Author: Patrick Radden Keefe
Audiobook Performer: Patrick Radden Keefe
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
Content Rating: R (for language, drug use)
Tidbit: A shocking look into the Sackler family and the drug that made them their billions (OxyContin) and helped America fall into an opioid crisis.
"Of course, Oxycontin was stronger than morphine, that
was a simple fact of chemistry, but one that the company would need to
carefully obscure. After all, there were only so many cancer patients...
The real jackpot was non-malignant pain."
My husband is sick of hearing me talk about this book, I'm sure. But I could not believe it. It completely blew my mind. Just this morning I was telling my dad about it. Let me go ahead and warn that my review will not do this book justice. I've been pondering this for a day and I know I won't find the right words. So check out my stories for the reviews that motivated me to read this book.
I'm
pretty naive in a lot of ways about the drug world. But even I had
heard of the opioid crisis in America before this book. Well, this book
takes you into the history of the Sackler family, the family who started
Purdue Pharma. And Purdue Pharma produced and marketed OxyContin/Oxycodone. And that drug was largely responsible for the
crisis.
Deceit,
infidelity, narcissism, greed, power, corruption (including in
governmental agencies)... it's all here in the pages of this book. It
kind of reminded me of another book I read about the Stock Market Crash
in the 1980s called Den of Thieves.
At
18 hours, this audiobook was a commitment... but I say this honestly:
it never dragged for me. I was riveted. If you already have strong
feelings against Big Pharma, this book won't give you warm fuzzies.
"If
the true personality of oxycodone was misunderstood by America's
doctors, [Purdue] would not correct that misunderstanding; instead, they
would exploit it."
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