Name: Killing Season
ISBN: 9781421439853

Peter Canning

Stripping away the stigma of addiction through stories that are hard-hitting, poignant, sad, confessional, funny, and overall, human, Killing Season will change minds about the epidemic, help obliterate stigma, and save lives.

A Paramedic's Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic

Killing Season

Bad Girl Bex

Probably a bit weird to say that I loved everything about a book detailing the fall-out from the opioid epidemic, but it was just so well-written, engaging and perfectly paced...I pretty much blasted through it. Peter Canning is the perfect tour-guide through this devastated landscape, littered with human detritus. He begins his tale looking upon drug addicts as being nothing more than scumbags, but after time spent talking with them, getting to know their stories and liaising with others working on the front line of this crisis, he gradually changes perspective; now he views all the people he treats as fellow human beings, with empathy, sympathy and no judgement.

Someone in another review said that a lot of the stories are repetitive...but that's the point. Canning is trying to show the reader just how commonplace a call-out to an overdose is on his territory; how similar so many of the causal factors for each individuals downfall are; how relentless the task he and his colleagues perform every day is. He also really brought me around to the aspects of harm-reduction that a lot of people are unwilling to consider, despite it being proven to save more lives and bring more addicts around to a place where they're ready to give rehab a try. 

This is a really informative book for anyone who wants to learn more about the dangers of fentanyl and it's subsequent synthetic analogues (like carfentanil) the root causes of the opioid epidemic and the ways in which health professionals are trying to fight back against the tide of overdose. I read 'Dopesick' by Beth Macy and then 'Dreamland' by Sam Quinones, both of which cover this opioid crisis from different angles. I'd recommend both of those titles, but would also recommend this book by Peter Canning too, because it offers an entirely different perspective of this topic. Peter Canning comes across as a genuinely lovely guy and a paramedic with great integrity. I'm really glad he chose to share his perspective in this book.

Killing Season A Paramedic's Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic

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