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Today's guest is Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He spent two years as a police officer in Baltimore. I asked him to come on and talk about his new book, Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. It's one of my favorite books I've read this year (and it was one of my three book recommendations on Ezra Klein's show last week).Peter spoke with hundreds of police officers and NYC officials to understand and describe exactly how the city's leaders in the early 1990s managed to drive down crime so successfully.We discussed:* How bad did things get in the 1970s?* Why did processing an arrest take so long?* What did Bill Bratton and other key leaders do differently?* How did police get rid of the squeegee men?I've included my reading list at the bottom of this piece. Thanks to Harry Fletcher-Wood for his judicious transcript edits.Subscribe for one new interview a week.Peter, how would you describe yourself?I would say I'm a criminologist: my background is sociology, but I am not in the sociology department. I'm not so big on theory, and sociology has a lot of theory. I was a grad student at Harvard in sociology and worked as a police officer [in Baltimore] and that became my dissertation and first book, Cop in the Hood. I've somewhat banked my career on those 20 months in the police department.Not a lot of sociologists spend a couple of years working a police beat.It's generally frowned upon, both for methodological reasons and issues of bias. But there is also an ideological opposition in a lot of academia to policing. It's seen as going to the dark side and something to be condemned, not understood.Sociologists said crime can't go down unless we fix society first. It's caused by poverty, racism, unemployment, and social and economic factors — they're called the root causes. But they don't seem to have a great impact on crime, as important as they are. When I'm in grad school, murders dropped 30-40% in New York City. At the same time, Mayor Giuliani is slashing social spending, and poverty is increasing. The whole academic field is just wrong. I thought it an interesting field to get into.We're going to talk about your new book, which is called Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. I had a blast reading it. Tell me about the process of writing it.A lot of this is oral history, basically. But supposedly people don't like buying books that are called oral histories. It is told entirely from the perspective of police officers who were on the job at the time. I would not pretend I talked to everyone, because there were 30,000+ cops around, but I spoke to many cops and to all the major players involved in the 1990s crime drop in New York City.I was born in the ‘90s, and I had no idea about a crazy statistic you cite: 25% of the entire national crime decline was attributable to New York City's crime decline.In one year, yeah. One of the things people say to diminish the role of policing is that the crime drop happened everywhere — and it did end up happening almost everywhere. But I think that is partly because what happened in New York City was a lot of hard work, but it wasn't that complicated. It was very easy to propagate, and people came to New York to find out what was going on. You could see results, literally in a matter of months.It happened first in New York City. Really, it happened first in the subways and that's interesting, because if crime goes down in the subways [which, at the time, fell under the separate New York City Transit Police] and not in the rest of the city, you say, “What is going on in the subways that is unique?” It was the exact same strategies and leadership that later transformed the NYPD [New York Police Department].Set the scene: What was the state of crime and disorder in New York in the ‘70s and into the ‘80s?Long story short, it was bad. Crime in New York was a big problem from the late ‘60s up to the mid ‘90s, and the ‘70s is when the people who became the leaders started their careers. So these were defining moments. The city was almost bankrupt in 1975 and laid off 5,000 cops; 3,000 for a long period of time. That was arguably the nadir. It scarred the police department and the city.Eventually, the city got its finances in order and came to the realization that “we've got a big crime problem too.” That crime problem really came to a head with crack cocaine. Robberies peaked in New York City in 1980. There were above 100,000 robberies in 1981, and those are just reported robberies. A lot of people get robbed and just say, “It's not worth it to report,” or, “I'm going to work,” or, “Cops aren't going to do anything.” The number of robberies and car thefts was amazingly high. The trauma, the impact on the city and on urban space, and people's perception of fear, all comes from that. If you're afraid of crime, it's high up on the hierarchy of needs.To some extent, those lessons have been lost or forgotten. Last year there were 16,600 [robberies], which is a huge increase from a few years ago, but we're still talking an 85% reduction compared to the worst years. It supposedly wasn't possible. What I wanted to get into in Back from the Brink was the actual mechanisms of the crime drop. I did about fifty formal interviews and hundreds of informal interviews building the story. By and large, people were telling the same story.In 1975, the city almost goes bankrupt. It's cutting costs everywhere, and it lays off more than 5,000 cops, about 20% of the force, in one day. There's not a new police academy class until 1979, four years later. Talk to me about where the NYPD was at that time.They were retrenched, and the cops were demoralized because “This is how the city treats us?” The actual process of laying off the cops itself was just brutal: they went to work, and were told once they got to work that they were no longer cops. “Give me your badge, give me your gun."The city also was dealing with crime, disorder, and racial unrest. The police department was worried about corruption, which was a legacy of the Knapp Commission [which investigated NYPD corruption] and [Frank] Serpico [a whistleblowing officer]. It's an old police adage, that if you don't work, you can't get in trouble. That became very much the standard way of doing things. Keep your head low, stay out of trouble, and you'll collect your paycheck and go home.You talk about the blackout in 1977, when much of the city lost power and you have widespread looting and arson. 13,000 off-duty cops get called in during the emergency, and only about 5,000 show up, which is a remarkable sign of the state of morale.The person in my book who's talking about that is Louis Anemone. He showed up because his neighbor and friend and partner was there, and he's got to help him. It was very much an in-the-foxholes experience. I contrast that with the more recent blackout, in which the city went and had a big block party instead. That is reflective of the change that happened in the city.In the mid-80s you get the crack cocaine epidemic. Talk to me about how police respond.From a political perspective, that era coincided with David Dinkins as [New York City's first black] mayor. He was universally disliked, to put it mildly, by white and black police officers alike. He was seen as hands off. He was elected in part to improve racial relations in New York City, to mitigate racial strife, but in Crown Heights and Washington Heights, there were riots, and racial relations got worse. He failed at the level he was supposed to be good at. Crime and quality of life were the major issues in that election.Dinkins's approach to the violence is centered around what they called “community policing.” Will you describe how Dinkins and political leaders in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s thought about policing?This is under Ben Ward, the [NYPD] Commissioner at the time. The mayor appoints the police commissioner — and the buck does stop with the mayor — but the mayor is not actively involved in day-to-day operations. That part does go down to the police department.Community policing was seen as an attempt to improve relations between the police and the community. The real goal was to lessen racial strife and unrest between black (and to a lesser extent Hispanic) communities and the NYPD. Going back to the ‘60s, New York had been rocked by continued unrest in neighborhoods like Central Harlem, East New York, and Bushwick. Community policing was seen as saying that police are partly to blame, and we want to improve relations. Some of it was an attempt to get the community more involved in crime fighting.It's tough. It involves a certain rosy view of the community, but that part of the community isn't causing the problems. It avoids the fact there are people who are actively criming and are willing to hurt people who get in their way. Community policing doesn't really address the active criminal element, that is a small part of any community, including high-crime communities.Arrests increased drastically during this era, more than in the ‘90s with broken windows policing. If the idea is to have fewer arrests, it didn't happen in the ‘80s. Some good came out of it, because it did encourage cops to be a bit more active and cops are incentivized by overtime. Arrests were so incredibly time-consuming, which kind of defeated the purpose of community policing. If you made an arrest in that era, there was a good chance you might spend literally 24 hours processing the arrest.Will you describe what goes into that 24 hours?From my experience policing in Baltimore, I knew arrests were time-consuming and paperwork redundant, but I could process a simple arrest in an hour or two. Even a complicated one that involved juveniles and guns and drugs, we're talking six to eight hours.In the ‘80s, Bob Davin, [in the] Transit Police, would say they'd make an arrest, process at the local precinct, search him in front of a desk officer, print him, and then they would have to get a radio car off patrol to drive you down to central booking at 100 Centre Street [New York City Criminal Court]. Then they would fingerprint him. They didn't have the live scan fingerprints machine, it was all ink. It had to be faxed up to Albany and the FBI to see if it hit on any warrant federally and for positive identification of the person. Sometimes it took 12 hours to have the prints come back and the perp would be remanded until that time. Then you'd have to wait for the prosecutor to get their act together and to review all the paperwork. You couldn't consider bail unless the prints came back either positive or negative and then you would have that initial arraignment and the cop could then go home. There are a lot of moving parts, and they moved at a glacial pace.The system often doesn't work 24/7. A lot of this has changed, but some of it was having to wait until 9 am for people to show up to go to work, because it's not a single system. The courts, the jails, and policing all march to their own drummer, and that created a level of inefficiency.So much of the nitty-gritty of what cops actually do is boring, behind-the-scenes stuff: How do we speed up the paperwork? Can we group prisoners together? Can we do some of this at the police station instead of taking it downtown? Is all of this necessary? Can we cooperate with the various prosecutors? There are five different prosecutors in New York City, one for each borough.There's not a great incentive to streamline this. Cops enjoyed the overtime. That's one of the reasons they would make arrests. So during this time, if a cop makes an arrest for drug dealing, that cop is gone and no cop was there to replace him. If it's a minor arrest, there's a good chance in the long run charges will be dropped anyway. And you're taking cops off the street. In that sense, it's lose-lose. But, you have to think, “What's the alternative?”Bob Davin is a fascinating guy. There's a famous picture from 1981 by Martha Cooper of two cops on a subway train. It's graffitied up and they're in their leather jackets and look like cops from the ‘70s. Martha Cooper graciously gave me permission to use the picture, but she said, "You have to indemnify me because I don't have a release form. I don't know who the cops are." I said, "Martha, I do know who the cop is, because he's in my book and he loves the picture.” Bob Davin is the cop on the right.Davin says that things started to get more efficient. They had hub sites in the late ‘80s or ‘90s, so precincts in the north of Manhattan could bring their prisoners there, and you wouldn't have to take a car out of service to go back to Central Booking and deal with traffic. They started collecting prisoners and bringing them en masse on a small school bus, and that would cut into overtime. Then moving to electronic scan fingerprints drastically saves time waiting for those to come back.These improvements were made, but some of them involve collective bargaining with unions, to limit overtime and arrests that are made for the pure purpose of overtime. You want cops making arrests for the right reason and not simply to make money. But boy, there was a lot of money made in arrests.In 1991, you have the infamous Crown Heights riot in Brooklyn. Racial tensions kick off. It's a nightmare for the mayor, there's this sense that he has lost control. The following year, you have this infamous police protest at City Hall where it becomes clear the relationship between the cops and the mayor has totally evaporated. How does all that play into the mayoral race between Dinkins and Giuliani?It was unintentional, but a lot of the blame for Crown Heights falls on the police department. The part of the story that is better known is that there was a procession for a Hasidic rabbi that was led by a police car. He would go to his wife's grave, and he got a little three-car motorcade. At some point, the police look at this and go "Why are we doing this? We're going to change it." The man who made the deal said ‘I"m retiring in a couple weeks, can we just leave it till then? Because I gave him my word." They're like, "Alright, whatever."This motor car procession is then involved in a car crash, and a young child named Gavin Cato is killed, and another girl is severely injured. The volunteer, Jewish-run ambulance shows up and decides they don't have the equipment: they call for a professional city ambulance. Once that ambulance is on the way, they take the mildly-injured Jewish people to the hospital. The rumor starts that the Jewish ambulance abandoned the black children to die.This isn't the first incident. There's long been strife over property and who the landlord is. But this was the spark that set off riots. A young Jewish man was randomly attacked on the street and was killed.As an aside, he also shouldn't have died, but at the