2023-10-22 18:48:45
The explosion of fentanyl has filled the streets of the United States with ‘zombies’ waiting for their dose, but none of this would have happened if opioid consumption had not skyrocketed in the country before. The opioid crisis, which began two decades ago, is the main plot of ‘Roxy’, a thriller written by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman that has triumphed in North America. Father and son have just traveled to Spain to present this novel, published by Nocturna.
-How is it possible that the United States has suffered such a serious health crisis?
-Neal Shusterman: It all comes down to a system that has failed the people it was supposed to serve. People in pain get addicted to their painkillers, then insurance companies stop paying for them and they end up switching to heroin, because it’s the only thing they can get to kill the pain and satisfy the addiction.
Jarrod Shusterman: When there is a system that monetizes health, people become products and then victims. The goal of this novel is to point out the problem.
-What degree of responsibility do large pharmaceutical companies have? And the doctors?
-NS: Doctors want to relieve the pain of their patients, who trust that the medications they prescribe will help them. Yes, there are some unscrupulous doctors who abuse the system and prescribe irresponsibly, but they are not the majority. As for big pharma, by their very nature, they seek profit. But legitimate interest has been replaced by heartless greed. That is why there has to be transparency and regulation for these companies. Otherwise, we find laboratories like Purdue Pharma, which bribed doctors to prescribe their medications knowing that they were highly addictive. However, it is also important to remember that big pharmaceutical companies have obtained the covid vaccine in less than a year. They are like the dragons from Game of Thrones. They can serve the cause of good, but when they are domesticated.
-After opioids, the big current problem is fentanyl. How should governments and society deal with it?
-NS: Fentanyl is a nightmare. Buying it on the street is like putting a gun to your head, you never know if the gun is going to be loaded.
JS : Since fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and one hundred times stronger than morphine, it is very easy to overdose. If we make a sequel to this book, we already know who will be the main protagonist.
-Although the opioid crisis began in the 2000s, it seems that, until very recently, there has been a kind of silence that has not allowed us to know the reality.
-NS: It was not silence, but rather that society’s attention was elsewhere. Drug addiction is a problem that has existed for thousands of years, only the substance changes. Opioids, like all medications, had, and continue to have, one purpose: to help people in extreme pain. They were abused, but no more than any other drug, until slow-release drugs like Oxycontin came on the market, making it much easier to become addicted. This, together with aggressive marketing campaigns, turned a worrying situation into a crisis.
JS : People find it hard to believe that it can happen to them. However, it is a drug that causes healthy people to become addicted. Maybe we talk less about them because a doctor prescribes them.
-Are young Americans aware of the problems caused by opioids or fentanyl?
-NS Not enough. That is why we have written this novel.
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