Taking painkillers is commonplace in modern society. As for the research on non-addictive analgesics, the American Committee on Drug Dependence took it as its own responsibility as soon as it was established in 1928. However, some doctors believe that "patients rarely become addicted." This statement was published by the authoritative "New England Journal of Medicine" in the early 1980s, which excited the medical community. OxyContin has miraculous effects and is available in different dosage forms, but the price is too high. Some addicts take advantage of differences in health insurance and state laws to obtain the drug, sell it as a supplement, or simply switch to drugs.
During the same period, young Mexicans with dreams of getting rich continued to pour in with cheap and powerful black tar heroin. Based in Latino communities in California and other places, they targeted wealthy white people and established a hidden and powerful retail network, making buying drugs as convenient as ordering takeout.
In this way, drugs entered mainstream American society through the route created by painkillers. This time, the addicts were almost all white. The U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration launched two operations against black tar heroin in 2000 and 2006, but the number of drug overdose deaths remained high, even exceeding the number of car accident deaths. The author of this book, Sam Quinones, was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times' Mexican anti-drug war reporting team. He tracked from the "blue-collar city" Portsmouth to small towns in Mexico, interviewing young drug dealers, pharmaceutical industry personnel, Drug Enforcement Administration agents, parents who have lost their children, and middle-class young people addicted to drugs. He uses heartbreaking stories to reveal the corrosion of painkillers and drugs on contemporary American society and its core values.