hospital they missed internal bleeding.Meanwhile, the police department has no real leadership at the time. One chief is going to retire, another is on vacation, a third doesn't know what he's doing, and basically everyone is afraid to do anything. So police do nothing. They pull back, and you have three days of very anti-Semitic riots. Crowds chanting "Kill the Jews" and marching on the Lubavitch Hasidic Headquarters. Al Sharpton shows up. The riots are blamed on Dinkins, which is partly fair, but a lot of that's on the NYPD. Finally, the mayor and the police commissioner go to see what's going on and they get attacked. It's the only time in New York City history that there's ever been an emergency call from the police commissioner's car. People are throwing rocks at it.It took three days to realise this, but that's when they say “We have to do something here,” and they gather a group of officers who later become many of Bratton's main chiefs at the time [Bill Bratton was Commissioner of the NYPD from 1994-1996, under Giuliani]: Mike Julian, Louis Anemone, Ray Kelly, and [John] Timoney. They end the unrest in a day. They allow people to march, they get the police department to set rules. It still goes on for a bit, but no one gets hurt after that, and that's it.It was a huge, national story at the time, but a lot of the details were not covered. Reporters were taken from their car and beaten and stripped. The significance was downplayed at the time, especially by the New York Times, I would say.That's followed by the Washington Heights riots, which is a different story. A drug dealer was shot and killed by cops. There were rumors, which were proven to be false, that he was executed and unarmed. Then there were three days of rioting there. It wasn't quite as severe, but 53 cops were hurt, 120 stores were set on fire, and Mayor Dinkins paid for the victim's family to go to the Dominican Republic for the funeral. The police perspective again was, “You're picking the wrong side here.”Then there's the so-called Police Riot at City Hall. Nominally, it was about the CCRB, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and setting up an accountability mechanism to control cops. But really it was just an anti-Dinkins protest. It was drunken and unruly. The cops stormed the steps of City Hall. I have the account of one of the cops who was on the top of those steps looking at this mob of cops storming to him, and he's getting worried he's going to be killed in a crush. There were racist chants from off-duty cops in the crowd. It did not reflect well on police officers. But it showed this hatred of David Dinkins, who was seen as siding with criminals and being anti-police. The irony is that Dinkins is the one who ends up hiring all the cops that Giuliani gets credit for.In the “Safe Streets, Safe City” program?Yes. That was because a white tourist, Brian Watkins, was killed in a subway station protecting his parents who were getting robbed. That led to the famous headline [in the New York Post] of “Dave, do something! Crime-ravaged city cries out for help.” He, with City Council President Peter Vallone, Sr., drafted and pushed through this massive hiring of police officers, “Safe Streets, Safe City.”The hiring wasn't fast-tracked. It might be because Dinkins's people didn't really want more cops. But it was a Dinkins push that got a massive hiring of cops. When the first huge class of police officers graduated, Bill Bratton was there and not David Dinkins.Some interviewees in your book talk about how there's physically not enough room in the police academies at this time, so they have to run classes 24/7. You cycle cohorts in and out of the same classroom, because there are too many new cops for the facilities.You have thousands of cops going through it at once. Everyone describes it as quite a chaotic scene. But it would have been hard to do what the NYPD did without those cops. Ray Kelly, who was police commissioner under Dinkins at the end [from 1992 to 1994] before he became police commissioner for 12 years under Bloomberg [from 2002 to 2013] probably could have done something with those cops too, but he never had the chance, because the mayoral leadership at the time was much more limiting in what they wanted cops to do.Crime starts declining slowly in the first few years of the ‘90s under Dinkins, and then in ‘93 Giuliani wins a squeaker of a mayoral election against Dinkins.One of the major issues was the then-notorious “squeegee men” of New York City. These were guys who would go to cars stopped at bridges and tunnel entrances and would rub a squeegee over the windshield asking for money. It was unpleasant, intimidating, and unwanted, and it was seen as one of those things that were just inevitable. Like graffiti on the subway in the ‘80s. Nothing we can do about it because these poor people don't have jobs or housing or whatever.The irony is that Bratton and Giuliani were happy to take credit for that, and it was an issue in the mayoral campaign, but it was solved under David Dinkins and Ray Kelly and Mike Julian with the help of George Kelling [who, with James Wilson, came up with broken windows theory]. But they never got credit for it. One wonders if, had they done that just a few months earlier, it would have shifted the entire campaign and we'd have a different course of history in New York City.It's a great example of a couple of things that several people in your book talk about. One is that disorder is often caused by a very small set of individuals. There's only like 70 squeegee men, yet everybody sees them, because they're posted up at the main tunnel and bridge entrances to Manhattan. And getting them off the streets solves the problem entirely.Another emphasis in the book is how perceptions of crime are central. You quote Jack Maple, the father of Compstat, as saying, “A murder on the subway counts as a multiple murder up on the street, because everybody feels like that's their subway.” The particular locations of crimes really affect public perception.Absolutely. Perception is reality for a lot of these things, because most people aren't victimized by crime. But when people perceive that no one is in control they feel less safe. It's not that this perception is false, it just might not be directly related to an actual criminal act.The other thing I try to show is that it's not just saying, “We've got to get rid of squeegee men. How do you do it?” They had tried before, but this is why you need smart cops and good leadership, because it's a problem-solving technique, and the way to get rid of graffiti is different to the way you get rid of squeegee men.This book is in opposition to those who just say, “We can't police our way out of this problem.” No, we can. We can't police our way out of every problem. But if you define the problem as, we don't want people at intersections with squeegees, of course we can police our way out of the problem, using legal constitutional tools. You need the political will. And then the hard work starts, because you have to figure out how to actually do it.Will you describe how they tackle the squeegee men problem?Mike Julian was behind it. They hired George Kelling, who's known for broken windows. They said, “These people are here to make money. So to just go there and make a few arrests isn't going to solve the problem.” First of all, he had to figure out what legal authority [to use], and he used Traffic Reg 44 [which prohibits pedestrians from soliciting vehicle occupants]. He talked to Norm Siegel of the NYCLU [New York Civil Liberties Union] about this, who did not want this crackdown to happen. But Norman said, “Okay, this is the law, I can't fight that one. You're doing it legally. It's all in the books.” And So that took away that opposition.But the relentless part of it is key. First they filmed people. Then, when it came to enforcement, they warned people. Then they cited people, and anybody that was left they arrested. They did not have to arrest many people, because the key is they did this every four hours. It was that that changed behavior, because even a simple arrest isn't going to necessarily deter someone if it's a productive way to make money. But being out there every four hours for a couple of weeks or months was enough to get people to do something else. What that something else is, we still don't know, but we solved the squeegee problem.So in 93, Giuliani is elected by something like 50,000 votes overall. Just as an aside, in Prince of the City, Fred Siegel describes something I had no idea about. There's a Puerto Rican Democratic Councilman who flips and supports Giuliani. Mayor Eric Adams, who at the time was the head of a nonprofit for black men in law enforcement, calls him a race traitor for doing that and for being married to a white woman. There was a remarkable level of racial vitriol in that race that I totally missed.10 years ago when I started this, I asked if I could interview then-Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams, and he said yes, and the interview kept getting rescheduled, and I said, “Eh, I don't need him.” It's a regret of mine. I should have pursued that, but coulda, woulda, shoulda.Giuliani is elected, and he campaigns very explicitly on a reducing crime and disorder platform. And he hires Bill Bratton. Tell me about Bratton coming on board as NYPD commissioner.Bratton grew up in Boston, was a police officer there, became head of the New York City Transit Police when that was a separate police department. Right before he becomes NYPD Commissioner, he's back in Boston, as the Chief of Police there, and there is a movement among certain people to get Bratton the NYC job. They succeed in that, and Bratton is a very confident man. He very much took a broken windows approach and said, “We are going to focus on crime.” He has a right-hand man by the name of Jack Maple who he knows from the Transit Police. Maple is just a lieutenant in transit, and Bratton makes him the de facto number two man in the police department.Jack Maple passed away in 2001 and I didn't know what I was going to do, because it's hard to interview a man who's no longer alive. Chris Mitchell co-wrote Jack Maple's autobiography called Crime Fighter and he graciously gave me all the micro-cassettes of the original interviews he conducted with Maple around 1998. Everyone has a Jack Maple story. He's probably the most important character in Back from the Brink.Jack Maple comes in, no one really knows who he is, no one respects him because he was just a lieutenant in Transit. He goes around and asks a basic question — this is 1994 — he says, “How many people were shot in New York City in 1993?” And nobody knows. That is the state of crime-fighting in New York City before this era. There might have been 7,000 people shot in New York City in 1990 and we just don't know, even to this day.One citation from your book: in 1993, an average of 16 people were shot every day. Which is just remarkable.And remember, shootings have been declining for two or three years before that! But nobody knew, because they weren't keeping track of shootings, because it's not one of the FBI Uniform Crime Report [which tracks crime data nationally] index crimes. But wouldn't you be curious? It took Jack Maple to be curious, so he made people count, and it was findable, but you had to go through every aggravated assault and see if a gun was involved. You had to go through every murder from the previous year and see if it was a shooting. He did this. So we only have shooting data in New York City going back to 1993. It's just a simple process of caring.The super-short version of Back from the Brink is it was a change in mission statement: “We're going to care about crime.” Because they hadn't before. They cared about corruption, racial unrest, brutality, and scandal. They cared about the clearance rate for robbery a bit. You were supposed to make three arrests for every ten robberies. It didn't matter so much that you were stopping a pattern or arresting the right person, as long as you had three arrests for every ten reported crimes, that was fine.This is a story about people who cared. They're from this city — Bratton wasn't, but most of the rest are. They understood the trauma of violence and the fact that people with families were afraid to go outside, and nobody in the power structure seemed to care. So they made the NYPD care about this. Suddenly, the mid-level police executives, the precinct commanders, had to care. and the meetings weren't about keeping overtime down, instead they were about ”What are you doing to stop this shooting?”Tell listeners a little bit more about Jack Maple, because he's a remarkable character, and folks may not know what a kook he was.I think he was a little less kooky than he liked to present. His public persona was wearing a snazzy cat and spats and dressing like a fictional cartoon detective from his own mind, but he's a working-class guy from Queens who becomes a transit cop.When Bratton takes over, he writes a letter up the chain of command saying this is what we should do. Bratton read it and said, “This guy is smart.” Listening to 80 hours of Jack Maple, everyone correctly says he was a smart guy, but he had a very working-class demeanor and took to the elite lifestyle. He loved hanging out and getting fancy drinks at the Plaza Hotel. He was the idea man of the NYPD. Everyone has a Jack Maple imitation. “You're talking to the Jackster,” he'd say. He had smart people working under him who were supportive of this. But it was very much trying to figure out as they went along, because the city doesn't stop nor does it sleep.He was a bulls***er, but he's the one who came up with the basic outline of the strategy of crime reduction in New York City. He famously wrote it on a napkin at Elaine's, and it said, “First, we need to gather accurate and timely intelligence.” And that was, in essence, CompStat. “Then, we need to deploy our cops to where they need to be.” That was a big thing. He found out that cops weren't working: specialized units weren't working weekends and nights when the actual crime was happening. They had their excuses, but basically they wanted a cushy schedule. He changed that. Then, of course, you have to figure out what you're doing, what the effective tactics are. Then, constant follow up and assessment.You can't give up. You can't say “Problem solved.” A lot of people say it wasn't so much if your plan didn't work, you just needed a Plan B. It was the idea that throwing your hands in the air and saying, “What are you going to do?” that became notoriously unacceptable under Chief Anemone's stern demeanor at CompStat. These were not pleasant meetings. Those are the meetings that both propagated policies that work and held officers accountable. There was some humiliation going on, so CompStat was feared.Lots