A review by libvin96
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones

4.0

Quinones does an excellent job building his thesis on how the pharmaceutical industry's promotion of pain as a vital sign coupled with the Xalisco Boys' work led to the opiate epidemic. However, the Afterword mistakenly forces this idea brand new to the book--the idea that isolation and "helicopter parenting" is probably what led so many teens to use heroin. I can see this connection to his anecdote on the religious Russian immigrants whose children were holed up in their homes, but nowhere else. Such a claim requires evidence, which Quinones doesn't tie in much. To make such a bold claim more successful would have required more elaborating and connection to stories earlier in the book. Instead it came off a little bit as random Boomer thoughts. I think ending the book with the quote that "we may thank heroin someday" was a bit outrageous. Considering the pages upon pages described of the tragic deaths brought on by heroin, I don't think it's plausible that Ohioans would ever thank heroin the same way that some former addicts thank prison for their recovery.

In summary: Good book with stellar writing and thesis building, up until some strange claims at the very end.