Every year, The New York Public Library gives the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism to a journalist whose work brings clarity and public attention to important issues, events, or policies. As a member of the Library Review Committee, it’s my privilege to survey the landscape of published investigative journalism, as well as introduce one of this year’s finalists, Dopesick by Beth Macy.

Dopesick is a searing investigation of America’s opioid crisis, in which Macy confronts a pervasive, systemic challenge to American drug treatment and traces it back to a single source of culpability: the creation and marketing of OxyContin by pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma.

Macy grounds her reporting in the lives of those most affected: users of opioids and their families. As a reporter for the Roanoke Times, she spent over two decades speaking with communities throughout southwestern Virginia and documenting the drug's escalation from OxyContin prescriptions to the cheaper, more readily-available heroin.

Far from erupting overnight into a national epidemic, OxyContin’s abuse grew inexorably and insidiously, as warnings from local doctors were drowned out by specious studies, irresponsible overprescription, and aggressive marketing for the lucrative ‘pain management’ industry. Beyond these institutional factors, Macy emphasizes the consequences of stigmatizing drug use. By characterizing those dependent on opioids as junkies lacking willpower, we shroud such addiction in a silence that creates fertile ground for its pervasive spread. The stigma of addiction prevented us from recognizing the opioid threat until it became a crisis and jeopardizes its effective treatment. Perhaps Macy’s greatest achievement in Dopesick is putting a deeply human face to the headlines, showing how this stigma is contrary to both science and human empathy.

Want to delve deeper? Browse other books authored by Beth Macy and listen to her interview on NPR's Fresh Air. Plus, learn about the other Bernstein Awards finalists for 2019.
 

More about the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism

The Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism was established by The New York Public Library in 1987 in honor of journalist Helen Bernstein Fealy. Each year, finalists are selected by a nine-member Library Review Committee. Winners are then chosen by a separate Bernstein Selection Committee. Eligible books are published in calendar year 2018 and the author must be currently working as a journalist, or someone who has worked in journalism for a significant portion of his or her career, whether as a reporter or commentator in newspapers, magazines, or broadcasting, i.e. print, broadcast, or online journalism. The book's subject matter must be journalistic in nature, with potential for influencing public opinion or policy, and draws public attention to important current issues or events of global/national significance.