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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
Currently studying for licensure exam, will review book in greater detail when I pass.
In brief:
This book is really good investigative journalism on what (in my opinion) will prove to be one of the most important stories of this decade, namely the current explosion of heroin addiction that has grabbed generation Y and the millennial's by the throat, has killed and is killing thousands, and has destroyed untold numbers of families friendships and relationships in its black tar wake.
It gives respectable answers to good questions such as:
- Why are so many people getting into heroin lately?
- Where's it coming from?
- Why's it so pure and cheap?
- How come so many people are dying?
- Why can't the cops do anything about it?
These and many more questions are answered in this well written and extremely interesting book.
Highly recommended.
In brief:
This book is really good investigative journalism on what (in my opinion) will prove to be one of the most important stories of this decade, namely the current explosion of heroin addiction that has grabbed generation Y and the millennial's by the throat, has killed and is killing thousands, and has destroyed untold numbers of families friendships and relationships in its black tar wake.
It gives respectable answers to good questions such as:
- Why are so many people getting into heroin lately?
- Where's it coming from?
- Why's it so pure and cheap?
- How come so many people are dying?
- Why can't the cops do anything about it?
These and many more questions are answered in this well written and extremely interesting book.
Highly recommended.
Often fascinating, but occasionally bogged down with numbers. Over all this book does a great job explaining how the drug epidemics of the last three decades arose and what people did to stop them and treat those with addiction. With the advent of OxyContin addiction touched the “respectable” families of the rust belt and the Appalachia’s and the Pacific Northwest. The epidemic finally reached a tipping point where people decided to no longer remain silent, but thousands died of overdose before that point.
As an aspiring author, I plan to use this book as a reference tool. It’s very well researched and written.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
As an aspiring author, I plan to use this book as a reference tool. It’s very well researched and written.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
DREAMLAND: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones, 2015 @bloomsburypublishing
Even after reading many articles and another book on the opioid crisis in the US, this book provided the most expansive view of HOW things occurred - the scale, the interconnectedness - more of the macro approach. Beyond Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers, beyond pill mills and hack doctors...
Quinones' investigative work shows the rise of 'black tar heroin' from the small rural area of Xalisco, Nayarit, Mexico and the way it was commoditized and retailed in small-town US, at the same time that Oxycontin was being overprescribed, first by well-meaning doctors who wanted to provide relief to chronic patients, but simply didn't do their due diligence and research, and also by any person with a prescription pad. Highly addictive substances and virtually identical in makeup, but different manufacturing and distribution streams.
The "Xalisco Boys" were unlike any other narcotraffickers - not a cartel, they shunned violence, did not carry guns - but parking outside of methadone clinics and offering up "samples" and a free delivery service, and being friendly. They even had customer service surveys and referral discounts. Many never even tried the drugs they were peddling, caring more about getting new clothing and cars to show off back in their Mexican hometown. This was the most eye-opening portion of the book for me - the character "Enrique" and "The Man", and the interviews with the people from Xalisco.
There's a lot more to this book and what Quinones puts together. We don't get the same focus on individuals as other books (Beth Macy's DOPESICK and Hari's CHASING THE SCREAM come to mind), but more the wide-angle lens. My copy of the book has an additional afterword by the author, written about changes in the Rust Belt towns since his original investigations. Five years after publication & some states seeing an increase in overdose deaths in 2019, but also general public awareness and education in prevention and life-saving measures.
Even after reading many articles and another book on the opioid crisis in the US, this book provided the most expansive view of HOW things occurred - the scale, the interconnectedness - more of the macro approach. Beyond Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers, beyond pill mills and hack doctors...
Quinones' investigative work shows the rise of 'black tar heroin' from the small rural area of Xalisco, Nayarit, Mexico and the way it was commoditized and retailed in small-town US, at the same time that Oxycontin was being overprescribed, first by well-meaning doctors who wanted to provide relief to chronic patients, but simply didn't do their due diligence and research, and also by any person with a prescription pad. Highly addictive substances and virtually identical in makeup, but different manufacturing and distribution streams.
