• Prescription for Pain

  • How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the "Pill Mill Killer"
  • By: Philip Eil
  • Narrated by: Mike Lenz
  • Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

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Prescription for Pain  By  cover art

Prescription for Pain

By: Philip Eil
Narrated by: Mike Lenz
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Publisher's summary

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 Tantor

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Unique insight inside the mind of a deadly doctor

Bad guys never view themselves as bad guys , even the deadly one’s and the unique author access to one of the baddest makes for a fascinating read to one of the deadliest chapters in American history ❤️‍🩹

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