My new book The Friends and Family Guide to the Opioid Overdose Epidemic: Including How to Recognize and Treat an Overdose is going to be released on August 26, 2025 .
In 2021 Johns Hopkins University Press published my last book, Killing Season: A Paramedic’s Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic. It was selected by Amazon as one of the best books of the month, and described my journey from a medic who believed people who used drugs had a character flaw that was going to end them up in jail or dead if they didn’t stop using to someone who came to understand that addiction is a chronic brain disease and harm reduction and empathy can accomplish much more than harsh lectures. Over time, as the overdoses increased, I tried to understand what was going on. I studied books, scientific journals and talked to experts, but it wasn’t until I started asking my patients how they ended up using drugs in the first place that I came to understand that these people who I had labeled as junkies and addicts were regular people like you or me, who through a doctor’s prescription or innocent experimentation were sent spiraling down paths they could not have imagined and which were nearly impossible to extricate themselves from. I began talking to patients, their families and friends on scene about what I had learned and how my views had changed. I preached harm reduction and taught people where to get naloxone and how to use it. I explained the science of addiction, discussed treatment options and told them that relapse was often expected, the journey was long. My editor at Johns Hopkins suggested I write a new book about the epidemic, a guidebook for families and friends, and so the project was born.
The book has ten chapters.
Chapter 1 Overdose: Who Is at Risk
Chapter 2 How to Recognize Overdose
Chapter 3 Naloxone
Chapter 4 911 and Beyond
Chapter 5 Fentanyl: The Present Danger
Chapter 6 Why People Use Drugs and the Science of Addiction
Chapter 7 Treatment and Recovery
Chapter 8 Harm Reduction: Keeping People Alive
Chapter 9 The Harms of Stigma
Chapter 10 Ending The War on People/Hope for the Future
In between each chapter is a street scene to remind readers that these are real people who are struggling, that the crisis is still critical and the end is not in sight. It also includes a glossary, 12 lessons from the book and a 6-point plan to ending the epidemic.
This week, I received a box of advance copies that I have begun distributing to some of the people who have helped me understand the crisis and who I have worked closely with over the years on various committees and panels, and out on the streets.
The book can be purchased from Amazon or directly from the Johns Hopkins University Press.