The "Xalisco Boys" were unlike any other narcotraffickers - not a cartel, they shunned violence, did not carry guns - but parking outside of methadone clinics and offering up "samples" and a free delivery service, and being friendly. They even had customer service surveys and referral discounts. Many never even tried the drugs they were peddling, caring more about getting new clothing and cars to show off back in their Mexican hometown. This was the most eye-opening portion of the book for me - the character "Enrique" and "The Man", and the interviews with the people from Xalisco.
There's a lot more to this book and what Quinones puts together. We don't get the same focus on individuals as other books (Beth Macy's DOPESICK and Hari's CHASING THE SCREAM come to mind), but more the wide-angle lens. My copy of the book has an additional afterword by the author, written about changes in the Rust Belt towns since his original investigations. Five years after publication & some states seeing an increase in overdose deaths in 2019, but also general public awareness and education in prevention and life-saving measures.
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This book is amazing not because of the writing (which is not bad, but not remarkable) but because of the vast and intricate story it conveys. I feel like I should have known more of this. The painkiller and heroin addiction and overdose epidemic is a problem that we need to continue to be concerned about.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
An interesting and very engaging read about a crime wave that is really a public health crisis. Quinones brought together several threads of the crisis (overprescription of opiates, deindustrialization and the decline of the Midwest, the Mexican heroine trade) very well. My only complaint was in what I assume was an attempt to reiterate some of the important themes, the narrative was repetitive at times.
This book is a real eye opener to the nation's OxyContin and heroin epidemics all derived by our capitalist economy with everyone with their hand out to make a buck at the expense of others. Prior to 1980, drugs containing the morphine molecule were regulated and strictly prescribed to patients dying of cancer or leukemia, notably MSContin in the pre-1980s. Otherwise, the drug was deemed as highly addictive to be used by doctors in any other manner as referenced by the failed experiments at the turn of the 20th century when heroin was given to treat pain in patients and later the abstraction of the morphine molecule the Germans used to create morphine to treat pain in WWI soldiers. By 1980, a doctor by the name of Hershel Jick entered the scene quite accidentally and unbeknownst to him when he wrote a paragraph long letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, noting that opioids used to treat pain have been successful and only shown to be addictive to 1% of those prescribed the drugs. This one single paragraph was quickly taken out of context by large pharmaceutical companies on their quest to create a non-addictive, slow time-released opiate drug to be used to treat pain. In the meantime, the AMA added "pain" as number 5 to the list of vital signs of patients, along with blood pressure, pulse, etc. Purdue Pharma developed the winner of the new opiate drugs with OxyContin. Like MS Contin, Oxy was designed to be time-released. However, with "pain" now a patient vital sign, doctors now learned at medical conferences, even though they were told all through medical school that opiate drugs were highly addictive and not to lightly prescribe, that they were to prescribe pain killers to anyone with pain. Due to no regulation for the new opiates, they proved to be just as addictive as before, and now even stronger. And thus began the addictive path to OxyContin, leading kids to acquire the drugs from parents or from street dealers, and the advent of the pill mills in the MidWest, where for $250 a slimy doctor would write a prescription for OxyContin and a Medicaid card would get you a prescription of the $1,200 drug for $3.00 from the pharmacy. Oxy led to people transferring their addictions to Black Tar Heroin on the streets, a cheaper opiate alternative, that was quick and a lot more powerful than Oxy, sold by Mexicans coming into America from Xalisco, Neyurit to make a lot of money to take back to Mexico to flaunt and build big houses. The Xalisco dealers were young farm boys that operated as a cell connected to a dispatcher telling them where to make their sell. Anyway, it's a lot of information, and you should read the book. It all boils down to MONEY and our capitalist society that allowed it all to take place.
Fascinating and well-reported look at the intertwined opioid and heroin epidemics ripping through parts of America. The book does become repetitive after a while, and I would have liked to hear more about the policy changes that could help stem the tide (of course I would), but overall it's a solid and sobering look at how we got here.
Wow. This book will make you so, so incredibly angry, and then it turns around and offers a glimmer of hope. This is nonfiction that reads like a novel — I had trouble putting it down. Excellent.