American Overdose

A former head of the Food and Drug Administration has called the deadliest drug crisis in American history "one of the greatest mistakes of modern medicine." But, as Chris McGreal reveals in this sweeping investigation, the epidemic is the product of many actors from many sectors, and the current crisis is not a mistake but an outcome that could have been avoided.

In American Overdose, McGreal uncovers the three main drivers of the crisis: the doctors who distorted research to promote opioids; Big Pharma's hijacking of the healthcare system, the FDA, and Congress; and drug cartels' exploitation of addicted communities that were ready to buy street-drug equivalents when prescriptions ran dry.

McGreal travels to towns flooded with millions of painkillers and...