Download Dreamland The True Tale of America Opiate Epidemic Sam Quinones 9781620402528 Books
Download Dreamland The True Tale of America Opiate Epidemic Sam Quinones 9781620402528 Books
Download As PDF : Dreamland The True Tale of America Opiate Epidemic Sam Quinones 9781620402528 Books
Winner of the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction
Named on 's Best Books of the Year 2015--Michael Botticelli, U.S. Drug Czar (Politico) Favorite Book of the Year--Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize Economics (Bloomberg/WSJ) Best Books of 2015--Matt Bevin, Governor of Kentucky (WSJ) Books of the Year--Slate.com's 10 Best Books of 2015--Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Books of 2015 --Buzzfeed's 19 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015--The Daily Beast's Best Big Idea Books of 2015--Seattle Times' Best Books of 2015--Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015--St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Best Books of 2015--The Guardian's The Best Book We Read All Year--Audible's Best Books of 2015--Texas Observer's Five Books We Loved in 2015--Chicago Public Library's Best Nonfiction Books of 2015
From a small town in Mexico to the boardrooms of Big Pharma to main streets nationwide, an explosive and shocking account of addiction in the heartland of America.
In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America--addiction like no other the country has ever faced. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland.
With a great reporter's narrative skill and the storytelling ability of a novelist, acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of capitalism run amok whose unintentional collision has been catastrophic. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive--extremely addictive--miracle painkiller. Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel--assaulted small town and mid-sized cities across the country, driven by a brilliant, almost unbeatable marketing and distribution system. Together these phenomena continue to lay waste to communities from Tennessee to Oregon, Indiana to New Mexico.
Introducing a memorable cast of characters--pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents--Quinones shows how these tales fit together. Dreamland is a revelatory account of the corrosive threat facing America and its heartland.
Download Dreamland The True Tale of America Opiate Epidemic Sam Quinones 9781620402528 Books
"One of the MOST important and riveting books I've read in a long time - and that is not an exaggeration! I rarely give 5 stars but this one deserves it. An incredible journey and comprehensive telling by perhaps one of our best living journalists of what went wrong leading to the opiate-heroin-drug-overdose-death epidemic in America, how easily opiates evolved into a heroin epidemic, ravaged small town America and then spread well beyond into comfortable communities of privilege.
I came upon this book delving into trying to understand what has been going on in this country (starting with Hillbilly Elegy), and why despite reading broadly than most, I was so taken aback by the Nov'16 election outcome. The factors are myriad - and that journey continues - but what became obvious to me was that the opiate crisis particularly in places like Portsmouth Ohio or the Appalachia created much of the senseless destruction that contributed to it. It's only when that crisis reached "us" with the death of people like Philip Hoffman Seymour in 2014 did we even begin to pay attention. But it was too late. Given the garbage heap of non-essentials that the media shoves at us they largely missed the urgency of this story. Death due to drug overdoses exceeded those from car crashes as early as 2007!!! YES you read that right - 2007 - nearly a decade before we paid attention. How broadly was that publicized, and how deeply investigated? Thankfully for us there are journalists out there like Sam Quinones who researched it for 5 years and then wrote this tome.
Besides being a great read because of his fantastic narrative style and passion for getting to the bottom of it, Quinones brings together a complete picture of all that played here. The opiate-heroin crisis resulted from a PERFECT STORM of varied factors coming together -
-- the drastic swing in the pain management pendulum with a change towards prescribing opiates starting in the '90's willy-nilly to one and all under the misguided - and to some extent deliberate - notion that they are not addictive when prescribed for pain "pain soaks up the euphoria"! There was no "data" or "study", instead a small paragraph in a letter to an editor of a medical journal that set this off. No one asked questions or asked to see the source! The man who wrote the paragraph had no intention nor data to support what was inferred.
-- unethical companies like Purdue Pharma taking advantage of this new fad, pushing their drug(s) esp. OxyContin on anyone with ANY pain creating drug addicts who would never have gotten there. Purdue knew the "data" was faulty and that new addicts were being created everyday yet they pushed it hard until the end,
-- unethical, often "quack" pill doctors who appeared at mushrooming "pain clinics" everywhere to provide willing Rx for OxyContin; they only took $250 in cash per visit!
-- unlimited and unchecked Medicaid card, SSI, disability benefits that funded the pills; a medicaid card enabled you to get pills with a $3 copay that you could resell for thousands of dollars. One reason for the millions who are not employed nor looking for work...
-- the appearance of black tar heroin from Mexico for which OxyContin happened to be the perfect gateway drug a lot cheaper and better quality (high potency) than the white powder; OxyContin traveled west and black tar heroin traveled east and the invasion was complete!
-- a new business model for selling heroin via near unbreakable Mexican drug dealing cells where the heroin is delivered like pizza to customers along with great service by salaried drivers!
Yes that's how crazy it got -- and we are only now beginning to understand and unravel let along address! Read on for an amazing book and incredible journey of learning."
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Dreamland The True Tale of America Opiate Epidemic Sam Quinones 9781620402528 Books Reviews :
Dreamland The True Tale of America Opiate Epidemic Sam Quinones 9781620402528 Books Reviews
- I'm an Obstetrician who is dealing with the repercussions of the opioid epidemic and countless babies struggling in the throes of neonatal abstinence syndrome (withdrawal).
A whole generation of innocent babies afflicted by Purdue Pharma., JCAHO, quacks, charlatans, and savvy heroin dealers. It's a disgrace and a cultural regression that Sam Quinones has brilliantly brought to widespread public awareness with his book. - This should be required reading--for everyone.
