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A review by greg_talbot
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
5.0
The story here is on the quiet scourage of prescription drug abuse, precipiated by an economic collapse in the rust belt and the economic opportunity found in Nayarit Mexico.
From the story of a farm boy Enrique, who has a modest lifestyle in Mexico's 5th smallest state, Nayarit, we see the story of a young man who wants more freedom. Clean-cut, well spoken, polite, disciplined, and loyal, Enrique's story weaves through the book as a driver, manager and authority of black tar heroin distribution across the U.S. Like the other Xalisco Boys, whose power increased with wealth, women, and personal authority, they did not use drugs, or weapons, but simply provided an alternative to a white junkie middle class youth culture.
The distribution was enabled largely by changing attitude of America toward pain management. Oxytocin, considered a non-addictive powerful painkiller was prescribed for a variety of treatments, and easily obtainable as insurance companies covered it for a variety of ills. Pill mills turned the rust belt to the oxy belt. The use was benign, since it was backed by the well intended Purude research by Porter and Jick about the nonexistent addictions from Oxy.
Time-released oxycodone is very addictive of course, a strange illicit economy surged. Seniors selling to kids. Junkies stealing from the local Walmart and selling clothing to afford pills. Doctors like David Proctor sexually abusing women for distribution of pills. And when patients-turned-addcits could no longer afford from the legal sources, they found an equivalent high with a populated black tar heroin in black balloons. The marriage of the young aspirant Mexicans of Nayarit and the privilleged white middle class youth took class across the country. The effects of which are still being seen today.
Recorded here is the responses from educators, law enforcement, the judicial system, pharmaceuticals and policy makers. An epidemic that was far beyond the insulated city walls of a mafia controlled New York or even a regional crisis. The Xalisco distribution emerged unparelleled because of how little attention it drew to itself, and the leadership's easy ability to find young men and product. Only in recent years, with the deaths of actors like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Anna Nicole Smith, have the profiles of oxycontin abuse, and all its consequences been discussed openly.
Through the stories of many of the players, and the story of the town Portsmouth, Ohio, we see a problem that is not only about drugs, but about fatalism. A lost of community spirit echoed by the closed smokestacks, closed family stores, and youth without a future to aspire to. Dreamland in title is a reference to what Portsmouth, Ohio use to be called, an All-American city, with a large commuity pool attended to by people of all classes. Opiate pain relief research has in recent years produced new drugs like zohydro that offer no addictive properties. Time will tell if the research bears out lofty claims, and if the communities of small town america will be around to listen.
From the story of a farm boy Enrique, who has a modest lifestyle in Mexico's 5th smallest state, Nayarit, we see the story of a young man who wants more freedom. Clean-cut, well spoken, polite, disciplined, and loyal, Enrique's story weaves through the book as a driver, manager and authority of black tar heroin distribution across the U.S. Like the other Xalisco Boys, whose power increased with wealth, women, and personal authority, they did not use drugs, or weapons, but simply provided an alternative to a white junkie middle class youth culture.
The distribution was enabled largely by changing attitude of America toward pain management. Oxytocin, considered a non-addictive powerful painkiller was prescribed for a variety of treatments, and easily obtainable as insurance companies covered it for a variety of ills. Pill mills turned the rust belt to the oxy belt. The use was benign, since it was backed by the well intended Purude research by Porter and Jick about the nonexistent addictions from Oxy.
Time-released oxycodone is very addictive of course, a strange illicit economy surged. Seniors selling to kids. Junkies stealing from the local Walmart and selling clothing to afford pills. Doctors like David Proctor sexually abusing women for distribution of pills. And when patients-turned-addcits could no longer afford from the legal sources, they found an equivalent high with a populated black tar heroin in black balloons. The marriage of the young aspirant Mexicans of Nayarit and the privilleged white middle class youth took class across the country. The effects of which are still being seen today.
Recorded here is the responses from educators, law enforcement, the judicial system, pharmaceuticals and policy makers. An epidemic that was far beyond the insulated city walls of a mafia controlled New York or even a regional crisis. The Xalisco distribution emerged unparelleled because of how little attention it drew to itself, and the leadership's easy ability to find young men and product. Only in recent years, with the deaths of actors like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Anna Nicole Smith, have the profiles of oxycontin abuse, and all its consequences been discussed openly.
Through the stories of many of the players, and the story of the town Portsmouth, Ohio, we see a problem that is not only about drugs, but about fatalism. A lost of community spirit echoed by the closed smokestacks, closed family stores, and youth without a future to aspire to. Dreamland in title is a reference to what Portsmouth, Ohio use to be called, an All-American city, with a large commuity pool attended to by people of all classes. Opiate pain relief research has in recent years produced new drugs like zohydro that offer no addictive properties. Time will tell if the research bears out lofty claims, and if the communities of small town america will be around to listen.