Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death

My son died from an accidental overdose of OxyContin and alcohol two months ago (March 17, 2012) in New Berlin, Wisconsin.I then discovered this book, wanting to know more about OxyContin and who was behind it (the "back story").Although I obviously wish I had never acquired such an interest in the subject, I found the book very enlightening. Rather than go on and on here about it, I will point you to the blog I've created about this problem:[...]Blog entries/posts #4-6 and 8-11 contain excerpts from the book and "annotations" or comments by me in response to those excerpts.

Myself being an abuser of OxyContin back in 2001, which eventually led to heroin addiction due to many pharmacy burglaries and stick-ups, the drug started to get a bad rap, and doctors took people off of it and the cost became insane, up to $0.75 a mg. I can honestly say that about 95% of the addicts I have encountered during my addiction started w/ OxyContin, then moved on to much cheaper, and more readily available, heroin. On the other hand, I understand that it is a wonder drug for people in end-stage cancer, and other very painful conditions, and I don't think it should be taken off the market. However, when my friends and I raided my parents medicine cabinet (my dad was prescribed 40mg of OxyContin for laparscopic surgery on his knee, which is the equivalent of EIGHT Percocets.) When I read this book, I was shocked to see how much money Purdue Pharma put into marketing this drug. Offering free cruises and cash incentives to MD's who wrote a lot of prescriptions, and touting it as a 'wonder drug' for moderate to severe pain patients. The only difference between it and Percocets is that Percocets have to be taken every 4 hours or so, Oxycontin every 12. Also, there are no additives to OxyContin other than the wax filler, the pills are pure Oxycodone, no Acetaminophen or Aspirin (which is good for people with allergies or sensitive stomachs, or chronic pain patients who are prescribed to take 3-4 Percocets every 4-6 hours, eventually the high volume of APAP is going to wreak havok on your liver.) But as you do in every profession, shady doctors over-prescribed the drug (I had a friend who broke her tailbone, a doctor prescribed her 240 40mg Oxys. The normal amount would be 60. She was not addicted beforehand, but she quickly became addicted) Doctors also prescribed for sexual favors, a certain doctor was about to be indicted recently, and he fled to the Dominican Republic, leaving his wife and children behind. Real nice guy. Luckily, I got clean May 10th of 2003, and have been clean since. Anyway, back to the book. it was a somewhat confusing read. Meier jumped around from the girl Lindsay's story of OC addiction in Western VA, to how PP marketed the drug to doctors, and to other stuff. Some of it was so repetitive, the book could have been condensed to 1/3 of the size. When reading this book, I recommend trying to finish it within a few days, if you leave it lying around for a while, you'll forget what's going on, because you just get bombarded with information and study facts and numbers. All in all, it's an OK book, but my mother and I would never have read it had I not gotten addicted to them.

Well written book detailing how opiate medication became a problem for so many people and their families. If you are interested in this topic, also read Dreamland, by Sam Quinones, another well reasearched and well written book about the opiate addiction epidemic occurring affecting so many people

Pain Killer is an interesting book in that it describes the circumstances surrounding the rise in Oxycontin abuse, particularly among America's rural poor, but it tends to be a bit one-sided and heavy handed in casting Purdue and its employees as heartless villians in this story. There can be no doubt that Oxy abuse has led to heartbreak for addicts and their families all across this country. And Purdue probably did emphasize too much its use for the treatment of moderate pain that would be just as well treated by other drugs with less potential for abuse.But at the same time, this book practically ignores the countless numbers of patients whose intractable suffering has been eased by proper use of Oxycontin. Their stories are not told, their voices are silent, their suffering is unacknowledged. As much sympathy as I have for the addicts in this book, I would venture to say that the large majority of them never had to get involved with snorting or shooting up Oxy. But chronic pain suffers and those in the end stages of terminal diseases don't have the option of saying no to pain. I'd bet if you talked to them, Purdue and its employees are heroes, not villians. I would have liked to have heard some of their stories.My other dissatisfaction with this book is that basically it is little better than an Atlantic or Harper's magazine article padded out to book length (with a larger font and lots of white space to increase the page count). There is a lot of repetitive info in here, and many times, the chronology of events gets a bit confusing. Sometimes, I had the feeling I was just re-reading the same 40 or so pages over and over. At some points, I just skimmed.The story of Oxycontin and its abuse is definitely a cautionary tale, but I would have liked to have had both sides of the story.

This book was informative and interesting. It arrived on time and in great shape. I learned a lot from reading it. I reccomed it to all who are taking RX pain relievers.

I got this book as gift for someone who is struggling with addiction to pain medication. Shipping was very prompt. Very pleased with purchase.

GreaT book, I am a pharmacology connoisseur and this was a fascinating look at the history of Pfizer, among other issues related to the Oxycontin craze. Read it in one day.

This book is a good overview of the brief history of the US Pain market over the last 20 years and the contributions of one company called Purdue Pharma in their mis-managed marketing attempts to mislead the FDA and American public about addiction and risk when a Pain drug becomes popularized for recreational use. Well written and intensely sad in parts.