Laura

“My footsteps echoed down small-town Main Streets. On one, a pharmacist left a note in the window of her store. She had enjoyed serving the town, she wrote, but couldn’t hang on anymore and she hoped they’d understand why she was leaving like all the rest. She left no forwarding address. Walmart”
― Sam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

“Unable to afford street OxyContin, Matt at some point switched to the black tar heroin that had saturated the Columbus market, brought in by young Mexican men from a small state on Mexico’s Pacific coast called Nayarit.”
― Sam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

“But across America, thousands of people like Matt Schoonover were dying. Drug overdoses were killing more people every year than car accidents.”
― Sam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

“Meanwhile, though supplies of heroin were unrelenting and addicts were everywhere, Jaime saw no outrage in Charlotte. He spoke to the parents of one junkie after another. As soon as he said the word “heroin,” their minds crashed to a halt. They couldn’t conceive of their children on heroin. For every symptom, the parents had an answer. Did they see burned aluminum foil around the house? We thought he was burning incense. Was he slurring his speech? He was getting over the flu. Were his grades falling? He was going through a phase. Jaime spoke to the city’s Drug Free Coalition, which was focused on alcohol and marijuana. “No,” he told them. “Heroin is the real problem.” He”
― Sam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic