Joshua Lyon, author of Pill Head, has penned a book that could not be more timely. Pill Head, which hits the stores on 7/7, is part drug addled memoir and part thoughtful, investigative journalism; it is the story of a pill addict told with unflinching honesty, from first pill to detox. The book weaves together the stories of addicts, doctors, and governmental agents–effectively demonstrating how the lives and decisions of each are intertwined in America’s new drug epidemic–prescription pills.

Lyon admits that prior to his Vicodin use, he had sampled plenty of goodies from the recreational drug grab bag; ecstasy, coke, mushrooms, marijuana and LSD.   While he might have been a self professed “expert at escapism,” he wasn’t an addict. He was a young, experimental, gay man with social anxiety; living and working in New York City as an editor of the popular magazine Jane.  He, not unlike thousands of people, partied just hard enough one night a week to be left incapacitated the rest of the weekend. But when he first got a hold of Vicodin, as research for a magazine assignment in 2003, all prior dabbling paled in sensation to this new wonder drug. That pivotal night, instead of flushing the pills as instructed by his editor, Lyon found himself defiantly taking three Vicodin and later professing out loud, “This is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”

Lyon escorts us into the lives of other pill heads who were also entranced by that feeling, even as addiction led them into emotional, spiritual, physical and financial despair. We meet addicts like Jared, whose introduction to pills came from a high school inside connection at the local pharmacy and later escalated into a $45,000 habit; Caleb, whose first big OxyContin supply came from a stolen tractor trailer shipment; Heather, who doctor shopped and eventually stole prescription pads;  and James Dean, charged with manslaughter because his own son overdosed from the very pills they sold together. Through Lyon’s own exploits and those of others, we discover the secret trades sustaining this rampant market,

Also interspersed throughout the book are interviews with experts, like Carol Boyd, a research scientist for the Substance Abuse Research Center.  who explains several factors that account for our current national level of painkiller abuse. There are currently 7 million who abuse them, which surpasses use of cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy, and inhalants combined. 33 million Americans admitted that they have non-medically used prescription painkillers. After all, this is a nation of pill poppers–one for every ailment–no wonder the rates of prescription pill abuse have skyrocketed.

DEA agent Mark Caverly acknowledges that the increase in painkiller abuse is related to “societal influences,” and that “we turn to pharmaceuticals for everything.” Lyon points out that with Generation RX, parents need to lock up their medicine cabinets, not their liquor cabinets. Not only are prescription pills popular among youth because they are easy to get but they also represent a more socially acceptable way of getting high than taking street drugs. It isn’t as taboo to pop a pill, that someone “pharmed” from their mother’s medicine cabinet, as it is to buy street heroin. However less taboo, it is just as deadly and the pills sometimes stronger than street drugs. Ironically,  as Lyon’s points out in a recent Huffington Post op-ed, there is surge in heroin use as pill heads now desperately resort to the once taboo street deals as a result of the DEA crackdown on pharmaceuticals.

Because our country has such an outdated way of understanding addiction, and drug control gets confused with pain control, there is what Lyon refers to as, “the witch hunt going on in the United States for doctors prescribing pain medication.”  Pill Head deftly tackles this discussion, introducing us to physicians like Dr. Hurwitz, whose lives have been ruined now that the DEA struggles to suppress the burgeoning pill epidemic. This is a current hot topic, as the DEA proceeds to take the authority to determine the legitimacy and appropriateness of a doctor’s practice and doses prescribed, often at the costs of patient needs. While addicts and thieves flood the market by looting trucks full of pills, the DEA chooses to focus on diversion of pills from doctor to patient.

Lyon is not just an addict, or a journalist, but an empathetic writer sharing his story in hopes of raising public awareness. He is adept at orchestrating the many voices and layers involved in such a broad endeavor like Pill Head. The honest, raw chronicle of Lyon’s own pill abuse unfolds and it becomes clear that the initial appeal of Vicodin, like “no apparent side effects” or feeling “fantastic, even when the high was over,” was just a seductive illusion that slowly took over Lyon’s life.

A sudden illness brought Lyon to the road of recovery, eventually landing him in detox. His ability to divulge the most intimate details grips the reader. It isn’t always pretty, and the content might be intense for readers, especially recovering addicts, but the book offers us a necessary, compelling look at pill abuse; an addiciton affecting every demographic in the nation. Readers will find themselves in detox with him at the book’s conclusion, anxiously hopeful and heartfelt that Lyon’s illusion will finally shatter and he will take back his life. Pill Head is written with intensity, wit and is a message of hope. We welcome Joshua to The Second Road and encourage you to buy this book, tell others about it and stop by Joshua’s blog to show your support!