The vanishing -- Despair aboard the Oxy Express -- Hunches and heartaches -- Coping with chaos -- Fighting inside and out -- Out of sight, out of mind -- The transporter -- Boomerang of agony -- Cheating death -- Rise of the opioid kids -- The abduction -- Pill mills, police, and pain -- Planning the funeral -- Fleas, fiends, and fractures -- Groundhog Day (the movie) -- Beyond twelve steps: the business of recovery -- Back to the brink -- Breakthrough -- Dangerous demons return -- Death and discovery -- Collect memories, not stuff -- The path to acceptance -- Battleground musings -- Twenty-four and so much more -- The flow

"When Rick Van Warner found himself searching abandoned buildings and dangerous streets looking for his missing son, he had no idea that the synthetic, pill-form heroin that had snared his teen was already killing so many. In the years of pain and heartache that followed as he tried to save his son from opioid addiction, Van Warner discovered what the American public is just now becoming aware of: opioids prescribed for even minor pain relief are so addictive that even a few days of use can create dependency. On Pills and Needles is a memoir that also serves as a wake-up call and crash course in opioid addiction. Through his harrowing personal story, Van Warner exposes the common causes of opioid addiction, effective and ineffective ways it has been treated, and how families can walk alongside loved ones who are dealing with the daily realities of addiction."