A Nun, a Doctor and a Lawyer -- and Deep Regret Over the Nation's Handling of Opioids
PENNINGTON GAP, Va. — Years before there was an opioid epidemic in America, Sister Beth Davies knew it was coming.
In the late 1990s, patient after patient addicted to a new prescription painkiller called OxyContin began walking into the substance abuse clinic she ran in this worn Appalachian town. A local physician, Dr. Art Van Zee, sensed the gathering storm, too, as teenagers overdosed on the drug. His wife, Sue Ella Kobak, a lawyer, saw the danger signs in a growing wave of robberies and other crimes that all had links to OxyContin.
The Catholic nun, the doctor and the lawyer were among the first in the country to sound an alarm about the misuse of prescription opioids, the beginnings of a cycle of addiction that would kill 400,000 people in the ensuing two decades as it spread to illegal opioids like heroin and counterfeit versions of fentanyl. They led a burst of local activism against Purdue Pharma, OxyContin’s maker, that the company ultimately crushed. It would eventually help kindle national awareness that led to a wave of legal actions that are still awaiting resolution.
Today, two decades later, their experience, and their continued work with people struggling with addiction, illustrates the national failure to contain an epidemic that not only continues but also has grown more complex.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/18/health/opioids-purdue-pennington-gap.html