Beth Macy’s “Dopesick” made waves in the world of opioid addiction, drawing a wide readership’s attention to the role of the Sackler family and their Purdue Pharma company in pushing and overprescribing the highly addictive painkiller Oxycontin. Last year “Dopesick” became a superb limited series on the streaming service Hulu; Macy was a writer and producer on the show, which picked up 14 Emmy nominations.

但过量的流行持续,梅西是“t finished. In her new book, “Raising Lazarus,” she turns her focus from the malfeasance of the Sacklers to the efforts of those butting up against state and local governments to fight the epidemic through harm reduction – providing clean needles, buprenorphine and naloxone (opioids used to treat opioid use disorder), shelter, and a supportive ear to addicts whose lives have been wrecked by opioids, many after being injured and getting prescriptions. She embeds with professionals and volunteers, many of whom have battled addiction themselves, all of whom face the Sisyphean task of getting addicts to embrace recovery, and the rest of the world to view addicts as human beings with an illness, not unlike cancer patients.

They’re fortunate to have Macy on their side. A reporter for the Roanoke (Va.) Times for 25 years, Macy knows Appalachia; she’s been a firsthand witness to the region’s triumphs and tragedies. She knows about dopesickness, which can otherwise be described as severe withdrawal. Without sacrificing the integrity and shoe-leather reporting of true journalism, she’s also an advocate who has now dedicated several years of her life to reducing overdose death, one story at a time.

In these pages we meet the Rev. Michelle Mathis of Hickory, N.C., who, as co-founder of Olive Branch Ministries, has helped provide needle exchanges, buprenorphine and hepatitis treatment in one of the most conservative parts of the country. There’s Nikki King of Kentucky, who balances her harm-reduction work with attending the funerals of her high school classmates. Many of the providers in “Raising Lazarus” operate out of the trunks of their cars or in fast-food parking lots, meeting the neediest where they live.

梅西tells these stories largely by ceding the stage to her subjects, addicts and workers alike. One of her strengths as a journalist is doing the reporting and then knowing when to get out of the way. “Raising Lazarus,” like “Dopesick,” never turns into “The Beth Macy Show.” The stories occasionally come a little fast and furious, making it difficult to tell one player from another, but everybody gets a say, even the Kiwanis Club president who suggests the overdosed be left to die so their organs can be harvested.

Meanwhile, the Sacklers lurk in the background, playing a bankruptcy shell game that allows them to squirrel away as much profit as possible. They’re hardly alone in their apathy toward the addicted; they’re just wealthier and more powerful than most. For everyone pushing, for instance, to provide treatment for addicted inmates, there’s someone else in the prison system decrying “hug a thug” measures. And so it goes. There’s still no end in sight for the opioid crisis, but as long as Macy remains on the job, we can count on compassionate dispatches from the front lines.

Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis
By Beth Macy
(Little, Brown; 373 pages; $30)