of folks hear CompStat and think about better tracking of crime locations and incidents. But as you flesh out, the meat on the bones of CompStat was this relentless follow-up. You'd have these weekly meetings early in the morning with all the precinct heads. There were relentless asks from the bosses, “What's going on in your district or in your precinct? Can you explain why this is happening? What are you doing to get these numbers down?” And follow-ups the following week or month. It was constant.CompStat is often thought of as high-tech computer stuff. It wasn't. There was nothing that couldn't have been done with old overhead projectors. It's just that no one had done it before. Billy Gorta says it's a glorified accountability system at a time when nobody knew anything about computers. Everyone now has access to crime maps on a computer. It was about actually gathering accurate, timely data.Bratton was very concerned that these numbers had to be right. It was getting everyone in the same room and saying, “This is what our focus is going to be now.” And getting people to care about crime victims, especially when those crime victims might be unsympathetic because of their demeanor, criminal activity, or a long arrest record. “We're going to care about every shooting, we're going to care about every murder.”Part of it was cracking down on illegal guns. There were hundreds of tactics. The federal prosecutors also played a key role. It was getting this cooperation. Once it started working and Giuliani made it a major part of claiming success as mayor, suddenly everyone wanted to be part of this, and you had other city agencies trying to figure it out. So it was a very positive feedback loop, once it was seen as a success.When Bratton came on the job, he said, “I'm going to bring down crime 15%.” No police commissioner had ever said that before. In the history of policing before 1994, no police commissioner ever promised a double-digit reduction in crime or even talked about it. People said “That's crazy.” It was done, and then year after year. That's the type of confidence that they had. They were surprised it worked as well as it did, but they all had the sense that there's a new captain on this ship, and we're trying new things. It was an age of ideas and experiment.And it was a very short time.That's the other thing that surprised me. Giuliani fired Bratton in the middle of ‘96.It's remarkable. Bratton comes in ‘94, and August 1994 is where you see crime drop off a cliff. You have this massive beginning of the reduction that continues.That inflection point is important for historical knowledge. I don't address alternatives that other people have proposed [to explain the fall in crime] — For example, the reduction in lead [in gasoline, paint, and water pipes] or legalized abortion with Roe v. Wade [proposed by Stephen Dubner].Reasonable people can differ. Back from the Brink focuses on the police part of the equation. Today, almost nobody, except for a few academics, says that police had nothing to do with the crime drop. That August inflection is key, because there is nothing in a lagged time analysis going back 20 years that is going to say that is the magic month where things happened. Yet if you look at what happened in CompStat, that's the month they started getting individual officer data, and noticing that most cops made zero arrests, and said, “Let's get them in the game as well.” And that seemed to be the key; that's when crime fell off the table. The meetings started in April, I believe, but August is really when the massive crime drop began.To your point about the confidence that crime could be driven down double digits year over year, there's a great quote you have from Jack Maple, where he says to a fellow cop, “This is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. As long as we have absolute control, we can absolutely drive this number into the floor.”One detail I enjoyed was that Jack Maple, when he was a transit cop, would camp out under a big refrigerator box with little holes cut out for eyes and sit on the subway platform waiting for crooks.For people who are interested in Jack Maple, it is worth reading his autobiography, Crime Fighter. Mike Daly wrote New York's Finest, which uses the same tapes that I had access to, and he is much more focused on that. He's actually the godfather of Jack Maple's son, who is currently a New York City police officer. But Maple and co were confident, and it turned out they were right.As well as having changes in tactics and approach and accountability across the NYPD, you also have a series of specific location cleanups. You have a specific initiative focused on the Port Authority, which is a cesspool at the time, an initiative in Times Square, the Bryant Park cleanup, and then Giuliani also focuses on organized crime on the Fulton Fish Market, and this open-air market in Harlem.I was struck that there was both this general accountability push in the NYPD through CompStat, and a relentless focus on cleaning up individual places that were hubs of disorder.I'm not certain the crime drop would have happened without reclamation of public spaces and business improvement districts. Bryant Park's a fascinating story because Dan Biederman, who heads the Corporation, said, “People just thought it was like a lost cause, this park can't be saved. The city is in a spiral of decline.” He uses Jane Jacobs' “eyes on the street” theory and then George Kelling and James Q. Wilson's broken windows theory. The park has money — not city money, but from local property owners — and it reopens in 1991 to great acclaim and is still a fabulous place to be. It showed for the first time that public space was worth saving and could be saved. New York City at the time needed that lesson. It's interesting that today, Bryant Park has no permanent police presence and less crime. Back in the ‘80s, Bryant Park had an active police presence and a lot more crime.The first class I ever taught when I started at John Jay College in 2004, I was talking about broken windows. A student in the class named Jeff Marshall, who is in my book, told me about Operation Alternatives at the Port Authority. He had been a Port Authority police officer at the time, and I had not heard of this. People are just unaware of this part of history. It very much has lessons for today, because in policing often there's nothing new under the sun. It's just repackaged, dusted off, and done again. The issue was, how do we make the Port Authority safe for passengers? How do we both help and get rid of people living in the bus terminal? It's a semi-public space, so it makes it difficult. There was a social services element about it, that was Operational Alternatives. A lot of people took advantage of that and got help. But the flip side was, you don't have to take services, but you can't stay here.I interviewed the manager of the bus terminal. He was so proud of what he did. He's a bureaucrat, a high-ranking one, but a port authority manager. He came from the George Washington Bridge, which he loved. And he wonders, what the hell am I going to do with this bus terminal? But the Port Authority cared, because they're a huge organization and that's the only thing with their name on it — They also control JFK Airport and bridges and tunnels and all the airports, but people call the bus terminal Port Authority.They gave him almost unlimited money and power and said, “Fix it please, do what you've got to do,” and he did. It was environmental design, giving police overtime so they'd be part of this, a big part of it was having a social service element so it wasn't just kicking people out with nowhere to go.Some of it was also setting up rules. This also helped Bratton in the subway, because this happened at the same time. The court ruled that you can enforce certain rules in the semi-public spaces. It was not clear until this moment whether it was constitutional or not. To be specific, you have a constitutional right to beg on the street, but you do not have a constitutional right to beg on the subway. That came down to a court decision. Had that not happened, I don't know if in the long run the crime drop would have happened.That court decision comes down to the specific point that it's not a free-speech right on the subway to panhandle, because people can't leave, because you've got them trapped in that space.You can't cross the street to get away from it. But it also recognized that it wasn't pure begging, that there was a gray area between aggressive begging and extortion and robbery.You note that in the early 1990s, one-third of subway commuters said they consciously avoided certain stations because of safety, and two thirds felt coerced to give money by aggressive panhandling.The folks in your book talk a lot about the 80/20 rule applying all over the place. That something like 20% of the people you catch are committing 80% of the crimes.There's a similar dynamic that you talk about on the subways, both in the book and in your commentary over the past couple years about disorder in New York. You say approximately 2,000 people with serious mental illness are at risk for street homelessness, and these people cycle through the cities, streets, subways, jails, and hospitals.What lessons from the ‘90s can be applied today for both helping those people and stopping them being a threat to others?Before the ‘80s and Reagan budget cuts there had been a psychiatric system that could help people. That largely got defunded. [Deinstitutionalization began in New York State earlier, in the 1960s.] We did not solve the problem of mental health or homelessness in the ‘90s, but we solved the problem of behavior. George Kelling [of broken windows theory] emphasized this repeatedly, and people would ignore it. We are not criminalizing homelessness or poverty. We're focusing on behavior that we are trying to change. People who willfully ignore that distinction almost assume that poor people are naturally disorderly or criminal, or that all homeless people are twitching and threatening other people. Even people with mental illness can behave in a public space.Times have changed a bit. I think there are different drugs now that make things arguably a bit worse. I am not a mental health expert, but we do need more involuntary commitment, not just for our sake, but for theirs, people who need help. I pass people daily, often the same person, basically decomposing on a subway stop in the cold. They are offered help by social services, and they say no. They should not be allowed to make that choice because they're literally dying on the street in front of us. Basic humanity demands that we be a little more aggressive in forcing people who are not making rational decisions, because now you have to be an imminent threat to yourself or others. That standard does need to change. But there also need to be mental health beds available for people in this condition.I don't know what the solution is to homelessness or mental health. But I do know the solution to public disorder on the subway and that's, regardless of your mental state or housing status, enforcing legal, constitutional rules, policing behavior. It does not involve locking everybody up. It involves drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It's amazing how much people will comply with those rules.That presents the idea that someone's in charge, it's not a free-for-all. You get that virtuous loop, which New York had achieved in 2014–2016, when crime was at an all-time low in the city. Then the politicians decided public order wasn't worth preserving anymore. These are political choices.I had a similar version of this conversation with a friend who was shocked that there were zero murders on the subway in 2017 and that that number was stable: you had one or two a year for several years in the mid-2010s.It was five or fewer a year from 1997 to 2019, and often one or two. Then you have zero in 2017. There were [ten in 2022]. It coincides perfectly with an order from [Mayor] de Blasio's office and the homeless czar [Director of Homeless Services Steven] Banks [which] told police to stop enforcing subway rules against loitering. The subways became — once again — a de facto homeless shelter. Getting rule-violating homeless people out of the subway in the late ‘80s was such a difficult and major accomplishment at the time, and to be fair it's not as bad as it was.The alternative was that homeless outreach was supposed to offer people services. When they decline, which 95% of people do, you're to leave them be. I would argue again, I don't think that's a more humane stance to take. But it's not just about them, it's about subway riders.There's one story that I think was relevant for you to tell. You were attacked this fall on a subway platform by a guy threatening to kill you. It turns out he's had a number of run-ins with the criminal justice system. Can you tell us where that guy is now?I believe he's in prison now. The only reason I know who it is is because I said, one day I'm going to see his picture in the New York Post because he's going to hurt somebody. Am I 100 percent certain it's Michael Blount who attacked me? No, but I'm willing to call him out by name because I believe it is. He was out of prison for raping a child, and he slashed his ex-girlfriend and pushed her on the subway tracks. And then was on the lam for a while. I look at him and the shape of his face, his height, age, build, complexion, and I go, that's got to be him.I wasn't hurt, but he gave me a sucker punch trying to knock me out and then chased me a bit threatening to kill me, and I believe he wanted to. It's the only time I ever was confronted by a person who I really believe wanted to kill me, and this includes policing in the Eastern District in Baltimore. It was an attempted misdemeanor assault in the long run. But I knew it wasn't about me. It was him. I assume he's going to stay in prison longer for what he did to his ex-girlfriend. But I never thought it would happen to me. I was lucky the punch didn't connect.Peter Moskos's new book is Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop.My reading listEssays:Johnny Hirschauer's reporting, including “A Failed 'Solution' to 'America's Mental Health Crisis',“ “Return to the Roots,” and “The Last Institutions.” “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety,” by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson. ​“It's Time to Talk About America's Disorder Problem,” Charles Lehman.Books:Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, Jill Leovy.​Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life, Fred Siegel.​ Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District, Peter Moskos.​Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, Sam Quinones.​Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

