This Is Ohio: The Overdose Crisis and the Front Lines of a New America

Written by Jack Shuler

Narrated by Miles Meili

For readers of Dopesick and Dreamland, journalist Jack Shuler explores the current addiction crisis as a human rights problem fostered by poverty and inadequate health care in this “insightful look at how the issues in Ohio affect the rest of the country” (Cosmopolitan, A Best Nonfiction Book of the Year).

Tainted drug supplies, inadequate civic responses, and prevailing negative opinions about people who use drugs, the poor, and those struggling with mental health issues lead to thousands of preventable deaths each year while politicians are slow to adopt effective policies. Putting themselves at great personal risk (and often breaking the law to do so), the brave men and women profiled in This Is Ohio are mounting a grassroots effort to combat ineffective and often incorrect ideas about addiction and instead focus on saving lives through commonsense harm reduction policies.

Opioids are the current face of addiction, but as Shuler shows, the crisis in our midst is one that has long been fostered by income inequality, the loss of manufacturing jobs across the Rust Belt, and lack of access to health care. What is playing out in Ohio today isn’t only about opioids, but rather a decades–long economic and sociological shift in small towns all across the United States. It’s also about a larger culture of stigma at the heart of how we talk about addiction. What happens in Ohio will have ramifications felt across the nation and for decades to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Everand Productions
• Release date: Nov 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094434179

Jack Shuler

Jack Shuler is the author of three books, including The Thirteenth Turn: A History of the Noose. His writing has appeared in The New Republic, Pacific Standard, Christian Science Monitor, 100 Days in Appalachia, and Los Angeles Times, among other publications. He is chair of the narrative journalism program at Denison University. He lives in Ohio. Find out more at jackshulerauthor.com.

Reviews for This Is Ohio

[David Strock · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Drug addiction has many facets. The author focuses on cultural Marxist charged language and blame towards white power structures. If you subscribe to that offensive and inaccurate delusion, enjoy! If you’re aware of what is REALLY going on in the world, pass this one by.

[Susan Perkins · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very informative book. A good must read. Very well done.

[Robert Howard · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really want to be sympathetic, but I think the things that are the most frustrating for me when I’m learning about this subject is that it seems like those who are addicted have a very self-pitying and entitled way of acting. To be frustrated that there is stigma around drug use is ridiculous, especially since there are cases in which 5 year olds have to call the police because “Mommy isn’t waking up.” To claim that a pure supply of heroin is a human right is absurd. I understand the frustrations of the drug war, but to claim that the government should seize taxes from the rest of society to ensure that you can maintain your habit is off-putting. Lastly, to claim this is a disease seems like an attempt to absolve yourself from responsibility. I would be more understanding if someone said, “I was at a bad spot in life, didn’t know how to cope, fell into this trap, and now I can’t get out.” Overall, I appreciate the opportunity for a different perspective, even if I don’t like it.