Over time, the repeated use of heroin causes a body to become dependent on the drug. In its absence, the
body starts experiencing withdrawal. It’s known as “dope sickness.”
“Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America” author Beth Macy was the guest
Monday as the Wood County District Public Library Foundation unveiled its new Foundation Series.
Macy spent more than an hour talking about her research into the history of opioid addiction and what
could be done for treating the affliction.
“In many ways I wish we didn’t have a reason to be here,” said Michael Penrod, library director, in
introducing her at the Performing Arts Center.
Macy is a Bowling Green State University journalism graduate and author of the bestsellers “Factory Man”
and “Truevine.” She is a former reporter for The Roanoke Times.
For “Dopesick,” her editor ordered her to “impose hope and order to a chaotic sad story.”
“There were moments I thought, it’s too hard. I could not do this,” she said.
Macy started reporting on the issue in 2012.
By 2015, the Center for Disease Control ranked communities where doctors prescribe the most opioids, and
a tiny town in Virginia was number one.
Where over-prescribing of opioids happens, there is a parallel rise in overdose deaths. Opioid
prescription and heroin addiction also go hand in hand, Macy said.
From private schools to coal mines, heroin usage is the offshoot of opioid prescriptions.
“Sweep it under the rug at your own peril,” Macy said.
In 1996 Purdue Pharma introduced a new drug – a time-released formulation of oxycodone, an opioid
painkiller. OyxContin, as the drug was called, was touted as having a low risk of addiction.
What happened, according to Macy, is users started to chew it, suck the coating off or smash it and snort
it.
The company recruited physicians and pharmacists to travel, touting the safety of OxyContin.
“They wanted you on that drug and they wanted you on it for a long time,” she said.
Purdue Pharma bought prescribing data and gave it to reps and told them to focus on depressed areas like
West Virginia where people had legitimate injuries, Macy said.
In 2007, it was found that Purdue Pharma had misbranded the drug, saying it was less addictive than it
was. The company was fined $634 million. Top executives never went to jail, and the case was sealed.
More lawsuits are pending.
The epidemic might have been stopped after the settlement, Macy said, but OxyContin sales actually
increased.
The company did reformulate the drug so that crushing it was no longer an option for getting high, Macy
said.
“But there were so many people addicted already.”
Macy started following Tess Henry in 2015. As a teenager, Henry got hooked after being prescribed
medicine with codeine.
By the end of the 30 days, after she finished her prescription, she was getting achy, with restless legs.

Henry was “dope sick.” She started getting OxyContin, and when that disappeared, she started buying
heroin, snorting it, then shooting it.
She bounced from rehab to outpatient programs, then became homeless.
Henry ended up in Las Vegas, prostituting herself for drug money. She would come home from time to time,
desperate to get clean again. Her family was pro-Alcohol Anonymous but opposed maintenance medications,
which is the best rehab for opioid users.
Henry was coming home for Christmas 2017 when her body was found in a dumpster in Las Vegas. She had been
murdered by a homeless, addicted man.
Because Henry’s treatment did not include maintenance medication, she had to turn to prostitution to get
the money for suboxone, which is used for treatment.
“We’re treating these people like trash,” Macy said.
Buprenorphine and suboxone are two of the drugs used for treatment of opiate dependence.
But many doctors thought “it was treating a drug with another drug.”
Macy described how treatment centers are now seeing a success with treating with these drugs. Many drug
courts haven’t allowed the medicine, but they too are changing as judges do their own research.
Thinking outside the box will lead to success, Macy said. Treatment of addiction requires lifesaving
medicine, like insulin is for diabetics.
“Changes are happening at the local level.”
A community in Tennessee tried to develop a non-profit Methadone center, but the townspeople were
opposed.
“You have to be willing to get your butt kicked,” Macy said about the fight to develop local treatment
centers.
At one meeting, someone asked how many chances they are supposed to give an addict.
“How many times should a sinner be forgiven? Should it be 7 times or 700 times?” asked the center
developer.
The answer was in Matthew 18:21-22.
“The answer is 70 times seven,” he said.
The methadone clinic opened, Macy said.
Stephanie McGuire-Wise, director of regional services for the Zepf Center in Bowling Green, appreciated
the message Macy shared about treatment. The Zepf Center deals with adult substance abuse as well as
those with mental health needs.
“I really appreciate everything she said about the urgency with which we need to address this problem. I
appreciate the fact we have to think outside the box … and work together,” McGuire-Wise said.
She pointed to the opiate task force in Wood County, which has law enforcement, judges and providers.
“We work together to try to provide those solutions,” she said.