The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth

by Sam Quinones

Back in the United States, meanwhile, overdoses were now the leading cause of accidental death. People addicted to prescription pain pills began switching to cheap, potent Mexican heroin. In 2016 Rapaszky took over the DEA office on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. He watched as street fentanyl became the opioid epidemic’s third phase, crowding out heroin—just as it had briefly done in south Chicago in 2006. The national death toll consequently set new annual records. On Cape Cod, every addict had had a hockey injury, or was injured on a fishing boat; either way, the doctors prescribed them opioids for the pain, and years later they were addicted and buying off the street what they thought was heroin. It was fentanyl, and many died.