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

by Sam Quinones

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.

No other institution in our national life—perhaps not even prison—has such a toxic impact on crime, addiction, and mental illness as does county jail the way it’s been traditionally run.

The problem is, I don’t trust American capitalism to do drug legalization responsibly. The last fifty years are replete with examples of corporations turning addictive services and substances against us, fine-tuning their addictiveness, then marketing them aggressively.