Book examines opioid epidemic through women's stories

A new book, Rx Appalachia: Stories of Treatment and Survival in Rural Kentucky (Haymarket Books) examines women's experiences with the opioid crisis in Central Appalachia through a series of in-depth interviews.

Author Lesley-Marie Buer, an applied medical anthropologist and director of research at Choice Health Network Harm Reduction in Knoxville, Tenn., says the book is an extension of her work and research on how place, gender, ethnicity, class, drug use and sexuality intersect. "Documenting how people navigate state policies, socioeconomic inequalities, and networks of relatedness in Appalachia contests depictions of people who use drugs or Appalachians as helpless victims or creators of some moral crisis," Buer writes in 100 Days in Appalachia. Click here to read an excerpt.