Book Review

摘要

They all start the same: Americana is dying. Immediately, Macy, Meier and Westhoff tell us, the readers, that this is a tragedy. It has characters, heroes and villains that must be vanquished. Who the villains are, though, varies. Furthermore, how they must be vanquished is left as an open-ended question. Taken together, these three books follow a common narrative of an evil corporation, an unsuspecting population and the ravages of addiction. However, an uncommon thread is who the true villain of the narrative is. Are the villains doctors, the pharmaceutical industry, capitalism or the chemists who created synthetic versions of opioids that have overshadowed what was once a crisis of over-prescription? Further, is focusing on the nuances of villainy the key to explaining the crisis? Not necessarily, though the differences in villainy may indicate why it has been so hard for policy makers, and even the authors of these books, to come to terms with what ought to be done.