[Music]
earlier this fall we started our daytime
book club series where we recommend a
new book each month an October's book
has been dopesick by local author Beth
Maisie yeah joining us to talk about the
book is Marisa Blankenship from the
Roanoke public libraries welcome Anne
thank you for having me back
so tell our viewers a little bit about
dumpsite sure so dopesick is a book
about the opioid crisis by local author
beth macy and a lot of it focuses on
Southwest Virginia and families that
have been struggling with addiction in
South West Virginia but she also goes
through the history of how this crisis
came to be over the last 20 years and
then explains the medical effects of
these drugs and then the struggle to
recover yeah I mean did you enjoy
tension interesting book because I
didn't know how much it had to do with
Southwest it was yeah it was a kind of
shocking yeah exactly and really really
sad and and you bring this up that Beth
Macy talks about the aggressive
marketing mmm-hmm practices of how
intentionally oxycontin was marketed to
like really depressed areas including
like Wise County in areas where people
were being laid off they didn't have a
job it was just so sad to me it's
horrible
yeah they even looked at the data of
which doctors were already prescribing
the most pain killers which is she says
happens to be in communities where
people are doing more physical work and
have more pain issues and then targeted
those doctors was really insane things
like cruises are paying for kids
birthday parties or just right it was
just so so intentionally marketed and
then the drug turned out to be
incredibly addictive and not at all low
risk like they thought right right and
even knowing the impact that it's having
on families but like they're making so
much money off of it right then it's
just I mean just really it's very sad
yeah it's terrible I mean family's lives
are being completely destroyed and she
does such a good job of telling the
stories of local families I mean we know
or know of these places of the people
that she talks about and just to see how
shattered these lives have been while
while drug companies and drug dealers
are making enormous amounts of money
it's just horrible
right and yeah like you
normal families I mean we're talking
about right in our backyard yep family
is that she mentions and from affluent
areas yeah you know you know they may
have targeted really poor and rural
communities but it ended up being a
terrible heroin yeah problem right right
in like really nice neighborhoods right
here in Roanoke yeah it's it's really
interesting because she explains that
this drug crisis kind of started the
opposite way from how most crises start
you know in cities and then fan out that
started in rural communities then became
you know pills that kids in our
neighborhoods are taking and then once
you're addicted to to the pills you need
more so then you go to heroin and then
you go to the synthetics right it's it's
everywhere right and it's just it at one
time it takes you doing you know one
time yep yeah and you're addicted it
yeah it it was crazy just how local it
was and because I mean I'm from New
Mexico there's no drug problem there as
well and I you know just hearing the
stories that are from here and seeing
the families that it affected here and
then you know seeing the people who will
go locally to talk with people who are
going through something that they might
have gone through that's like the one
part where you're like oh well at least
I guess these people can connect but
mostly this one was a sad one right yeah
and it ended on a on a sad note it's
very sad do you think that was very
purposeful on Beth Macy's part I think
so I think she you know she had a a very
local source and a family that she
became quite close to and and she
follows one woman who was really
struggling with addiction through the
course of her life and ultimately the
end of her life
and I think what's so heartbreaking
about this story is you know what not
only what happened to this woman but
that this is happening all over the
country I think she says in the book
something like over 2 million Americans
are addicted right now so this isn't
this is hyperlocal for us but it can
also apply to everywhere in the country
I think as much as it's a hard read I
think it's an important reader so that
people can be very aware of how
prevalent the problem is yeah I had no
idea how widespread it was you know to
read about local neighborhoods that you
wouldn't
expect there to be a heroin problem it
was just really eye-opening yes yeah and
I thought that was really interesting
how she one of the characters that she
follows you know his his advice to
parents was getting rid of all of your
pain medicine in your medicine cabinet I
thought that was really a good piece of
advice and that's how it starts
yeah that's so why yeah okay so we can
go to the library and check this
absolute or go to your local bookstore
and get it we highly recommend it thank
you so much for being here thank you for
having