One of the most segregated cities in the South, Roanoke had long had a steady but largely quiet group of heroin users in its urban core, which positioned it to become an ideal transfer station for the region’s transition from dope to pills, then back to dope. It was the perfect incubator for the opioid epidemic—a cultural and geographic crossroads. It was big enough for users to easily forge drug connections and yet small enough for the drug dealers to hide out.
