The first real dissent would come soon, though, in the unlikely form of a country doctor and one thoroughly pissed-off Catholic-nun-turned-drug counselor. Though Dr. Art Van Zee and his colleague Sister Beth Davies would sound the epidemic’s first sentinel alarm from Appalachia, they were greeted with the same indifference as the Richmond doctor who demanded prompt action to curb the rampant use of opioids in 1884, and the inventor of morphine, who strongly urged caution in 1810. Their outsider status disguised both the depth and the relevance of their knowledge.
