Death in Mud Lick

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From a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, this urgent and heartbreaking investigation reveals the corporate greed that flooded small Appalachian towns with millions of pain pills, devastating communities. The focus is on a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, which dispensed 12 million opioid pain pills in three years to a population of just 382. Central to the narrative is Debbie Preece, who, after losing her brother to an overdose, embarks on a quest for justice that extends beyond her local pharmacy to three major drug wholesalers. She is supported by a dedicated lawyer and journalist Eric Eyre, who exposed a significant opioid pill-dumping scandal that rocked America's largest drug companies and earned him a Pulitzer Prize. The story unfolds through clandestine meetings with whistleblowers, a legal battle to unseal documents, and efforts to obtain DEA pill-shipment data. Eyre's work traces the opioid shipments into West Virginia's counties and homes, highlighting how thousands became addicted, leading to the highest overdose rates in the nation. Yet amid the tragedy, there is hope as communities unite for positive change. This intimate portrayal of a national public health crisis sheds light on the devastating impact of corporate greed on the citizens of West Virginia and beyond.