Tzipora’s Reviews > Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty > Status Update

Ran out of room for my rant but seriously. No. Addiction and dependence aren’t the same. And quoting a woman you just told us was crushing and snorting hers is not exactly the best source. This is where I take a fuck ton of issues with how the general public is being talked to and then talking about the “opiate epidemic”. How about we also discuss how many patients are committing suicide- or not being counted but something I’ve seen including with a close friend of mine- people living meaningful lives with extreme and severe life limiting illnesses being refused pain management who maybe aren’t literally committing suicide but choosing to end life sustaining treatment or not treat treatable life threatening infections and making those choices for no other reason than the lack of pain meds and pain management. Please don’t take this book as the end all be all on the opiate problem. And regardless of how scummy the Sacklers are, so is the US governments response to the problem. A response that’s made the lives of countless very sick people (even dying people are being refused opiates!) so much worse and done little to prevent, target, or treat actual addiction. There is so much more wrong here than just Purdue Pharma, Ocycontin (or Fentanyl, not a Sackler drug), and the Sackler family.