"Dreamland The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic" is the tragic, frightening and prescient story of the heroin and opiate epidemic in the United States. And if you think none of this applies to you, that is all the more reason to read this book. Although it's especially corrosive in the heartland of Ohio, this is a nationwide problem, and we all need to be educated.
Reading more like a novel or a detective story, this cross between journalism and storytelling traces the "perfect storm" that led so many people--from professionals to prostitutes, teachers to cheerleaders--to became hooked on painkillers. Occurring in tandem was the uptick in heroin addictions, led primarily from high-quality "black tar heroin" from Mexico with dealers following business models that rival the nation's best-run corporations and delivery methods as efficient as your favorite pizza parlor. And then all hell broke loose when the paths of opiates and heroin crossed.
For five years author Sam Quinones did prodigious on-the-ground research to write this book that is on the one hand the most fascinating tale I have read in ages and on the other scarier than anything Stephen King could dream up--because this is real. And it's in your community. Find out how young men from Xalisco, Nayarit, a tiny village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, became heroin entrepreneurs in the United States using methods that confused and confounded local law enforcement. Find out how Big Pharma embraced nefarious marketing methods for painkillers, especially OxyCotin, to convince family doctors to write millions of prescriptions. Find out how doctors, who were taught in medical school to be wary of prescribing addictive painkillers, found their hospitals' accreditation was at risk if patients were not aggressively treated for pain. Find out about quack MDs, who set up pill mills in hard-hit communities in southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky, became extremely wealthy off the residents' addictions. Find out how Walmart became an unwitting accomplice in the scourge of opiate addiction.
But there is hope. A lot of hope. The book ends on a positive note about all that is being done--finally--to fight the opiate epidemic, especially in southern Ohio.
"Dreamland" is compelling , riveting and eye-opening because it is not only the story of what has happened, but also the tale of the people--the individual lives--who got caught up in it. I gave this book five stars, but I would give it 10 if I could. - This book rocked my world. Shocking to me in many ways. The combination of misinformation, desire for monetary success, and ingenuity in "beating the system" created such havoc in this country. I won't be be able to forget this book.
I spent half my childhood in Portsmouth, and visited it occasionally in the 1990s and 2000s. I saw the changes, but was unaware off the depths of corruption. I was stunned. Completely stunned.
The author closes with news that Portsmouth is in recovery; I hope they defy all the "coasters" and cynics. I'll be looking for a way I can help even if in a small way.
On the downside, I do wish the author hadn't referenced the delivery system as "like pizza" so many times; I got the point and the repetition made me hungry for Domino's. - One of the MOST important and riveting books I've read in a long time - and that is not an exaggeration! I rarely give 5 stars but this one deserves it. An incredible journey and comprehensive telling by perhaps one of our best living journalists of what went wrong leading to the opiate-heroin-drug-overdose-death epidemic in America, how easily opiates evolved into a heroin epidemic, ravaged small town America and then spread well beyond into comfortable communities of privilege.
I came upon this book delving into trying to understand what has been going on in this country (starting with Hillbilly Elegy), and why despite reading broadly than most, I was so taken aback by the Nov'16 election outcome. The factors are myriad - and that journey continues - but what became obvious to me was that the opiate crisis particularly in places like Portsmouth Ohio or the Appalachia created much of the senseless destruction that contributed to it. It's only when that crisis reached "us" with the death of people like Philip Hoffman Seymour in 2014 did we even begin to pay attention. But it was too late. Given the garbage heap of non-essentials that the media shoves at us they largely missed the urgency of this story. Death due to drug overdoses exceeded those from car crashes as early as 2007!!! YES you read that right - 2007 - nearly a decade before we paid attention. How broadly was that publicized, and how deeply investigated? Thankfully for us there are journalists out there like Sam Quinones who researched it for 5 years and then wrote this tome.
Besides being a great read because of his fantastic narrative style and passion for getting to the bottom of it, Quinones brings together a complete picture of all that played here. The opiate-heroin crisis resulted from a PERFECT STORM of varied factors coming together -
-- the drastic swing in the pain management pendulum with a change towards prescribing opiates starting in the '90's willy-nilly to one and all under the misguided - and to some extent deliberate - notion that they are not addictive when prescribed for pain "pain soaks up the euphoria"! There was no "data" or "study", instead a small paragraph in a letter to an editor of a medical journal that set this off. No one asked questions or asked to see the source! The man who wrote the paragraph had no intention nor data to support what was inferred.
-- unethical companies like Purdue Pharma taking advantage of this new fad, pushing their drug(s) esp. OxyContin on anyone with ANY pain creating drug addicts who would never have gotten there. Purdue knew the "data" was faulty and that new addicts were being created everyday yet they pushed it hard until the end,
-- unethical, often "quack" pill doctors who appeared at mushrooming "pain clinics" everywhere to provide willing Rx for OxyContin; they only took $250 in cash per visit!
-- unlimited and unchecked Medicaid card, SSI, disability benefits that funded the pills; a medicaid card enabled you to get pills with a $3 copay that you could resell for thousands of dollars. One reason for the millions who are not employed nor looking for work...
-- the appearance of black tar heroin from Mexico for which OxyContin happened to be the perfect gateway drug a lot cheaper and better quality (high potency) than the white powder; OxyContin traveled west and black tar heroin traveled east and the invasion was complete!
-- a new business model for selling heroin via near unbreakable Mexican drug dealing cells where the heroin is delivered like pizza to customers along with great service by salaried drivers!
Yes that's how crazy it got -- and we are only now beginning to understand and unravel let along address! Read on for an amazing book and incredible journey of learning.
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