New Books Network Lesly-Marie Buer, "RX Appalachia: Stories of Treatment and Survival in Rural Kentucky" (Haymarket, 2020)
Jan 26, 2026
Lesly-Marie Buer, medical anthropologist and harm reduction worker, draws on ethnographic research in rural Kentucky. She examines gendered pathways through treatment and the limits of drug courts, DCBS programs, and buprenorphine access. She describes stigma, survival strategies like mutual aid, and the rollout of syringe services and harm reduction in deeply resource-poor communities.
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Returning Home To Test Harm Reduction
- Lesly-Marie Buer returned to Appalachia to apply harm reduction lessons from Denver to rural Kentucky treatment gaps.
- She framed her book as a translated, accessible version of her dissertation for community readers.
Small-Town Visibility Shapes Outcomes
- Buer found extreme social intimacy in very small towns where everyone knows each other's life stories.
- That visibility makes it hard to escape community labeling and affects recovery trajectories.
Gender Changes The Institutional Encounter
- A gendered focus revealed that women face more social-service interventions while men face more policing and incarceration.
- Women's care burdens and high rates of interpersonal violence shape their treatment experiences.