On today's show: 1. Tickets to the 8th Annual Giving Breakfast - https://www.wakeupcarolina.org/product/giving-breakfast-individual-ticket/ 2. WakeUp Carolina's website - https://www.wakeupcarolina.org 3. Sam Quinones' website - samquinones.com 4. Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic - https://amzn.to/4hQry73 5. The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth - https://amzn.to/4hRCgdD 6. Dreamland (YA edition): The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic - https://amzn.to/3ZcQgHy This episode's music is by Tyler Boone (tylerboonemusic.com). The episode was produced by LMC Soundsystem.

All this week we are focusing on fentanyl. We begin with the writer and journalist Sam Quinones, author of “Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic” and “The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.”

All this week we are focusing on fentanyl. We begin with the writer and journalist Sam Quinones, author of “Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic” and “The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.”

Very excited to have Sam Quinones on The Lonely Podcast. Sam is a remarkable independent journalist and reporter with over 35 years of experience in the business. Earlier in his career, Sam spent 10 years living in Mexico and working as a freelance journalist, where he published two of his first non-fiction novels. Among many famous journals, Sam wrote for the LA Times, the New York Times, National Geographic, the Atlantic, and many more. Sam is mostly known for his two most recent books, the first, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, was published in 2015 and received the National Book Critics Circle award. It was also selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon, Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Entertainment Weekly, and much more. Dreamland provides a grim view into the opiate epidemic in America, explains its roots, and its devastating effects throughout the country. The book had a tremendous impact on the way American society viewed the Opiate crisis and was pivotal in shifting the narrative against big Pharma. His most recent book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, was released in 2021 and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award. The Lease of Us provides a deep dive into the history of Fentanyl and Methamphetamine and how these drugs revolutionized the international drug market and drug consumption in America. Sam has a unique ability to provide, on the one hand, a deep explanation of the root causes of the crisis while, on the other hand, sharing extremely touching individual stories that would help one restore faith in humanity. During our conversation, we discussed what led Sam to investigate these issues, namely the opioid crisis and the prevalence of synthetic drugs on America's streets. His journies around the country in pursuit of the truth, the impact of the “Drugafication of America” on our society, the danger in modern-day synthetic drugs, the unwanted outcomes of the legalization of Marijuana, the role of Big Pharma and big business in this crisis, and Sam's Marshall Plan to Save America. This was one of my favorite episodes thus far, and I'm sure you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did................................................................................................................................................... YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE ON:YouTube: https://youtu.be/nlaKekW-2-kSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ktRM7SIzVWcAhE9jqGIq3Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lonely-podcast/id1510273071..................................................................................................................................................TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) - Introduction(04: 53) - What brought Sam to write Dreamland(07:17) - How the Mexican Drug Cartels found a new heroin market in America(14:50) - Why Columbus Ohio became the epicenter of the Opioid Crisis?(16:15) - What is unique about the Opioid Crisis that is different than any other drug crisis?(17:30) - Why Fentanyl and Methamphetamine are different than any other drug in history?(24:45) - How "regular people" fall into drug addiction(28:00) - The disease of addiction and effective treatment(32:50) - Why the homelessness crisis is so extreme in San Francisco?(37:00) - Reasons for homelessness(41:00) - the role of Marijuana?(44:00) - The Drugafication of America(49:00) - How effective drug legalization looks like?(54:00) - The impact of "Dreamland" on the narrative against Big Pharma(60:00) - The Sackler Family and Purdue Pharma(64:00) - The Marshall Plan to Save America..................................................................................................................................................LINKS TO SAM'S WORK:The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth: https://www.amazon.com/Least-Us-Tales-America-Fentanyl/dp/1635574358Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic: https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1620402521/ref=sr_1_1?crid=271W7AI22JU3I&keywords=dreamland%20sam%20quinones&qid=1645989580&s=books&sprefix=dreamland%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-1True Tales from Another Mexico: https://www.amazon.com/True-Tales-Another-Mexico-Quinones/dp/0826322964Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration: https://www.amazon.com/Antonios-Gun-Delfinos-Dream-Migration/dp/082634254X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Sam's Website: https://samquinones.com/Sam on X: https://twitter.com/samquinones7

On today's episode we welcome renowned author, Sam Quinones as he unveils the true tales of America's opioid epidemic. As someone who was one the forefront of exposing the Sackler family, his stories are both eye-opening and inspiring. Sam Quinones is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, a reporter for 35 years, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction. He is a veteran reporter on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking and the border.He is formerly a reporter with the L.A. Times, where he worked for 10 years. Before that, he made a living as a freelance writer residing in Mexico for a decade.His latest book, released in November, 2021, is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.The Least of Us follows his landmark book, Dreamland: The True Tale of Americas Opiate Epidemic, which ignited awareness of the epidemic that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of lives and become deadliest drug scourge in the nation's history.In the Adjusted Reality podcast, well-known athletes, celebrities, actors, chiropractors, influencers in the wellness industry, and other podcasters will talk with host Dr. Sherry McAllister, president, F4CP, about their experiences with health and wellness. As a special gift for listening today visit f4cp.org/health to get a copy of our mind, body, spirit eBook which focuses on many ways to optimize your health and the ones you love without the use of drugs or surgery. Follow Adjusted Reality on Instagram. Find A Doctor of Chiropractic Near You.Donate to Support the Chiropractic Profession Through Education.

Sam Quinones is a journalist, storyteller, former LA Times reporter, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction, including New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic." His new book is "The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth."

In his latest article for The Atlantic, Sam Quinones writes that America's shift toward treatment instead of jail time for drug abuse “is both well intentioned and out of date, given the massive street supplies of fentanyl and meth. It is failing just about everyone.” He argues that instead of waiting for addicts to voluntarily enter rehab, the legal system should force them to go. Quinones is a journalist who has covered the drug trade for over a decade and published two books on the subject: “The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth” and “Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic.” We'll talk about how to address the nation's ever-more challenging drug crisis that we see playing out on our streets and in our families. Guests: Sam Quinones, journalist and author. His recent piece in The Atlantic is titled "America's Approach to Addiction Has Gone Off the Rails.” His books include "The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth" and "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic." Vitka Eisen, president and CEO, HealthRIGHT 360, San Francisco's largest drug treatment provider

This episode of the Amazing Cities and Towns Podcast, sponsored by Bearing Advisors, Jim Hunt interviews NY Best Selling Author, Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland and The Least of Us. A candid conversation about drug use and homelessness in US cities. The reason the drug world has changed with the Mexican Cartels focusing on synthetic drugs The connection between Meth, Fentanyl and mental health issues and homelessness Rethinking homelessness, drug addiction, rehab and jail time New forms of jail for homeless and drug charges How Walmart's shoplifting issues are interconnected to drug problems in US towns and cities How the drug abuse problem has evolved into a poisoning  The interconnection between drug trafficking, gun smuggling, immigration and the US/Mexican trade policies How Clarksburg WV and other communities have been impacted by the drug issues The power of the community and churches in addressing some of the drug and homeless issues for a short-term solution   ·       And, much more   7 Steps to an Amazing City:   1.     Attitude 2.     Motivation 3.     Attention to Detail 4.     Zing 5.     Inclusiveness 6.     Neighborhood Empowerment 7.     Green Awareness Thanks for listening and look forward to having you join us for the next episode.   Links Mentions During Show:  www.samquinones.com ·       www.AmazingCities.org ·       www.AmazingCities.org/podcast to be a guest on the podcast   About  Sam Quinones Sam Quinones (pronounced Kin-YOH-Ness) is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, a reporter for 35 years, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction. He is a veteran reporter on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking, the border. He is formerly a reporter with the L.A. Times, where he worked for 10 years. Before that, he made a living as a freelance writer residing in Mexico for a decade (1994-2004). His latest book, released in November, 2021, is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. (The book is released in paperback in November, 2022.) In The Least of Us, Quinones chronicles the emergence of a drug-trafficking world producing massive supplies of synthetic drugs (fentanyl and meth) cheaper and deadlier than ever, marketing to the population of addicts created by the nation's opioid epidemic, as the backdrop to tales of Americans' quiet attempts to recover community through simple acts of helping the vulnerable. With The Least of Us, Quinones broke the story of how the methamphetamine now produced in Mexico has covered the U.S. and is creating widespread and rapid-onset symptoms of schizophrenia, becoming in the process a major driver in the country's the homeless problem. In January 2022, The Least of Us was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) award for Best Nonfiction Book of 2021. The Least of Us follows his landmark Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury, 2015), which ignited awareness of the epidemic that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of lives and become deadliest drug scourge in the nation's history. Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for the Best Nonfiction Book of 2015. It was also selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon.com, the Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Entertainment Weekly, Audible, and in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Business by Nobel economics laureate, Prof. Angus Deaton, of Princeton University. In 2021, GQ Magazine selected Dreamland as one of the “50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21 st Century” Dreamland was selected as one the Best 10 True-Crime Books of all time based on lists, surveys, and ratings of more than 90 million Goodread.com readers. In 2019, Slate.com selected Dreamland as one of the 50 best nonfiction books of the last 25 years. For Dreamland, Quinones has testified before the U.S. Senate's Health Committee, numerous professional conferences of judges, doctors, librarians, hospital administrators and at more than two-dozen town hall meetings in small towns across the country. A Young Adult version of Dreamland – for 7 th through 12 th graders -- was released in July of 2019. His first two books grew from his 10 years living and working as a freelance writer in Mexico (1994-2004).   True Tales From Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx was released in 2001. It is a cult classic of a book from Mexico's vital margins – stories of drag queens and Oaxacan Indian basketball players, popsicle makers and telenovela stars, migrants, farm workers, a narcosaint, a slain drug balladeer, a slum boss, and a doomed tough guy.   In 2007, he came out with Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration. In it, Quinones narrates the saga of the Henry Ford of Velvet Painting, and of how an opera scene emerged in Tijuana, and how a Zacatecan taco empire formed in Chicago. He tells the tale of the Tomato King, of a high-school soccer season in Kansas, and of Mexican corruption in a small L.A. County town. Threading through the book are three tales of Delfino Juarez, a modern Mexican Huck Finn. Quinones ends the collection in a chapter called "Leaving Mexico" with his harrowing tangle with the Narco-Mennonites of Chihuahua.  Dagoberto Gilb, reviewing Antonio's Gun in the San Francisco Chronicle, called him “the most original writer on Mexico and the border.”   Contact him at www.samquinones.com or samquinones7@yahoo.com.   About Your Host, Jim Hunt: Welcome to the “Building Amazing Cities and Towns Podcast” … The podcast for Mayors, Council Members, Managers, Staff and anyone who is interested in building an Amazing City.   Your host is Jim Hunt, the author of “Bottom Line Green, How American Cities are Saving the Planet and Money Too” and his latest book, “The Amazing City - 7 Steps to Creating an Amazing City”   Jim is also the former President of the National League of Cities, 27 year Mayor, Council Member and 2006 Municipal Leader of the Year by American City and County Magazine.   Today, Jim speaks to 1000's of local government officials each year in the US and abroad.   Jim also consults with businesses that are bringing technology and innovation to local government.   Amazing City Resources:   Buy Jim's Popular Books: ·       The Amazing City: 7 Steps to Creating an Amazing City:   https://www.amazingcities.org/product-page/the-amazing-city-7-steps-to-creating-an-amazing-city   ·       Bottom Line Green: How America's Cities and Saving the Planet (And Money Too)  https://www.amazingcities.org/product-page/bottom-line-green-how-america-s-cities-are-saving-the-planet-and-money-too   FREE White Paper: ·       “10 Steps to Revitalize Your Downtown”  www.AmazingCities.org/10-Steps   Hire Jim to Speak at Your Next Event: ·       Tell us about your event and see if dates are available at www.AmazingCities.org/Speaking   Hire Jim to Consult with Your City or Town: ·       Discover more details at https://www.amazingcities.org/consulting   Discuss Your Business Opportunity/Product to Help Amazing Cities: ·       Complete the form at https://www.amazingcities.org/business-development   A Special Thanks to Bearing Advisors for the support of this podcast:  www.BearingAdvisors.Net  

