Franzen's book goes beyond the issues of pain management to examine the broader societal and cultural factors that contribute to the crisis. He discusses the failure of the War on Drugs and the negative stereotypes associated with addiction, which have led to a punitive approach to pain management rather than a compassionate one. Opioids have been vilified in the process. While opioids must be used with great caution, and multi-model pain therapy needs to be brought back into medical practice, there are types of pain that require opioid therapy. Burns, cancer, severe autoimmune diseases, tissue degenerative disease and so on can cause debilitating pain. For this reason, the book argues against state laws that instituted a dose limit for all patients. Even the Centers for Disease Control changed their position on opioid use in 2022, but now no one in state government appears to be listening. In the midst of this difficult situation for pain patients, the book also describes the consensus in the medical community that buprenorphine is pain medication. Long viewed only as medication for opioid use disorder, there is increasing use of buprenorphine and many studies show that it is safe and effective, even for intractable pain.