Wow! eBook
Rehab: An American Scandal
Author(s): Shoshana Walter (Author)
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publication Date: August 12, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 320 pages
- ISBN-10: 1982149825
- ISBN-13: 9781982149826
Book Description
Our country’s leaders all seem to agree: People who suffer from addiction need treatment. Today, more people have access to treatment than ever before. So why isn’t it working? The answer is that in America—where anyone can get addicted—only certain people get a real chance to recover. Despite record numbers of overdose deaths, our default response is still to punish, while rehabs across the United States fail to incorporate scientifically proven strategies and exploit patients. We’ve heard a great deal about the opioid crisis foisted on America by Big Pharma, but we’ve heard too little about the other half of this epidemic—the reason why so many remain mired in addiction. Until now.
In this book, you’ll find the stories of four people who represent the failures of the rehab-industrial complex, and the ways our treatment system often prevents recovery. April is a black mom in Philadelphia, who witnessed firsthand how the government’s punitive response to the crack epidemic impeded her own mother’s recovery—and then her own. Chris, a young middle-class white man from Louisiana, received more opportunities in his addiction than April, including the chance to go to treatment instead of prison. Yet the only program the judge permitted was one that forced him to perform unpaid back-breaking labor at for-profit companies. Wendy is a mother from a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, whose son died in a sober living home. She began investigating for-profit treatment programs—yet law enforcement and regulators routinely ignored her warnings, allowing rehab patients to die, again and again. Larry is a surgeon who himself struggled with addiction, who would eventually become one of the first Suboxone prescribers in the nation, drawing the scrutiny of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Together, these four stories illustrate the pitfalls of a system that not only fails to meet the needs of people with addiction, but actively benefits from maintaining their lower status. They also offer insight into how we might fix that system and save lives.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“In this stunning debut investigation…Pulitzer finalist Walter shines a light on the ‘$53 billion per year’ network of mismanaged treatment centers…a horrific indictment of America’s profit-driven healthcare system.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“
Rehab is propulsively plotted, meticulously researched, and told with an authority that is both heartfelt and hard-won. A thorough critique of the so-called treatment industry and a playbook for real recovery.” —Beth Macy, author of Dopesick and Raising Lazarus“With fierce compassion and meticulous reporting, Shoshana Waltergives dignity and depth to people too often discarded by a system that claims to help them. Rehab exposes a shadowy industry where profit comes before people, and treatment is too often a cover for exploitation. This is a landmark investigation — and a powerful call for change.”
—Gabrielle Glaser, Her Best Kept Secret and American Baby“
Rehab is a beautifully woven and deftly reported deep dive into a side of the opioid crisis that has too often skirted public scrutiny. Shoshana Walter’s debut is an intricate and urgent investigation into the systems that are supposed to heal — but often harm — those struggling with opioid addiction, told with a journalist’s rigor and with immense heart.”—Keri Blakinger, author of Corrections in Ink“Through four vividly reported, heartrending stories, Shoshana Walter diagnoses the failures of America’s reaction to its drug problem — unjust policies, unregulated rehabs and sober houses, and a so-called ‘system’ that makes it almost impossible for people to get better. This is eye-opening, necessary reading for a society in crisis.” —
Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road
