Once these businesses got going, they didn’t just prescribe opiate painkillers, such as Vicodin or OxyContin. There also emerged in the wake of David Procter a taste in the Rust Belt and Appalachia for the class of psychoactive drugs known as benzodiazepines. Valium was the first benzo, but Xanax bars were the most popular. As Procter showed his clients, benzodiazepines combined with opiates were especially potent and addictive. Both were depressants and very dangerous when taken together. But addicts grew to love the two together as benzos seemed to enhance the euphoria of the opiates. The
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