Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The United States opioid crisis has wrought devastation on a massive scale. With closure elusive, much of the blame has fallen on a single pill, a long-acting oxycodone tablet called OxyContin. Because of extensive litigation, regulation, and news coverage, OxyContin may be the best documented opioid in the country, and analyses of these documents can provide deeper insights into the drug’s lifecycle. Analyses can also illuminate the dynamics of blame, which have been understudied. This book therefore applies the concept of pharmakos—meaning “scapegoat” or “accursed one”—to trace moral and causal blame discourses across four tipping points: the launch, the ascent, the judgment, and the expulsion. Specifically, there are three guiding questions: What events, interests, or motivations triggered blame discourses? What rhetorical strategies did key players use to (al)lay blame, causal and moral? Which objects of blame became scapegoats, how were the scapegoating processes structured, and what were the outcomes? The answers inform a preliminary model of blame discourses in pharmaceutical contexts, which can spark future inquiry. Alongside research, it is important to suggest practical extensions of the pharmakos framework. The findings are therefore extended to three essential areas of practice: pharmaceutical risk communication, organizational health literacy, and interprofessional education.</jats:p>