Name: Dreamland
ISBN: 9781620402504

Sam Quinones

An explosive true account of addiction, marketing and the making of an epidemic weaves together the story of Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, while, at the same time, a massive influx of black tar heroin took the county by storm through an almost unbreakable marking and distribution system.

The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

Dreamland

Bad Girl Bex

I absolutely love this book! Sam Quinones is a crime writer who when looking into the opiate crisis that started to sweep across America from the 1990's onwards, saw a connection between the over-prescribing of medications like Oxycontin, and the explosion in the use of black tar heroin that originated out of a small county in Mexico. This brilliantly sprawling tale manages to present the facts behind both of these opiates, exploring the legislation that allowed for almost unlimited prescribing of pain-meds, the companies who drove these products into the market-place and the subsequent fall-out that devastated so many towns in the rural white American heartland. Quinones also interviews several players involved in both the legal manufacture and distribution of Oxycontin, as well as members from the fascinatingly effective network of young men who operated small, independent cells, selling black tar heroin to the already addicted. The ingenuity and industriousness displayed by the young Mexican men who turned a previously unpleasant, seedy encounter (buying heroin) into a smart, fast, effective service where the quality of the product was always guaranteed, and the delivery drivers (none of whom ever took or cut the product) maintained a level of customer service akin to that of a legitimate corporate business, is hard to not be impressed with. I'm not condoning what they were doing, but Quinones does a good job of showing the parallels between what the legitimate drug companies were doing and what the Mexican drug dealers were doing. 

Throughout this book Quinones introduces us to characters whose part in this massive, sweeping story might not initially become obvious, but as he deftly weaves together all the many, multiple threads of his story, everything eventually becomes clear and you end up with a huge, comprehensive overview of the opioid addiction problem at both the macro and the micro level. 'Dreamland' is brilliantly written, taking its name from a leisure centre complex in a run-down town, which itself becomes the metaphor for the societal problems at the heart of this incredibly multifaceted and complex issue. It is at once both factually fascinating and immensely readable, with real life stories from those whose lives have been affected by the opioid crisis, putting real, relatable faces and names to this hideous problem.

This was the first book I read by Quinones, but if this is how he does a deep-dive into a vastly, complex issue like the opioid crisis, then I'd happily read anything else he's written. 'Dreamland' is an important book, detailing an issue many might want to stay away from, thinking it really doesn't apply to them. But as the many contributing interviewees in the book explain, this is an issue that touches us all in one way or another and the worst thing we can do is remain silent and ignorant about it. 5/5 would recommend to everyone.

Randy Robbins

As a recovering addict, I found this book tragic but incredibly informative. The drug war needs to end and these stories are just another example of why.

Winner of the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction Named on Amazon's Best Books of the Year 2015--Michael Botticelli, U.S. Drug Czar (Politico) Favorite Book of the Year--Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize Economics (Bloomberg/WSJ) Best Books of 2015--Matt Bevin, Governor of Kentucky (WSJ) Books of the Year--Slate.com's 10 Best Books of 2015--Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Books of 2015 --Buzzfeed's 19 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015--The Daily Beast's Best Big Idea Books of 2015--Seattle Times' Best Books of 2015--Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015--St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Best Books of 2015--The Guardian's The Best Book We Read All Year--Audible's Best Books of 2015--Texas Observer's Five Books We Loved in 2015--Chicago Public Library's Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 From a small town in Mexico to the boardrooms of Big Pharma to main streets nationwide, an explosive and shocking account of addiction in the heartland of America. In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America--addiction like no other the country has ever faced. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland. With a great reporter's narrative skill and the storytelling ability of a novelist, acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of capitalism run amok whose unintentional collision has been catastrophic. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive--extremely addictive--miracle painkiller. Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel--assaulted small town and mid-sized cities across the country, driven by a brilliant, almost unbeatable marketing and distribution system. Together these phenomena continue to lay waste to communities from Tennessee to Oregon, Indiana to New Mexico. Introducing a memorable cast of characters--pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents--Quinones shows how these tales fit together. Dreamland is a revelatory account of the corrosive threat facing America and its heartland.

Dreamland The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

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