“Empire of Pain”: a book recommendation by Zoe Stawyskyj
“The best book I read over the Christmas break was Empire of Pain by Patrick Keefe. It was very interesting to read this book, which is broadly about the opium crisis, when driving past the poppy fields in Tasmania Australia and learning that 85% of the worlds poppies for legitimate opium production are grown there.
The book follows the life of the Sackler brothers and then their children. Arthur Sackler was one of the first people to market pharmaceuticals to doctors, amassing a personal fortune that he spent on a large Chinese art collection. But this money was bought with the aggressive marketing on, what is now known to be a highly addictive drug, Valium.
Not satisfied with this success and largely unconcerned about the negative effects of their actions the Sacklers’ went on to create and market oxycontin, an opioid that they claimed was not addictive. A claim that had no evidence when they made it and when evidence to the contrary came in, they actively ignored it (Why the Food and Drug Administration ever allowed the claim to be made is but one example of the corruption surrounding the Sacklers). The outcome – An opioid crisis which the United States is still very much in the grips of.
While the book barely touches on the effects of the opioid pandemic it is no less affecting. The reader is left with an incredible sense of the unfairness when the lives of individuals and their families are irreparably destroyed and those that appear to be responsible walk away with billions of dollars and no accountability. The book also reads as a brilliant justification for much of the world not having medical advertising and very much begs the question of why the United States still does.
Overall, this was an excellent book, very engagingly written, and deeply exploring what is a very important and devastating topic. I have no doubt that it will be one of the best books I will read this year.”
– Zoe Stawyskyj
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe was published in 2021.