Sam Quinones is a journalist, storyteller, former LA Times reporter, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction, including New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic and his most recent book The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. "The most original writer on Mexico and the border" (San Francisco Chronicle), he lives with his family in Tennessee. Intro and Outro music by: Decisions by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100756 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

With news that the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl is responsible for a continued rise in overdose deaths in New York City and elsewhere, Sam Quinones, independent journalist and the author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic and (now in paperback), The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth (Bloomsbury, 2021), and Courtney McKnight, clinical assistant professor of epidemiology at NYU's School of Global Public Health, talk about the drug and what makes it so life-threatening and resistant to efforts to stem its abuse.

The powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl is responsible for a continued rise in overdose deaths in New York City and across the country. On Today's Show:Sam Quinones, independent journalist and the author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic and The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, and Courtney McKnight, clinical assistant professor of epidemiology at NYU's School of Global Public Health, talk about the drug and what makes it so life-threatening and resistant to efforts to stem its abuse.

Journalist, former L.A. Times reporter, and New York Times best-selling author, Sam Quinones, visits us to discuss his latest book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. A follow-up to 2015's Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, The Least of Us tells of Read More

Sam Quinones is a journalist, storyteller, former LA Times reporter, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction, including New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic." His new book is "The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth."

America is in the midst of a new drug crisis. Earlier this year, the CDC reported a staggering 107,000 overdose deaths in 2021. That's one every five minutes. It's up almost 15% from 2020 and nearly 70% of those deaths involved fentanyl.    On today's episode, Duane speaks with Sam Quinones who has been sounding the alarm for years. A journalist and storyteller, Sam is a former LA Times reporter and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction, including New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. She's also the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, which captures the devastation of this new epidemic of synthetic drugs, but at the same time, offers a lot of hope.   Duane and Sam explore the root of this whole opioid crisis and the need for us, as a society, to embrace recovery without anonymity, no more euphemisms, and no more hiding. We all have to get out of the shame that comes with addiction. We're also living in a culture of addictive stuff where fast food, sugars, and pornography are legal. All this boils down to social change that is best achieved in small ways and small daily efforts – and it all starts with you!   In this episode, you will hear: The supply of synthetic drugs in Mexico How his book focuses on the message of hope in the midst of the opioid era Dr. Lou Ortenzio's story of addiction and recovery Getting rid of the anonymity and euphemisms How we're living in a culture of addictive stuff Becoming a master of your own fate What you can do on an individual level Subscribe and Review Have you subscribed to our podcast? We'd love for you to subscribe if you haven't yet.  We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: https://samquinones.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samquinonesjournalist  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samquinones_author/  Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-YA-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1547601310  The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth https://www.amazon.com/Least-Us-Tales-America-Fentanyl-ebook/dp/B0932RRNVL?ref_=ast_sto_dp  NovusMindfulLife.com Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know we sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Salt Lake Dirt I welcome one of my favorite non-fiction writers. Sam Quinones joins me to talk about his latest book The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth (out now in paperback). I became a fan of Sam's work after reading Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. His writing is powerful and informative. Check it out. Great conversation, great books, great guy. Thanks for listening! Kyler --- For more on Sam Quinones: PURCHASE: The Least of Us SamQuinones.com IG: @samquinones_author FB: @samquinonesjournalist

Sam QuinonesBOOK: The Least of Us (2021)https://samquinones.com/Marni GoldmanBOOK: True To Myself: Peace, Love, Marni (2019)https://peacelovemarni.com/William ChristieBOOK: The Double Agent (2022)https://williamchristieauthor.com/--------------------------Sam Quinones is a journalist, storyteller, former Los Angeles Times reporter, and author of three acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction, including New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. His latest book, The Least of Us delivers an unexpected and awe-inspiring response to the call that shocked the nation in Sam Quinones's award-winning Dreamland. https://samquinones.com/Marni Goldman is a Spiritual Life Coach and author of True To Myself: Peace, Love, Marni. Goldman, the daughter of a drug-addicted mother, has survived a life of depression, ADHD, childhood PTSD, anxiety, and a leukemia diagnosis. Goldman works with people all over the world to help them transcend and heal emotional traumas. https://peacelovemarni.com/William Christie is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a former Marine Corps infantry officer who commanded a number of units and served around the world. He has written eleven novels including The Double Agent, published either under his own name or that of F.J. Chase. https://williamchristieauthor.com/--------------------------Frankie Boyer is an award winning talk show host that empowers listeners to live healthy vibrant lives http://www.frankieboyer.com

For the last year, people have been asking me, “Have you watched Dopesick? Karin, you have to see it!” So, I subscribed to Hulu and started the series and also read the book on which the series is based. The true story is incredibly disturbing and tragic and heartbreaking. Author Beth Macy exposes how Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin, convinced doctors their patients had virtually no chance of becoming addicted to their new “wonder drug.” But, it wasn't true. I knew some parts of this horrific story from reading Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opioid Epidemic and interviewing Dreamland's author, Sam Quinones in episode 95 of the podcast. He connects the dots between prescription medications and heroin addiction. In Dopesick, we witness this play out in graphic detail. Most of you know, I'm no fan of Big Pharma. Of course, I'm thankful for medical advances which have saved millions of lives. But, as we've talked about in prior episodes, pharmaceutical corporations exist to make profits for their shareholders—or, in the case of Purdue Pharma, to increase a family's fortune. We must take this reality into account when we consider pharma's marketing and messaging—regarding psychiatric medications, of course. And, as Dopesick demonstrates—even when a doctor writes us a prescription for pain pills. If you doubt this, if you think maybe I'm a bit hyperbolic when it comes to all this pharma stuff, please listen to this episode! Beth Macy Website: https://intrepidpapergirl.com/ Dope Sick on HULU Dr. Karin Website: http://loveandlifemedia.com/ Empowered Dating Playbook: smarturl.it/EmpoweredDatingBook Instagram: @dr.karin Single is the New Black: Audiobook Audible: smarturl.it/SITNB-Audible iTunes: smarturl.it/SITNB-iTunes --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/love-and-life-media/support

Sam Quinones - Journalist, storyteller, former LA Times reporter, and author of three acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction. His most recent book is “The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth” which followed his 2015 release, “Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic.” He joins joins Tavis for a conversation on the Opioid crisis in light of yesterday's news in which a federal judge ordered Walmart, CVS, Walgreens to Pay $650 Million Over Opioid Sales.

    Episode 129 Notes and Links to Sam Quinones' Work        On Episode 129 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Sam Quinones, and the two discuss, among other topics, growing up in a house that exalted reading, Sam's freelance writing training, his time living and writing in México, his love of storytelling in its myriad forms, and his insights gleaned from his reporting for his amazing recent books on the opiate and meth and fentanyl epidemics.      Sam Quinones is a journalist, storyteller, former LA Times reporter, and author of three acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction, including The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, released in 2021, and his 2015 release, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic.  Sam Quinones' Website   Buy Sam's Books   Sam on C-SPAN BookTV's In Depth   REVIEWS: The Least of Us in Christianity Today & Plough Quarterly   Sam on CBS Saturday Morning

Episode 128 Notes and Links to Vania Patino's Work        On Episode 128 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Vania Patino, and the two discuss, among other topics, her early love of reading in Spanish and English, Twilight, a formative experience for Vania as a high school reporter, her busy and educational college years, the power of Chicano Studies and Ethnic Studies classes, and ideas of objectivity and balance in journalism.        Vania Patino is a news reporter for KERO-TV in Bakersfield, CA, a former reporter for KFDA in Amarillo, Texas, and a former standout student in Pete's English 10 honors class. For Latino Reporter: “After El Paso shooting, Texans seem divided over looser gun laws”   Video from Cal State Fullerton's Al Dia Newsmagazine   Video and Article by Vania: "In Tex-Mex country, ‘el sabor' helps Boricua culture thrive" At about 1:40, Vania gives background on her relationship with language, learning English as a second language, and her early love of reading, including her love of a particular teen series   At about 5:00, Pete and Vania discuss the phenomenon that was the Twilight series    At about 7:00, Vania describes how Spanish specifically calls to her, interests her, etc., as well as how she re-embraced the beauty of speaking Spanish    At about 10:00, Vania wows with an amazing story from her third day on the job in Amarillo that highlights    At about 12:50, Vania highlights important lessons learned in college ethnic studies and Chicano history courses   At about 14:40, Vania discusses interesting conversations around identity that came up during her enjoyable college years   At about 16:25, Vania responds to Pete's questions   At about 18:20-27:30, Vania recounts an incredibly impactful experience in covering a 2015 Donald Trump speech in San Pedro    At about 27:35, Vania talks about her time in Amarillo, Texas, including covering a different political arena than she was used to   At about 29:50, Vania talks about formative experiences from her busy college days, and shouts out mentor Inez Gonzalez   At about 32:00, Vania recounts a funny anecdote about interning with NBC News with Lester Holt    At about 37:00, Vania gives the story of the horrific tragedy in Thousand Oaks, sadly the first of many mass shootings that she has covered    At about 42:30, Vania tells a story that is emblematic of being innovative and dogged in pursuing a local angle to a national story    At about 46:15, Vania explains the writing and background work for a news “package”   At about 50:55, Vania responds to Pete wondering about how she balances formal and informal presentations of the news   At about 53:30, Vania discusses ideas of objectivity in reporting, particularly post-Trump as POTUS   At about 57:30, Vania answers Pete's question about which tv shows/movies “get it right” with regard to a realistic view of the newsroom   At about 59:40, Vania responds to Pete's question about the responsibilities that come with doing translation in news   At about 1:04:30, Vania discusses future projects   At about 1:08:40, Vania gives contact information/social media info        You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.      This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.     Please tune in for Episode 129 with Sam Quinones, a journalist, storyteller, former LA Times reporter, and author of three acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction, including The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, released in 2021, and his 2015 release, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic.  The episode will air on June 28.

