What to read to understand America’s opioid epidemic

MORE THAN 600,000 Americans and Canadians have died of an opioid overdose since 1999. Modelling suggests that 1.2m more could die by the end of this decade. For more than a quarter of a century Americans of all classes have watched friends, relatives and coworkers succumb to and, sometimes, overcome addiction to opioids. During that time the epidemic has mutated. First, there were pills. Doctors prescribed OxyContin and other opioids to patients to treat moderate and severe pain, often irresponsibly. When pills became too expensive and Oxy was reformulated to make it harder to crush, some addicts switched to heroin, then eventually to fentanyl, a much stronger synthetic opioid. No part of America has been spared. This list includes five books and one television series about the legal drug industry that initiated the epidemic, the criminal organisations that took advantage of it, the devastation of entire communities and the remarkable people who are rebuilding them.

Empire of Pain. By Patrick Radden Keefe. Doubleday; 560 pages; $32.50. Picador; £20