Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, journalist Beth Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother's question--why her only son died--and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. The...

Discusses heroine addiction, its treatment with methadone maintenance and alternatives, and other aspects of modern drug abuse.

Folks are dying as fast as the ash trees in the southern Indiana town ravaged by heroin where Jaycee Givens lives. With her mother in prison, Jaycee is carrying grief and an unplanned pregnancy she conceals because she trusts no one. Dividing her time between the diner where she works and her quirky neighbor Sudie's place, Jaycee nurses a broken heart among a collection of unlikely friends. But eventually, she realizes she can't hide her pregnancy...