Today, we welcomed Sam Quinones to discuss his book, "The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth." The book follows his 2015 release,  Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. Both books are critically acclaimed. In January 2022, The Least of Us was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) award for Best Nonfiction Book of 2021. Book:  The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth (2021) Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate (2015)   Link to Greg's blog : ZZs Blog   #SamQuinones #TheLeastofUs # Dreamland #Podcast #Meth #Fentanyl #Homeless #Drugaddiction #GregGodels #ZZblog #ZZsblog #PatCummings #ComingFromLeftField

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Sam Quinones. Sam Quinones is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, a reporter for 35 years, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction. He is a veteran reporter on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking, and the border. He is formerly a reporter with the L.A. Times, where he worked for 10 years. Before that, he made a living as a freelance writer residing in Mexico for a decade. In 2015, Sam Quinones authored Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury, 2015), which ignited awareness of the epidemic that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of lives and become deadliest drug scourge in the nation's history. Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for Best Nonfiction Book of 2015 and has been selected as one of the top books of 2015 by Amazon, Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, and many other organizations. His latest book, released in November 2021, is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. In The Least of Us, Quinones chronicles the emergence of a drug-trafficking world producing massive supplies of dope cheaper and deadlier than ever, marketing to the population of addicts created by the nation's opioid epidemic, as the backdrop to tales of Americans' quiet attempts to recover community through simple acts of helping the vulnerable. Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Sam about two of his books, Dreamland: The Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic and The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. Come spend some time with us as we listen to Sam tell about these books and some of the stories within the pages. Sam also shares some of his history of being a writer and his love for crime reporting. This episode is called: Hope: during America's Opiate Epidemic Sam Quinones can be found: Email: samquinones7@yahoo.com Twitter: @samquinones7 Facebook: samquinonesjournalist Instagram: @samquinones_author

Title: The Least of Us and the Pandemic of Drugs in AmericaDescription: Today Steve is joined by author Sam Quinones to discuss his books on the drug pandemic in the United States. Sam takes us through the evolution of the use and abuse of prescription and illegal drugs over the past 30 years.Learn More About our Guest:Sam Quinones, author of The Least of Us and Dreamlandhttps://samquinones.com/You can learn more about Beyond the Big Screen and subscribe at all these great places:www.atozhistorypage.comwww.beyondthebigscreen.comClick here to support Beyond the Big Screen!https://www.subscribestar.com/beyondthebigscreenhttps://www.patreon.com/beyondthebigscreenClick to Subscribe:https://www.spreaker.com/show/4926576/episodes/feedemail: steve@atozhistorypage.comwww.beyondthebigscreen.comhttps://www.patreon.com/historyofthepapacyParthenon Podcast Network Home:parthenonpodcast.comOn Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/atozhistorypagehttps://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfThePapacyPodcasthttps://twitter.com/atozhistoryMusic Provided by:"Crossing the Chasm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Image Credits:Begin Transcript:Thank you again for listening to Beyond the Big Screen podcast. We are a member of the Parthenon Podcast network. Of course, a big thanks goes out to Sam Quinones Author of the books Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic and The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. Links to learn more about Sam Quinones and his books can be found at samquinones.com or in the Show Notes. You can now support beyond the big screen on Patreon. By joining on Patreon and Subscribe star, you help keep Beyond the Big Screen going and get many great benefits. Go to patreon.com/beyondthebig screen to learn more. By supporting Beyond the Big Screen on Patreon, you are going a long way to continuing to make this podcast sustainable and available in the future!A special thanks goes out to our supporters on Patreon and Subscribestar. Thank you to our Executive Producer Alex!Another way to support Beyond the big screen is to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. These reviews really help me know what you think of the show and help other people learn about Beyond the Big screen. More about the Parthenon Podcast Network can be found at Parthenonpodcast.com. You can learn more about Beyond the Big Screen, great movies and stories so great they should be movies on various social media platforms by searching for A to z history. Links to all this and more can be found at beyond the big screen dot com. I thank you for joining me again, Beyond the big Screen.Least of Us[00:00:00] Thank you so much for joining us again on beyond the big screen, I am really excited to be joined by Sam Ken Yonas. Sam is an independent journalist and is author of a number of really great books, including the books that we will focus on today. His latest book, the least of us, true tales of America and hope and the time of fentanyl and the.Sam is also the author of dreamland. The true story of America's opiate epidemic. Uh, Sam, can you maybe just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became interested in investigating these, uh, drug epidemics in the U S sure. Um, Steven, great to be with you. I, I, um, uh, I really had no interest. I have to tell you.I had no interest in, in addiction or pain management or any of that stuff. I had lived in Mexico for 10 years as a journalist. I've been a reporter 35 years. I've been a crime reporter a lot of those years. [00:01:00] And that's kind of how I see myself in, in general. And, um, I, uh, I lived in Mexico for 10 years, came back to LA, which is my, kind of roughly my home region and, um, got a job at the LA times when they put me on a story.Um, that really, they put me on a team of reporters talking about writing about the, the, the drug war that had just kicked off in Mexico. When I lived in Mexico's 94, 2004, I mean, there was nothing like what's happened since it was a, it was an easy country to move around. Uh, there was very little danger.It seemed to me, I, I was a freelancer, very Vagabonding all over the place. It was not a, um, a dangerous thing. And then all of a sudden it became, uh, deadly. Uh, and, um, and so my job was to write about drugs as they trafficked, uh, after they crossed the border were how they got to the rest of the country.And as part of that, I got onto the story [00:02:00] in dreamland of the town of Holly SCO in the state of. Mexico, small state on the Pacific coast of Mexico in which people had divine. Uh, a system of, of delivering a heroin very much like pizza delivery. So you call a number and the operator takes sure your order and they send a driver to you to deliver your heroin.And not only that, though, the real importance to the, this, this group, um, w in my opinion, was that. Um, they were extensively expansionary, so they began to move all over the country. They were everywhere. They were in Phoenix and Reno. They were then they moved across the Mississippi and they were in Columbus and Charlotte and various places.But 20, 25 states eventually, I think I counted them in anyway, as I was doing that, I began to realize there was a much, much bigger story. Behind me that I was unaware of because I had been in Mexico when it really evolved. And that was the revolution in pain management [00:03:00] with regard to the very, very aggressive use of opioid painkillers, narcotic painkillers, Vicodin, Percocet, Oxycontin, very well known.Um, and so I, that was how you explained why these guys had this. Heroine market. I didn't, I could not explain why they had grown. I thought, you know, who would ever go back to using heroin? I mean, I thought the seventies were the time when we forgot about heroin. Um, we learned it was a bad drug and, and moved on.And, and so it was that revolution in pain management that I realized was much bigger than anything I was dealing with with, with these guys from, from Mexico. And so I began to see the two stories as connected. And that's when I began to really figure all that out. I really had a lot of background in Mexico.By that point, I had written two books about Mexico and Lou knew a lot about small town, Mexican life and immigration and all that. I didn't know a thing about addiction. Didn't really know what an Oxycontin [00:04:00] was when it's, when I started all this, but it kind of, it was backing into the story with the heroin.Coming to this realization that I was really focusing on the smaller story, the much bigger story affecting the entire country was the opioid pain revolution. It's so interesting. You mentioned that, um, the change in Mexico in that time you were living there, I'm originally from upstate New York and we go to Canada, just going to Canada is like nothing.It's like going to the next town over and we moved to Texas and I asked somebody, okay. You know, pop over to Juarez or Laredo, Laredo, and they were like, that's probably not the best idea. And you're saying that changed to very recently. I would say that that changed in in 2000 began to change in 2005 and six.Um, that's when you begin to see the first cartel. A lot of this has to do with Chapo Guzman, Chapo Guzman was the head of the Sinaloa cartel. He was in prison for a lot of years. He [00:05:00] escaped in a variety of kind of very corrupt ways in which, you know, anyway, it's a long story that, but he gets out and when he gets out, he begins to kind of throw his weight around the country a little bit and disrupt a lot of the.Ways of controls that had been in place for drug trafficking, uh, at the different border air. So he begins to attack, Porres begins to attack Tijuana. Um, and, and he also, um, begins to attack, um, the Texas. Side. So he's got all these things going on and that's why, um, these, these cartel wars began to pop off beginning and about those years.And that's why, um, uh, Laredo, but particularly, um, uh, Reynosa Macallan, those areas that were extraordinarily. Uh, Tijuana Juarez a few years later, you begin to see a murder rates through the roof. Uh, 3000 murders a year in acquires becomes the most dangerous place in the, [00:06:00] in the, on the planet, as what I understood, um, all of that because of these very, um, these, these attempts to control and, and battling back, um, by Chapo Guzman and.

In 2015, award-winning author and journalist Sam Quinones took the world by storm with his heavily lauded book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opioid Epidemic, an investigative work that helped awaken the nation to the devastation wreaked by OxyContin. With his newest release, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, Sam turns his attention to the rise of synthetic substances and the dangers posed by methamphetamine and fentanyl use. Tune in as Sam speaks to Elizabeth about the reasons behind the explosion of fentanyl; the connections between methamphetamine and mental and physical illness; and why he believes we have yet to fully confront the realities of methamphetamine addiction.  Explore more on topics and themes discussed in this episode: How Can I Protect My Child from Fentanyl? 5 Things Parents Need to Know Meth is On the Rise Again: What Parents Should Know Learn How Medication Can Help Treat Opioid Addiction  Editor's Note: The views and opinions expressed on Heart of the Matter are those of the podcast participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Partnership to End Addiction. We are also mindful that some of the personal stories feature the word “addict” and other terms from this list. We respect and understand those who choose to use certain terms to express themselves. However, we strive to use language that's health-oriented, accurately reflects science, promotes evidence-based treatment and demonstrates respect and compassion. 

This week on Dopey! We are joined by legendary journalist, storyteller, former LA Times reporter, and author - Sam Quinones. Sam comes on to tell us all about the current climate of struggle around the fentanyl epidemic and it's impact on America. Sam initially made a huge impact on the addiction/recovery community with his award winning book; Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. His most recent book is called 'The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth'  PLUS Dopey super friend, unlicensed advice columnist and Strung Out author, Erin Khar joins us and we hang out and read emails! PLUS much more on a very special new episode of the old Dopey show!      

