Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic: Young Adult Adaptation

by Sam Quinones

Overview

As an adult book, Sam Quinones's Dreamland took the world by storm, winning the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction and hitting at least a dozen Best Book of the Year lists. Now, adapted for the first time for a young adult audience, this compelling reporting explains the roots of the current opiate crisis.

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. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland. Quinones explains how the rise of the prescription drug OxyContin, a miraculous and extremely addictive painkiller pushed by pharmaceutical companies, paralleled the massive influx of black tar heroin—cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel.

Introducing a memorable cast of characters—pharmaceutical pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, teens, and parents—Dreamland is a revelatory account of the massive threat facing America and its heartland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781547601318
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	07/16/2019
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	277,062
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Sam Quinones is a journalist, author and storyteller whose two acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction about Mexico and Mexican immigration made him, according to the SF Chronicle Book Review, "the most original writer on Mexico and the border." He lives in Los Angeles.

www.samquinones.com

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I The Pills 5

Portsmouth, Ohio 7

OxyContin 13

Addiction 20

Pill Mills 27

The Oxy Trade 33

Discovery 42

Part 2 Heroin 49

Enrique 51

Tienditas 60

Delivered Like Pizza 67

The Man 75

Columbus, Ohio 83

New Mexico 90

Operation Tar Pit 96

Part 3 A New Dreamland 101

Ground Zero 103

Importing Pills 109

Black Gold 114

Corporate Crimes 122

Tidal Wave 130

Silence 136

Part 4 Responding 141

A New Approach 143

Treatment 151

Untreatable Pain 156

Everywhere 166

Changes 174

Portsmouth 180

Photo Album 191

Discussion Guide 195

Resources for Teens 197

Sources 198

Photograph Credits 206

Index 207

Editorial Reviews

Does what 'Fast Food Nation' did for fast food to Black Tar Heroin and oxycodone . . . A stunning journalistic journey that follows the history and narrative trajectories that lead to this entirely new style of cultivating drug addiction . . . I just love this book.” —Marc Maron

“Journalist Quinones weaves an extraordinary story, including the personal journeys of the addicted, the drug traffickers, law enforcement, and scores of families affected by the scourge, as he details the social, economic, and political forces that eventually destroyed communities in the American heartland and continues to have a resounding impact.” —Booklist

"This fast-moving and relatively austere account will acquaint teen readers with important elements of the opioid epidemic, though this discussion is only a gateway, if you will, to a deeper story of distress. Yet it ends on a note of quiet hope. Having hit bottom, Portsmouth, Ohio, is turning itself around. “Once a junkie’s haven,” Mr. Quinones writes, it is now a place with a culture of recovery, “a refuge for those seeking a new life.” " - The Wall Street Journal

“You won't find this story told better anywhere else” —Slate

"A sharp, engrossing work of narrative nonfiction." - Shelf Awareness

“At once a heartbreaking narrative about the individuals in the grips of addiction, and a thorough history of how that addiction was made possible by a variety of key players. Featuring voices from every corner of the crisis, including pharmaceutical bigwigs, young Mexican drug runners, police, doctors, addicts, survivors, and families touched by epidemic, Dreamland is a must-read for anyone grappling with the story of heroin addiction in the United States.” —Bustle

“A scrupulously researched, well-crafted tale that sheds light on a timely topic.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2019-04-11
In this young adult adaptation of his adult title Dreamland (2015), seasoned journalist Quinones narrates a fast-paced exposé of the opiate epidemic.

The story begins and ends in Portsmouth, Ohio, a leader in both societal decline due to addiction and, years later, hope for recovering addicts. Quinones lays out the causes of the epidemic as if bringing together puzzle pieces. Purdue Pharma's ad campaign targeting physicians downplayed the addictive nature of painkillers; physicians overprescribed them, most—but not all—with sincere intentions of helping their patients. A seemingly endless stream of Mexican drug dealers sought out the addict population as customers for their imported black tar heroin, which provided the same euphoria but with less cost and inconvenience. Presented as victims are the addicts—predominantly white families, at first poor and rural, later from privileged backgrounds. The efforts of law enforcement and public health officials to tackle the problem are detailed. Personal profiles crafted from interviews keep things interesting, and the technical descriptions of the various drug forms and the history of opiates are informative. Although the author describes the radical about-face by lawmakers who took a "tough on crime" approach to drugs when victims were predominantly black, readers may finish the book with the impression that Mexicans have wreaked havoc on innocent white lives.

A scrupulously researched, well-crafted tale that sheds light on a timely topic. (epilogue, photographs, reading guide, source notes) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews