Opening

Abstract

Abstract The introductory chapter of this book reviews the opioid epidemic by outlining the scope of the current problem. It dives into the statistics of opioid overdoses and deaths over the past three decades and asks how this could have happened in the first place. The introduction then reviews the book’s key themes—pain management, strategic ignorance, the opioid gray market, pain’s new faces, and the politics of pain in American culture. Following this overview, the introduction synthesizes the analysis and arguments in each of its chapters. Finally, it concludes by pointing to the pressing need for research on the opioid epidemic—pain’s most urgent case study.