Includes bibliographical references and index.

A death in Mud Lick -- Prescription for pain -- Kings of Kermit -- The Easter Bunny -- Raided -- Addicts' rights -- A step up -- A seismic shift -- The Pekingese -- Sustained outrage -- The chase -- Hunger games -- The drop -- Dragging and Lagging -- A door cracked open -- Eighteen words -- A legal cartel -- Home court -- High noon -- 780 millions pills, 1,728 death -- Misery's price tag -- List of the dead -- Damage control -- A death in Marrowbone Creek -- "How in God's name?" -- Bankrupt -- Paper and tapes -- "What's the punishment?" -- Whose pills? -- Three foot deep.

"An urgent and heartbreaking investigation into the corporate greed and governmental corruption that pumped millions of pain pills into small Appalachian towns"--Dust jacket flap.

A pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, distributed 12 million opioid pain pills in three years to a town with a population of 382 people. Debbie Preece lost her brother to opioid overdose, and was desperate for justice. Joined by a crusading lawyer and a local journalist, they uncovered a massive opioid pill-dumping scandal that shook the foundation of America's largest drug companies-- and won Eyre a Pulitzer Prize. Here Eyre explains how thousands of Appalachians got hooked on prescription drugs-- and how the citizens banded together to create positive change. -- adapted from jacket.

"From a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a "powerful," (The New York Times) urgent, and heartbreaking account of the corporate greed that pumped millions of pain pills into small Appalachian towns, decimating communities. In a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, 12 million opioid pain pills were distributed in just three years to a town with a population of 382 people. One woman, after losing her brother to overdose, was desperate for justice. Debbie Preece's fight for accountability for her brother's death took her well beyond the Sav-Rite Pharmacy in coal country, ultimately leading to three of the biggest drug wholesalers in the country. She was joined by a crusading lawyer and by local journalist, Eric Eyre, who uncovered a massive opioid pill-dumping scandal that shook the foundation of America's largest drug companies--and won him a Pulitzer Prize. Part Erin Brockovich, part Spotlight, Death in Mud Lick details the clandestine meetings with whistleblowers; a court fight to unseal filings that the drug distributors tried to keep hidden, a push to secure the DEA pill-shipment data, and the fallout after Eyre's local paper, the Gazette-Mail, the smallest newspaper ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, broke the story. Eyre follows the opioid shipments into individual counties, pharmacies, and homes in West Virginia and explains how thousands of Appalachians got hooked on prescription drugs--resulting in the highest overdose rates in the country. But despite the tragedy, there is also hope as citizens banded together to create positive change--and won. "A product of one reporter's sustained outrage [and] a searing spotlight on the scope and human cost of corruption and negligence" (The Washington Post). Eric Eyre's intimate portrayal of a national public health crisis illuminates the shocking pattern of corporate greed and its repercussions for the citizens of West Virginia--and the nation--to this day."--Amazon.