On this week's episode, we sit down with Sam Quinones to discuss the contents of his books Dreamland and Least of Us, the neuroscience of addiction, and the reasons why he feels hopeful about our future as a nation navigating an opioid epidemic. Sam is a journalist and author of four books of narrative nonfiction. Sam's landmark book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic won a National Book Critics Circle award for Best Nonfiction and ignited awareness of the opioid epidemic happening in the United States. Sam's latest book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth explores the emergence of unprecedented drug-trafficking in the US, contrasted with stories of Americans recovering community through simple acts of service and care. JOIN US FOR A CONVERSATION WITH SAM FEBRUARY 23, 2022 AT 6:30 PM: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-with-best-selling-author-sam-quinones-tickets-211930438647 READ THE LEAST OF US: TRUE TALES OF AMERICA AND HOPE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL AND METH: https://samquinones.com/books/the-least-of-us/ The views and opinions expressed on Awareness 2 Action are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Prevention Department or Northwestern Community Services.  

The unfettered prescribing of pain medications meets the massive influx of black tar heroin in this true, riveting tale of capitalism run amok.  Author and journalist Sam Quinones explains how this unintentional collision led to the catastrophic opiate crisis in this country in his book "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic"

Your host, Angela Kennecke,  first met Journalist and Author, Sam Quinones, when he spoke at an Opioid Summit in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after writing his best-selling book, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. Now his latest book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, looks at how much the drug market has changed and how deadly and addictive it has become. Quinones examines why the unbelievable number of fentanyl overdoses aren't enough to stop people from playing Russian roulette with drug use.  His work exposes how extensive the synthetic drug epidemic has become and offers solutions and hope, one small effort at a time. Support the show (https://www.emilyshope.foundation/donate-2)

--On the Show: --Sam Quinones, author of the New York Times bestseller "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, and most recently, "The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth," joins David to discuss opiate and meth addiction, treatment, the drug war, and more. Get the book: https://amzn.to/30AbRhG --A shocking partisan vaccination gap has opened, with 96% of Democrats vaccinated, but only 54% of Republicans --Newsmax host Chris Salcedo delivers one of the most ignorant rants about climate change we've ever seen --Notable discussions from the David Pakman Show subreddit, including about the term "Karen," the White House's COVID Omicron warning, and more --Former President Donald Trump endorses Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert for re-election --Nancy Pelosi rejects the possibility of a stock-trading ban for members of Congress --As Omicron takes over, COVID vaccine booster mandates begin, and the UK sets COVID case records --Voicemail caller comments on the Air Force discharging 27 servicemembers for refusing the COVID vaccine --On the Bonus Show: Build Back Better isn't happening this year, New Zealand's new cigarette ban, car break-ins explode in San Francisco bay area, much more...

Today the guys are joined by author/journalist Sam Quinones. Sam is the author of the award winning book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. His latest release, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fetanyl and Meth, is the basis for our conversation. Sam helps shed light on the link between rampant homelessness and drug use in the US, the changing chemical structure of drugs like meth, and how we can help those who are in desperate need of it.  This episode is sponsored by Gun Barrel Coffee.

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/08/1051475843/dopesick-hulu-true-story-opioid-addiction Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=139670 Lovemaps: Sexual/Erotic Health and Pathology, Paraphilia, and Gender Transposition In Childhood, Adolescence and Maturity by John Money, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=130433 https://www.takimag.com/article/from-dreamland-to-nightmareland/ Steve Sailer writes: With the CDC estimating last month that drug overdose deaths rose over 30 percent in the first twelve months of the pandemic to nearly 100,000, Sam Quinones' outstanding new sequel to his award-winning 2015 book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic is definitely timely. Quinones' The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth brings us up to date on the disastrous drug developments of the past half-dozen years. Dreamland explained how the Sackler family promoting OxyContin to doctors as a “non-addictive” synthetic opioid painkiller in the late 1990s set off what I call the White Death that quietly killed so many working-class whites in the first decade of this century. Then, as the medical profession became less irresponsible about writing pain-pill prescriptions, Mexican drug smugglers stepped in to supply cut-off pill addicts with heroin. While Dreamland was superbly reported, its prose style was occasionally slightly off. In contrast, The Least of Us is elegantly written. And Quinones has perfected his method of merging big-picture cause-and-effect analyses of the economics and neuroscience of drugs with illustrative human-interest stories of Americans swept up in this national catastrophe. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSFVD7Xfhn7sJY8LAIQmH8Q/join https://odysee.com/@LukeFordLive, https://lbry.tv/@LukeFord, https://rumble.com/lukeford https://dlive.tv/lukefordlivestreams Listener Call In #: 1-310-997-4596 Superchat: https://entropystream.live/app/lukefordlive Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/lukeford/ Soundcloud MP3s: https://soundcloud.com/luke-ford-666431593 Code of Conduct: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=125692 https://www.patreon.com/lukeford http://lukeford.net Email me: lukeisback@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter.com/lukeford Support the show | https://www.streamlabs.com/lukeford, https://patreon.com/lukeford, https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback Facebook: http://facebook.com/lukecford Feel free to clip my videos. It's nice when you link back to the original.

We are joined again today by one of our very first guests on the show.  Sam Quinones is an award-winning journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. Two years ago, Sam and I discussed how opioid addiction had transformed the health and healthcare landscape of our nation. Today, Sam is back to share with us his latest book, out now, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. His fascinating, in-depth reporting reveals the rapidly evolving drug epidemic that, while overshadowed by a global pandemic, has in many ways intensified.  He also shares stories of hope that demonstrate we still have a path forward on this uniquely challenging public health crisis.  And if you enjoy today's episode, I encourage you to go back and listen to our original discussion in Episode #12. 

Author Sam Quinones joins Jess and Zerlina to talk about his new book "The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth," on sale October 12!"The Least of Us" is the follow up to Quinones' award-winning New York Times bestseller, "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic."

0:00 - Dan & Amy review the Virginia gubernatorial closing arguments 14:40 - Law & Order: Cook County Circuit Court   28:31 - Dan & Amy head to Glasgow and check out COP 26 42:13 - Audio: Mom pleads with goons protesting Sinema outside her daughter's wedding 46:11 - Senior Legal Fellow for the Heritage Foundation, Hans von Spakovsky, discusses election integrity and his new book Our Broken Elections: How the Left Changed the Way You Vote. Purchase Our Broken Electionshere 01:00:34 - Dan & Amy offer examples of false exegesis of Romans 13 for justification 01:22:40 - President at Wirepoints Inc, Ted Dabrowski: We should remain concerned about the elderly instead of running around vaccinating children. Check out Ted's latest - wirepoints.org 01:34:53 - Jorge Cham –cartoonist behind the popular online comic Piled Higher and Deeper & Daniel Whiteson – professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, answer Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe. Purchase Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe here 01:43:45 - Dan & Amy explain how you can become more marriageable 01:50:24 - Journalist and author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, Sam Quinones, shares his new book The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. Purchase Dreamlandhere. Purchase The Least of Ushere See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The opioid crisis in the United States is a textbook example of free market economics. The powerful lie, manipulate, and skirt regulations to make buckets of money, while innocent people suffer. Journalist Sam Quinones joins Goldy and Paul to unpack the economics behind the opioid crisis, and the new threat of synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Sam Quinones is a journalist best known for his reporting in Mexico and on Mexicans in the United States. He is the author of the award-winning Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. His new book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, is out today. Twitter: @samquinones7 The Least of Us: https://bookshop.org/books/the-least-of-us-true-tales-of-america-and-hope-in-the-time-of-fentanyl-and-meth/9781635574357 What did the Sacklers know? https://newrepublic.com/article/162148/sacklers-know-patrick-radden-keefe-purdue-opioid-crisis-review  The 'Secret History' Of The Sackler Family & The Opioid Crisis: https://www.npr.org/2021/04/14/987195464/the-secret-history-of-the-sackler-family-the-opioid-crisis  State-Level Economic Costs of Opioid Use Disorder and Fatal Opioid Overdose: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7015a1.htm  Massive Costs of the US Opioid Epidemic in Lives and Dollars: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2780313  Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick's twitter: @NickHanauer

The Least of Us About Sam Quinones Sam Quinones  is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist and author of four books of narrative nonfiction. His latest book is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. In The Least of Us (published October 2021), Quinones chronicles the emergence of a drug-trafficking world producing massive supplies of dope cheaper and deadlier than ever, marketing to the population of addicts created by the nation’s opioid epidemic, as the backdrop to tales of Americans' quiet attempts to recover community through simple acts of helping the vulnerable. The Least of Us follows his landmark Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury, 2015), which ignited awareness of the epidemic that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of lives, and become deadliest drug scourge in the nation's history. Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for the Best Nonfiction Book of 2015. It was also selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon.com, Slate.com, the Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Entertainment Weekly, Audible, and in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Business by Nobel economics laureate, Prof. Angus Deaton, of Princeton University. In 2019, Dreamland was selected as one the Best 10 True-Crime Books of all time based on lists, surveys, and ratings of more than 90 million Goodread readers.A Young Adult version of Dreamland was released in July of 2019. His first two highly acclaimed books grew from his 10 years living and working as a freelance writer in Mexico (1994-2004). True Tales From Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx was released in 2001. It is a cult classic of a book from Mexico's vital margins – stories of drag queens and Oaxacan Indian basketball players, popsicle makers and telenovela stars, migrants, farm workers, a narcosaint, a slain drug balladeer, a slum boss, and a doomed tough guy. In 2007, he came out with Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration. In it, Quinones narrates the saga of the Henry Ford of Velvet Painting, and of how an opera scene emerged in Tijuana, and how a Zacatecan taco empire formed in Chicago. He tells the tale of the Tomato King, of a high-school soccer season in Kansas, and of Mexican corruption in a small LA County town. Threading through the book are three tales of a modern Mexican Huck Finn. Quinones ends the collection in a chapter called “Leaving Mexico” with his harrowing tangle with the Narco-Mennonites of Chihuahua. Sam Quinones is formerly a reporter with the L.A. Times, where he worked for 10 years (2004-2014).  He is a veteran reporter on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking, the border. Contact him at 

This episode is a little longer than usual because we had a lot to say! The THEMES in this book. Whewww. Next week, we're reading chapters 26 through the end of 40 of Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. -- Other books mentioned in this episode: Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo Outlawed by Anna North --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

A few years ago, I met a young woman in her late twenties. As we began chatting, she shared she was going through a divorce. Her ex was addicted to OxyContin—a prescription pain medication. Fast forward a few years, and I learned some startling and terrifying facts—that in 2014, my home state of Ohio led the nation in deaths from heroin overdoses and in 2016, it earned this same distinction from opioid overdoses. I had no idea what was going on, but I suspected that diagnostic inflation and Big Pharma played a role. (For more on why I came to this conclusion, please listen to my interview with Dr. Allen Frances in episode 22). So, when I came across Sam Quinones’ book, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, I knew I wanted to invite him to the program to help us understand how the Heartland became America’s hotspot of heroin and opioid addiction. In our conversation, Sam describes:· The “perfect storm” that moved heroin from the fringe to the suburbs.· How a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine morphed into a “landmark study” which changed the way medical professionals viewed opioids, addiction, and pain management.· The connection between prescription pads and black tar heroin.· How the fraying social fabric and breakdown of communities relate to the rise in drug addiction.· The striking similarities in the marketing strategies of Big Pharma and black tar heroin drug traffickers.Join us as author Sam Quinones explains this tragic rise of prescription opioid abuse and heroin addiction. If you’re like me, you’ve wondered how this happened—Sam provides answers and solutions.

