20241010_ExLibris

E X L I B R I S • Y E L L O W S P R I N G S L I B R A R Y A S S O C I A T I O N • F A L L , 2 0 2 4 5 Review: Prescription for Pain: How a Once- promisingDoctor Became the ‘Pill Mill Killer’ | Philip Eil folio that students, teachers, and lay readers could all use to look back at the student’s work over time. As before, everyone worked anonymously. So why did this version of the program fizzle? This time around, the program required more coor- dination with and logistical work from the teachers, and when a new English teacher was hired, the principal decided that the lay reader program added a burden a teacher just finding her way didn’t need. Again, fewer students led to fewer readers and a focus on 7th- and 8th-grade students, many of whom were too young to benefit from the readers’ ad- vice. And readers complained that teachers weren’t asking students to revise their work, so readers had no sense that their responses were useful. Like many well-intentioned vol- unteer efforts, the program died (twice!) through lack of institu- tional commitment and integra- tion into the structure of the high school courses. But while the Lay Reader program lasted, students got to interact with adults in the community, and those adults got glimpses into the lives and thoughts of Yellow Springs youth. Note: If you remember this program and would like to com- ment on the article, go to the Yellow Springs Library Association Facebook page and look for the Lay Reader post. From page one: Lay Reader VICK MICKUNAS Host,‘Book Nook,’ WYSO We often hear politicians pon- tificating about our fentanyl crisis. Large quantities of it are pouring across our borders-users of this potent illicit narcotic are overdos- ing in large numbers. Before fen- tanyl was available it was heroin they sought. Addicts seeking narcotics shifted to heroin twenty years ago as the federal government began shutting down prescription pill mills bedevil- ing our region. Unethical physicians had prescribed enormous volumes of legal drugs. Many people over- dosed. Some died. Portsmouth, Ohio earned an unsavory moniker, “Oxycontin Capital.” A doctor named Paul Volkman worked for a pain clinic there for a couple of years. Dur- ing that time he prescribed more Oxycontin, a potent pain reliever, than anybody else. In his book “Prescription for Pain: How a Once-Promising Doc- tor Became the ‘Pill Mill Killer’ “ Philip Eil retraces the footsteps of this physician who was eventually arrested, tried, and convicted for providing pills that killed people. Many pill mill doctors ac- cepted plea bargains, served their time, and are now free again. Not Volkman; he insisted he had done nothing wrong. The case went to trial. He lost. He is now serving four life terms at a fed- eral prison in Arizona. The author did extensive interviews with Volkman. Read- ers will marvel at the hubris and pomposity of a doctor who acted like he was God and always found somebody else to blame for his misdeeds. Eil’s father was a classmate of Volkman’s at medical school. When Volkman was being pros- ecuted he heard his dad talking about the case. That’s how he found out about it. He spent many years researching Volkman’s story. The shocking things he discovered about Volkman’s past are chilling. Since his incarceration Volk- man, formerly a nonpracticing secular Jew, has become a de- voted Christian. And this former Bernie Sanders-loving progressive has also shifted his political views: he now admires Donald Trump. Published by Steerforth Press. Visit the Book Nook at WYSO radio to hear Vick’s interview with author Philip Eli.