Sa 8/27/16
I heard about this book on Marc Maron's podcast, WTF. He was raving about the book and was trying to get the author on his show. I was shocked to find that the library had the book, so I got it.
This is the best non-fiction I've read in a long, long time. It was a fast read and felt like you were ripping through a thriller.
Portsmouth, Ohio- This is a blue collar town in southern Ohio that was ripped apart by the opiate/heroin epidemic that began in the 1980's and continued for a couple of decades.
In 1929 a pool the size of a football field was installed in the town of Portsmouth. One of the shoe companies put up the money. A couple of generations of the town grew up by this side of this pool. Quinones uses the metaphor of people growing up in a community (around the edges of this pool) and when the epidemic struck, people were in solitude. Locked in bedrooms or cars, nodding on downers.
Xalisco, Mexico; in the state of Nayarit. Not too far from the capitol, Tepic. Black Tar Heroin.
Farm boys that only wanted to get quick cash in America and come back and 'wow' their friends and family at the local Corn Festival.
Loved 501 Levis- They marked successful people and showed that 'they had arrived'.
On salaries of about five hundred a week. They would drive around with several bags of Black Tar heroin in balloons in their mouths. No guns. If caught, they faced nothing more than extradition. As soon as one was busted, many clamored to be next.
They offered sales and even gave free samples. And, strangest of all, they did follow up surveys to find out if the customer was completely satisfied. They did not fight among the 'cells', but they even shared product. They tried to gain market strength by offering the cheapest heroin with the best service- just like a legitimate business.
OxyContin Oxycodone- This was a drug that was marketed as a painkiller that was an opiate, but did not risk addiction. "The pain would block any chance of addiction".
Absolute nonsense, but accepted as truth.
Herschel Fick did a very small study and said that very, very few became addicted after being prescribed this drug. He observed a very small group that were basically people with no history of any sort of abuse (for example- elderly women recovering from hip surgery). He never intended this to reflect any kind of truth in a wider application of the drug (to the general population).
The drug companies employed over a hundred thousand salespeople to convince doctors that this was a safe drug.
'Pain' was changed to become a 'Vital Sign'.
Before, Vital Signs were merely "the clinical measurements, specifically pulse rate, temperature, respiration rate, and blood pressure, that indicate the state of a patient's essential body functions". But, by the 1980's 'Pain' was now included.
This created a huge market for pain killers.
Pills were up to 80 milligrams; on the black market this equalled about a dollar a milligram.
Oxycontin was pushed and developed by 'Purdue Pharma'.
In the end this company paid billions in restitutions, but it obviously did not offset the damage done.
Pill Mills all over the Rust Belt. After the manufacturing left in the 1940's, the only industry this area got was Prisons, Nuclear Plants, and then, Pill Mills. However, 'Rehab' became big by 2000.
People first became addicted to the pills, and when they became too expensive they substituted the Black Tar Heroin.
The Xalisco Boys drove immaculate, slightly older vehicles (so as not stand out) and would arrange to meet their customers in parking lots or on the street. No turf wars because they were always on the move. Their dispatcher's telephone number was circulated among the clients (junkies).
The best that you can ask of Non-Fiction. To be entertained and enlightened simultaneously!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment