Hot Topics: Opioid Crisis: Social Aspects

Contents: Introduction: A prescription for misuse, loss, and destruction -- The new American drug epidemic? -- A pill to cure the pain -- The middle class prescription medication misuse and diseases of despair -- Policy prescriptions -- Death and destruction, hope and resilience.
Description: "The Prescription Drug Problem analyzes the growth of the prescription drug abuse problem from 1994 to 2014 and includes comparisons to marijuana and hard drug use during the same period. Specific attention is given to prescription opiate abuse and the transition from prescription opiates to heroin.

Description: Prologue -- Part one. The People v. Purdue. The United States of Amnesia -- Swag 'n' dash -- Message board memorial -- "The corporation feels no pain" -- Part two. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear. Suburban sprawl -- "Like shooting Jesus" -- FUBI -- "Shit don't stop" -- Part three. "A broken system". Whac-a-mole -- Liminality -- Hope on a spreadsheet -- "Brother, wrong or right" -- Outcasts and inroads -- Epilogue : Soldier's disease.
"Through unsparing, yet deeply human portraits of the families and first responders struggling to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus."

Table of Contents: It started with a pill : a single irresponsible prescription initiated the perfect storm of my addiction -- Too sick to get well : from Barack Obama to black tar heroin, the double life I led was killing me -- Not anonymous : how the misinterpretation of "anonymity" perpetuates the stigma of recovery -- "We save lives" : the big lie treatment centers sell to desperate people and their families -- One nation, overdosed: our real problem isn't political differences, it's Big Pharma and its addiction to profits -- End the war on drug users : how America can recover from decades of prejudice, injustice, and ignorance -- Dirty words : the way America talks about addiction directly affects whether we'll stay sick or recover -- Beyond the needle : harm reduction saves lives. We have to get over our prejudice against people who need help -- Across America : my road trip through America's drug epidemic changed me forever -- Rise up : either America changes, or we change America.

"The prescription drug business -- The selling of Attention Deficit Disorder / When the mailman unwittingly becomes a drug dealer / Alison's story: how $750,000 in drug "treatment" destroyed her life / Drug-company payments mirror doctors' brand-name prescribing / Opioid Rx abuse probe sees a record 31 doctors hit with sanctions in New Jersey / Treatment and wellness -- A primary care doctor delves into the opioid epidemic / The doctors who started the opioid epidemic / The painkillers that could end the opioid crisis / How medical marijuana could help end the opioid epidemic / What's really causing the prescription drug crisis? / After medical marijuana legalized, Medicare prescriptions drop for many drugs / The policy approach: restricting supply and legalizing treatment -- Researchers use black-market drug website to gauge public health / Are pharmaceutical companies to blame for the opioid epidemic? / Ohio sues five drugmakers, saying they fueled opioid crisis / Congress probes West Virginia opioid shipments / States require opioid prescribers to check for "doctor shopping"

Description: "Setting the scene. Introduction -- A view of rights and wrongs. Creating a medicine : why, how and how not -- Safe, unsafe and improper manufacturing practices -- Aggressive or misleading promotion -- The dark art of manipulation : the industry and its puppets -- Corruption, counterfeiting and fraud --Pricing, monopolies, abuses and the law -- Transforming the way ahead. A criminological perspective on a worsening crisis -- Positive regulation : the complementary role of supports and sanctions -- A responsive criminal law of pharmaceuticals -- Privatizing enforcement -- A new capitalism : a new drug diplomacy. "

"This book reviews the use of medicines such as methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone and clonidine in combination with psychosocial support in the treatment of people dependent on heroin or other opioids. Based on systematic reviews of the literature and using the GRADE approach to determining evidence quality, the guidelines contain specific recommendations on the range of issues faced in organizing treatment systems, managing treatment programmes and in treating people dependent on opioids."