Later, some people would claim that the opioid addiction epidemic was only getting attention because the great majority of its victims were middle-class White people. That was true. The other truth was that the plague hid for years because so many of its victims were middle-class Whites. Families seared by the loss also had to navigate the shame. They covered up, mortified at how their loved ones had died, afraid to stain their memories. Newspaper obituaries reported that a twenty-seven-year-old died of a “heart attack”; a middle-aged brother “died suddenly” at home. Amid this nationwide
...more
