DOC The Jesuits: Cultures; Sciences; and the Arts; 1540-1773 by From University of Toronto Press in History

Description

* Finalist for the Edgar® Award in Best Fact Crime * New York Post; “The Post’s Favorite Books of 2015” * Suspense Magazine’s “Best True Crime Books of 2015”* Finalist for Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year in True Crime * Publishers Weekly; Big Indie Book of Fall 2015The king of the Florida pill mills was American Pain; a mega-clinic expressly created to serve addicts posing as patients. From a fortress-like former bank building; American Pain’s doctors distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to hundreds of customers a day; mostly traffickers and addicts who came by the vanload. Inked muscle-heads ran the clinic’s security. Former strippers operated the pharmacy; counting out pills and stashing cash in garbage bags. Under their lab coats; the doctors carried guns—and it was all legal… sort of.American Pain was the brainchild of Chris George; a 27-year-old convicted drug felon. The son of a South Florida home builder; Chris George grew up in ultra-rich Wellington; where Bill Gates; Springsteen; and Madonna kept houses. Thick-necked from weightlifting; he and his twin brother hung out with mobsters; invested in strip clubs; brawled with cops; and grinned for their mug shots. After the housing market stalled; a local doctor clued in the brothers to the burgeoning underground market for lightly regulated prescription painkillers. In Florida; pain clinics could dispense the meds; and no one tracked the patients. Seizing the opportunity; Chris George teamed up with the doctor; and word got out. Just two years later Chris had raked in $40 million; and 90 percent of the pills his doctors prescribed flowed north to feed the rest of the country’s insatiable narcotics addiction. Meanwhile; hundreds more pain clinics in the mold of American Pain had popped up in the Sunshine State; creating a gigantic new drug industry.American Pain chronicles the rise and fall of this game-changing pill mill; and how it helped tip the nation into its current opioid crisis; the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. The narrative swings back and forth between Florida and Kentucky; and is populated by a gaudy and diverse cast of characters. This includes the incongruous band of wealthy bad boys; thugs and esteemed physicians who built American Pain; as well as penniless Kentucky clans who transformed themselves into painkiller trafficking rings. It includes addicts whose lives were devastated by American Pain’s drugs; and the federal agents and grieving mothers who labored for years to bring the clinic’s crew to justice.