02331cam a2200301 i 4500 517283391 TxAuBib 20211129120000.0 211021s2021||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9781635574357 HRD 28.00 1635574358 HRD 28.00 TxAuBib rda Quinones, Sam, 1958- The least of us [BOOK] : true tales of America and hope in the time of fentanyl and meth / Sam Quinones. New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. 408 pages ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 397-408). Sam Quinones traveled from Mexico to main streets across the U.S. to create Dreamland, a groundbreaking portrait of the opioid epidemic that awakened the nation. As the nation struggled to put back the pieces, Quinones was among the first to see the dangers that lay ahead: synthetic drugs and a new generation of kingpins whose product could be made in Magic Bullet blenders. In fentanyl, traffickers landed a painkiller a hundred times more powerful than morphine. They laced it into cocaine, meth, and counterfeit pills to cause tens of thousands of deaths-at the same time as Mexican traffickers made methamphetamine cheaper and more potent than ever, creating, Sam argues, swaths of mental illness and a surge in homelessness across the United States. Quinones hit the road to investigate these new threats, discovering how addiction is exacerbated by consumer-product corporations. “In a time when drug traffickers act like corporations and corporations like traffickers,” he writes, “our best defense, perhaps our only defense, lies in bolstering community.” Amid a landscape of despair, Quinones found hope in those embracing the forgotten and ignored, illuminating the striking truth that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable. Provided by publisher. 20211129. Opioid abuse United States. Drug abuse United States. Epidemics United States. Drugs United States. Opioids United States.