage they did to a resilient, culturally strong set of mountain communities is unconscionable' (109).

American Overdose by Chris McGreal