--- title: The Public Is Angry About the Opioid Crisis. We Must Listen description: A conversation with Chris McGreal, author of "American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts," about preventing the next opioid crisis canonical: https://time.com/5525205/opioid-crisis-american-overdose-book/ author: Paul Moakley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-08T20:31:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:22:14.552Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Public Is Angry About the Opioid Crisis. We Need to Listen og:description: They consider it a betrayal, says Chris McGeal, author of "American Overdose" og:url: https://time.com/5525205/opioid-crisis-american-overdose-book/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfeb6c651f9698adc/698944d209208fbec74134c3/opioid-crisis-book-anger-medical-pharmaceutical-companies-pharma.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Opioid crisis protestors og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Public Is Angry About the Opioid Crisis. We Need to Listen twitter:description: They consider it a betrayal, says Chris McGeal, author of "American Overdose" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfeb6c651f9698adc/698944d209208fbec74134c3/opioid-crisis-book-anger-medical-pharmaceutical-companies-pharma.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Public Is Angry About the Opioid Crisis. We Need to Listen > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=ca113d98-cf15-4294-891f-f6cfde166c80&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Ideas: How Drug Companies Pushed Opioids on America [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Ideas: How Drug Companies Pushed Opioids on America](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ILWpfO2Z.m3u8) (3:10)  _Published 2019-01-17. Chris McGreal, author of "American Overdose," told TIME how the American opioid epidemic is a result of corporate greed._  by [Paul Moakley](https://time.com/author/paul-moakley/)  ## Paul Moakley Feb 8, 2019 8:31 PM UTC  by [Paul Moakley](https://time.com/author/paul-moakley/)  ## Paul Moakley Feb 8, 2019 8:31 PM UTC Chris McGreal, a veteran reporter for the _Guardian_, explores in his recent book [_American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1610398610/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1610398610&linkId=fc4615ae9d96f2ebf30dddc407b1866e) how many Americans have been left feeling enraged by the people who caused the ongoing [opioid crisis](http://time.com/5168385/macklemore-compassion-rehab-opioid-crisis/). “They’re very angry at what they consider betrayal,” McGreal tells TIME. “Betrayal by the medical profession for having given them these drugs without the warnings of what might follow. Anger at the companies that marketed them. Anger at the [government](http://time.com/5351906/opioid-prescriptions-sprained-ankles/) for ignoring them for a very long time whilst their communities were devastated.” The list continues of institutions that either didn’t appreciate the [impact](http://time.com/4211759/white-house-opioids-tom-vilsack/) that opioids were having on American society, or didn’t act soon enough as the problem emerged. Joining books like [_Dreamland_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1620402521/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1620402521&linkId=f995669c3a2c1c14fc765834fb23d715) by Sam Quinones, [_Pain Killer_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525511105/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0525511105&linkId=f8dc7098638c8ad8b9c64495731b296b) by [Barry Meier](http://time.com/5311359/purdue-pharma-oxycontin-lawsuit-opioid-crisis/) and [_Dopesick_ ](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316551309/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0316551309&linkId=a767d5da38480ea8c43bcf1299bd3cdc)by Beth Macy, _American Overdose_ investigates how the opioid epidemic grew for over 20 years and looks for the systemic [causes](http://time.com/5015103/compassion-is-missing-from-the-opioid-crisis-conversation/) through the voices of the leading experts fighting back. McGreal says the book is “a warning of what happens when you allow money to control medical policy, instead of doctors.” While the warning may be too late for this crisis, it may help prevent [future](http://time.com/5000130/opioid-crisis-suicide/) epidemics — if we learn the right lessons. McGreal has concerns, though, about how some in the medical industry are now finding new ways to aid and profit from recovery. Some unqualified rehabilitation centers are exploiting the surge in those needing opioid addiction treatment, but aren’t providing evidence-based [therapies](http://time.com/money/longform/parents-opioid-addiction-money-cost/). He also worries that policymakers may be leaning too heavily on medically assisted [treatments](http://time.com/5313857/methadone-babies-opioids/) — medications designed to wean addicts off opioids — without providing addicts the support they need to properly use the medications to conquer their addiction. Given how little the government is investing in helping people, McGreal worries that a whole new problem could develop. “There seems to be a body of opinion building up that \[medically assisted treatments\] actually are much more effective than simply an abstinence-based 12-Step program,” he says. “But that takes resources, right? If you’re going to be giving people who are caught in addiction more drugs, it’s got to be a very carefully controlled and very carefully monitored thing.” For McGreal, the solutions lie within the creation of new health care [policies](http://time.com/5299363/opioids-young-adults-deaths/) created by doctors and not business that are profiting. Today, he says, “the medical industry controls health policy.” ## Transcript 85 % of the world's presrciption opioids are consumed in the United States, which is 5 % of the world's population. And you think how does one country come to be so dependent on these drugs? It is not that the United States has 85 % of the world's pain. Health in this country Is an industry, it's a medical industry. In most other countries, it's a public health service. There's money to be made. [ MUSIC ] I started this story really where the epidemic begins, which is in that little part of Upper Asia where these drugs first take off. In a lot of these communities, people are already using low level opioids. And then this drug comes along called Oxycontin. And it's 10, 15, 20 times the power of the origin drugs. This drug is so throughout the country but targeting these marginalized communities. And by sales force by Purdue Pharma that went out with essentially junk science. They pushed papers across to doctors making claims about addictiveness and they persuaded the Food and Drug Administration to endorse those claims on the label of The pills and these drugs spread very, very quickly. The demand for them rises because firstly they're seen as more effective. But also the circle of people who become dependent and then addicted to them widens very, very quickly. And people want more and more of them. And the drug companies are willing to sell them more and more. And one of the myths that was sold along with all of this was there was no upper limit to taking these drugs. That you Wouldn't become addicted, provided you're in pain. These drugs, which I repeat, are our best, strongest pain medications, should be used much more than they are for patients in pain. People kept taking escalating doses for what they thought was dealing with pain. But, in fact, it was withdrawal symptoms, if they'd cut back. And this created a massive market. By 2012, you have doctors in this country writing 250 million prescriptions a year for opioid pain medicines, which is effectively one for every adult in the country. We're 20 years into this epidemic, and there are now A lot of lawsuits, particularly, by states attorney generals and individual cities against both the drug makers, and the drug distributors, and in some cases, the pharmacy, and even the doctors. There's plenty of doctors that have been locked up, but there hasn't been a single executive, not a single one, has gone to prison for this. The US still prescribes at three, four, five times the rate of most European countries, for instance. So if you're not gonna have another generation who are open to addiction, there's gotta be a much tighter grip on prescribing. And there are people who genuinely need these drugs, but they're not 190 million people in a country of 360 million people. 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