Law and Addiction by Mike Papantonio

It isn’t often that you recommend a fictional novel as being important but I do so recommend this as being important.   I read Dreamland last fall which was non-fiction focusing on the opioid crisis.   Papantonio’s novel is a fictional book on the same crisis but based on what I have learned since reading Dreamland, this novel is thinly disguised reality.   Dreamland also gave me the impetus to do some research into the pill mills.  

Jake and Blake are twins.   Blake stayed home in West Virginia where his life took a turn for the worse.   Jake finished college and became an attorney.   Jake becomes motivated to discover how billions of legal opioids ended up hooking millions of legitimate and illegitimate users.   This story is right out of today’s news.   Narcan (NARCAN® (naloxone)) has now become part of contemporary society.   School nurses, local cops, fireman, colleges and churches are stocking Narcan due to the epidemic.  Even out here in the affluent burbs, there are obits weekly on opioid overdoses.

Papantonio presents much of the factual information found in Dreamland but in a fictional manner that his bound to capture more readers.   Novels sell better than history books and Papantonio makes it easy to learn about the crisis.   As a former counselor who had some real-life experience with drug abuse, I did not see a single thing in this book that wasn’t accurate, frighteningly accurate.

This was not a fun read but a very worthwhile read.

I highly recommend it.

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.