
Prescription for Pain
How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the "Pill Mill Killer"
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Narrated by:
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Mike Lenz
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By:
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Philip Eil
About this listen
This haunting and propulsive debut follows a journalist's years-long investigation into his father's old classmate: former high school valedictorian Paul Volkman, who seemed destined for greatness after earning his MD and PhD from the prestigious University of Chicago, but is now serving four consecutive life sentences at a federal prison in Arizona.
Volkman was the central figure in a massive "pill mill" scheme in southern Ohio. His pain clinics accepted only cash, employed armed guards, and dispensed a torrent of opioid painkillers and other controlled substances. For nearly three years, Volkman remained in business despite raids by law enforcement and complaints from patients' family members. Prosecutors would ultimately link him to the overdose deaths of thirteen patients, though investigators explored his ties to at least twenty other deaths.
This groundbreaking book is based on twelve years of correspondence and interviews with Volkman. Eil also traveled to nineteen states, interviewed more than 150 people, and filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the DEA that led to the release of nearly 20,000 pages of trial evidence. The American opioid epidemic is, like this book, a true crime story. Through this one doctor's story, an era of unfathomable tragedy is brought down to a tangible, and devastating, human scale.
©2024 Philip Eil (P)2024 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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The BEST BOOK I’VE EVER READ/LISTENED TO.
- By Vanessa on 03-06-25
By: Sweta Patel, and others
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American Overdose
- The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts
- By: Chris McGreal
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The opioid epidemic has been described as "one of the greatest mistakes of modern medicine." But calling it a mistake is a generous rewriting of the history of greed, corruption, and indifference that pushed the US into consuming more than 80 percent of the world's opioid painkillers. Journeying through lives and communities wrecked by the epidemic, Chris McGreal reveals not only how Big Pharma hooked Americans on powerfully addictive drugs but the corrupting of medicine and public institutions that let the opioid makers get away with it.
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An important read
- By Macmom4 on 02-18-19
By: Chris McGreal
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The Devil at His Elbow
- Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty
- By: Valerie Bauerlein
- Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed, Valerie Bauerlein
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Power, privilege, and blood—this is the definitive and thrilling true story of Alex Murdaugh’s violent downfall, from a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter who has become an authority on the case. Through masterful research and cinematic writing, The Devil at His Elbow is a transporting journey through Alex’s life, the night of the murders, and the investigation that culminated in a trial that held tens of millions spellbound. With her stunning insights and fearless instinct for the truth, Bauerlein uncovers layers of the Murdaugh murder case that have not been told.
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Poisoned by woke
- By Amazon Customer on 12-20-24
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Uptown Girl
- A Memoir
- By: Christie Brinkley
- Narrated by: Christie Brinkley
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1974, a twenty-year-old Christie Brinkley was “discovered” outside a Paris phone booth, which set off a meteoric modeling career that would land her on the covers of hundreds of magazines and cement her legacy as an All-American icon. Although she’s lived more than fifty years in the public eye, the full story of her roller-coaster life has never been told. Now, for the first time, Christie shares what life has been like, both in front of and behind the cameras
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Empowering Passionate Romanticizing Beauty
- By Christine on 05-04-25
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The Mother Next Door
- Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy
- By: Andrea Dunlop, Mike Weber
- Narrated by: Andrea Dunlop
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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No bond is more sacred than the one between a mother and child. And no figure is more sympathetic than a mother whose child faces a life-threatening illness. But what if the mother is the reason for the illness? What if the sympathy is the point? With help from some of the top MBP experts in the world, Dunlop and Weber uncover the complex maze of psychological, systemic, and cultural issues that compound MBP and offer solutions for how we might find our way out.
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Important and Fascinating Book
- By Anonymous User on 05-20-25
By: Andrea Dunlop, and others
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The Many Lives of Mama Love
- A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing
- By: Lara Love Hardin
- Narrated by: Lara Love Hardin
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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No one expects the police to knock on the door of the million-dollar two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors’ credit cards. Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She finds that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies. But Lara quickly learns the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates.
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Well written and great story
- By A. Champ on 09-02-23
By: Lara Love Hardin
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Say Everything
- A Memoir
- By: Ione Skye
- Narrated by: Ione Skye
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Gen X icon Ione Skye bares all in an achingly vulnerable coming-of-age memoir about chasing fame, desire, and true love in the shadow of her famous, absent father.
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Meh.
- By Julie Wright on 03-26-25
By: Ione Skye
Incredibly interesting story of a medical career gone so wrong
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A well-done, thorough account
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Mind blowing and comprehensive
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Unique insight inside the mind of a deadly doctor
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What stands out most is how he honors those that died in the end. Medication marketed to relieve suffering brought so much!
I look forward to the authors next book.
In depth and touching.
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This Book is Fabulous
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Narration was perfect.
The information gathered
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