oin us for our virtual FL JCC Author Series with Philip Eil, Prescription for Pain; How a Once Promising Doctor Became a “Pill Mill Killer”

This haunt­ing and propul­sive debut fol­lows a journalist’s years-long inves­ti­ga­tion into his father’s old class­mate: for­mer high school vale­dic­to­ri­an Paul Volk­man, who once seemed des­tined for great­ness after earn­ing his MD and his PhD from the pres­ti­gious Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go, but is now serv­ing four con­sec­u­tive life sen­tences at a fed­er­al prison in Ari­zona. Volk­man was the cen­tral fig­ure in a mas­sive “pill mill” scheme in south­ern Ohio. His pain clin­ics accept­ed only cash, employed armed guards, and dis­pensed a tor­rent of opi­oid painkillers and oth­er con­trolled sub­stances.

The Amer­i­can opi­oid epi­dem­ic is, like this book, a true crime sto­ry. Through this one doctor’s sto­ry, an era of unfath­omable tragedy is brought down to a tan­gi­ble, and dev­as­tat­ing, human scale.

Philip Eil is an award-win­ning free­lance jour­nal­ist based in Prov­i­dence, RI. He is the for­mer news edi­tor The Prov­i­dence Phoenix.