Last week, in part 1 of our series on harm reduction, Dr. Jeffrey Singer talked with us about the current state of Naloxone in America, and how to get it to those in need. Today, in the 2nd part of this series, we explore Dr. Singer’s argument against the opioid prescribing limits that have been implemented by many states as a means to slow the opioid epidemic. With more prescribing leniency, a nonprofit group's bid to open a medically supervised drug injection site in Philadelphia could be the first of many alternative treatment methods. . . . On April 6th, 2020, Dr. Springer will debate author Sam Quinones on the premise of his bestselling book “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opioid Epidemic”. Join us next time as we continue our conversation with Dr. Singer and Preview his faceoff with Mr. Quinones.

The opioid epidemic impacts families across the country regardless of race, religious beliefs and socio-economic background. But what does this mean for your family? How did it get started? Are parents adding to the problem? How can we keep our teens safe? Mighty Parenting podcast host Sandy Fowler chats with Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, to understand how the opioid epidemic is impacting our teens and what parents need to do.  Our Guest: Sam Quinones Detailed Show Notes and Support at MightyParenting.com Our Sponsor: Ecree - On-demand virtual writing tutor for students Support this podcast at MightyParenting.com/support

Sam Quinones is a journalist, storyteller, and author of the enthralling book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for the Best Nonfiction Book of 2015, and was selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon.com, Slate.com, the Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Entertainment Weekly, and Audible. Sam lived in Mexico for 10 years as a freelance writer before returning to the U.S. to cover immigration, drug trafficking, neighborhood stories, and gangs for the LA Times. Wait till you hear how this crime reporter became an expert on opioids. Visit A Second Opinion's website here: https://asecondopinionpodcast.com/ Engage with us on social media at: Facebook Twitter Instagram  

There are two guests on this week's special 250th episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. Chris Arnade is a photographer and contributing writer for the New York Times, Atlantic, Guardian, Washington Post, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal. His new book is Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America. Arnade reflects on leaving his job as a stock trader on Wall Street and embarking on a quest across America during the rise of Trump in an effort to see just how broken American society is and was. Arnade also shares how his walks across New York City and taking pictures of everyday people -- the working class, the poor, people without homes, hustlers, immigrants, migrants, and others -- impacted his understanding of life and human dignity and became the basis of his new book Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America. Arnade also reflects on the power of listening and how in many ways the poor and homeless are more honorable and good than the rich and the powerful. Investigative journalist and author Sam Quinones is the second guest on this week's show. He is a journalist, storyteller, and former LA Times reporter. Quinones' most recent book is Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. Dreamland won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2015. Quinones explains how Big Pharma and their opiates took over huge swaths of Trumplandia and other parts of the United States through "pain management" -- and then enterprising Mexican drug kingpins were able to leverage that opportunity to import huge amounts of heroin into the country. Quinones also explains what he learned from meeting one of the most important figures in the U.S.-Mexico heroin trade and if Donald Trump's wall will do anything to stem the tide of drugs (and addiction) in America. Chauncey DeVega reflects on America in a time of moral inversion when white supremacists and other right-wing street hooligans and paramilitaries can march openly in American cities such as Portland and it is the anti-fascists who are somehow labeled as "terrorists". Chauncey is deeply worried that tens of millions of Americans no longer know right from wrong in the Age of Trump. And Chauncey also shares some little-known history about the true origins of the Statue of Liberty and how African-Americans struggling against Jim and Jane Crow understood the statue to be an affront and insult. At the end of this week's special 250th episode of the podcast Chauncey shares an exciting story about the newly discovered bones of a 5-foot-tall prehistoric penguin. SELECTED LINKS OF INTEREST FOR THIS EPISODE OF THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW    How Stephen Miller authors Trump's immigration policy Ken Cuccinelli's ancestors were dirt-poor Italian immigrants — no different than those Trump wants to bar He sounded the alarm on "Hateland": Daryl Johnson warned us about right-wing terror in 2009 Whose "America" is it? Neil Diamond's big, inclusive vision vs. Donald Trump's narrow hatred Statue of Liberty created to celebrate freed slaves, not immigrants, new museum recounts National Park Service -- Abolition and the Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty Was Originally a Muslim Woman Newly Discovered 'Monster' Penguin Was As Tall As an Adult Human WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com Leave a voicemail for The Chauncey DeVega Show: (262) 864-0154 HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow  Please subscribe to and follow my new podcast The Truth Report https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-report-with-chauncey-devega/id1465522298 http://thetruthreportwithchaunceydevega.libsyn.com/ Music at the end of this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show is by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. You can listen to some of their great music on Spotify.   

Welcome to this week's episode of Heinz Radio with host, Eugene Leventhal. Back in April, Sam Quinones came to CMU's campus to give a talk as part of the University Lecture Series. Sam is a journalist and author of the book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic - a really engaging read despite how heavy the topic is. We were excited to get to talk to Sam about the book and about how synthetic opioids were present when he was researching for it. We started the interview talking about two of his forthcoming projects - a young adult version of Dreamland and a new project focusing on synthetic opioids. It was interesting to hear Sam's perspective on policy and legislative responses that we've seen to the crisis and to have him comment about how drug trafficking relates to the immigration debate. We really enjoyed the conversation with Sam and I hope you enjoy the interview. Sam's website Dreamland

This episode will cover the evolution of this opioid epidemic in America. Mr. Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic will be discussing the heroin trade in America, it’s connection to prescription opioids, the medical community’s move towards pain management, pharmaceutical marketing, and general attitudes around poverty and social isolation. We will discuss the web of contributing factors that have created our current state as well as ideas on how to move forward.

Last year, 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. A lot of those deaths -- about three-fourths -- were caused by opioid medication prescribed by doctors or substances like heroin obtained on the street. A disproportionate number of the dead are from West Virginia. For several years, the state has led the nation in per-capita opioid-related deaths. In this episode, hosts Trey Kay and Chery Glaser talk about the origins of the Appalachian drug epidemic. They're joined by Los Angeles crime reporter Sam Quinones, the author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, and by Ian Kessinger, a former addict who now runs a recovery clinic in Elkins, West Virginia.

The opioid and heroin epidemic has caused massive destruction suffering and pain. After rising for many decades, America’s life expectancy rate has dropped for the past two years in a row. Nearly 50 thousand Americans last year were the victims of opioid overdose deaths--twice the rate of other wealthy nations.But now, because of impressive initiatives to tackle the crisis, there are small glimmers of hope. The death-rate might be starting to fall. This month, a New York Times report highlighted a plunge in fatal overdoses in Dayton, Ohio, which had one of the highest rates in 2017.Among the possible solutions we hear about is GROW, a local effort that dispatches teams of social workers, medics, police officers and recovery experts to the homes of people who've overdosed. We also discuss the FDA's approval of the controversial synthetic opioid, Dsuvia, to treat cases of extreme pain, and the recent passage of a bipartisan bill to fight the epidemic.For this episode, we include last year's "How Do We Fix It?" interview with journalist Sam Quinones, author of the highly praised book, "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam Quiñones researched and wrote the book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. In this episode, Annie has the privilege of speaking with Sam, who shares his rich experiences writing the book - from researching Mexican cartel trafficking, to meeting dealers in prisons who were open and raw with their stories, to getting to know the family members impacted by a Loved One's addiction. Sam paints a vivid picture of how the closing of community pools such as Dreamland (the books namesake) in Portsmouth, Ohio contributed to the gathering storm of what has become our country's worst drug epidemic in history. Hearing Sam feels like listening to an old friend describe years of family and community stories that hit right to the heart of all of us. Dreamland is a book everyone should read, and this is an episode everyone should hear!! A membership at Allies in Recovery brings you into contact with experts in the fields of recovery and treatment for drug and alcohol issues. Our learning platform introduces you to CRAFT and guides you through the best techniques for unblocking the situation. Together we will move your loved one towards recovery. Learn more here: https://alliesinrecovery.net/#benefits

Host: John J. Russell, MD Guest: Sam Quinones Weaving together two classic tales of capitalism and the unintended collision laying waste to communities across the country, Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland, introduces an unforgettable cast of characters, including pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents, to share what he believes is at the root of the opiate addiction epidemic.

Host: John J. Russell, MD Guest: Sam Quinones Weaving together two classic tales of capitalism and the unintended collision laying waste to communities across the country, Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland, introduces an unforgettable cast of characters, including pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents, to share what he believes is at the root of the opiate addiction epidemic.

America’s opioid epidemic is an addiction crisis like no other the country has ever faced. Deaths outnumber car crash fatalities. Since 1999, 200,000 people have died from overdoses related to Oxycontin and other prescription painkillers. The scourge is the result of a terrible double whammy: The relentless marketing of pain pills and the ruthless efficiency of drug pushers from one small Mexican town, who deliver heroin like takeout pizza.Our guest, Sam Quinones, author of the highly praised book "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic," is our guide to this complex tragedy. We look at the roots of the epidemic and possible solutions. From innovative treatment programs in Kentucky jails to drug courts in Buffalo, New York that offer help for addicts, but also demand accountability, there are ways to reduce the immense pain, suffering and damage."This issue allows us to come together as Americans," says Sam. "Every addict cannot go it alone. They need to be surrounded by services and people who can offer help.""We've destroyed community in this country in a million different ways and heroin is what you get when you do that." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Renee speaks with journalist Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic and other books. A reporter for almost 30 years, Quinones lived and worked as a freelance writer in Mexico from 1994 to 2004. He is a former reporter for the LA Times.

Renee speaks with journalist Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic and other books. A reporter for almost 30 years, Quinones lived and worked as a freelance writer in Mexico from 1994 to 2004. He is a former reporter for the LA Times.

As America’s opioid epidemic ravages cities large and small, a new problem is emerging: while jobs exist, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find applicants willing or able to pass the drug tests needed to get them, employers and public officials say. In this episode, Caroline and Chip explore the economic side of America’s devastating addiction to prescription painkillers, heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl, and how it’s playing out in workplaces. Sam Quinones, the author of “Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic,” explains the link between jobs and addiction. Then, Jeff DeFlavio, the co-founder of treatment provider Groups, talks to us about ways he thinks employers can be less impacted by the drug crisis across America.

"I think opiates elected Donald Trump," opines award-winning journalist Sam Quinones (22:40). Sam chatted with Skip and Kate, covering his career path in journalism, the opioid epidemic, Trump’s election and presidency, and border security. Biography: Sam Quinones is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist and author of three books of narrative nonfiction. His latest book is Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. Dreamland was selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by publications including the Seattle Times, Boston Globe, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Before writing Dreamland, Quinones was a reporter with the L.A. Times from 2004-2014 focusing on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking, and the border. Quote preview: “One day I find a series of stories over six months of people dying of black tar heroin in the town of Huntington, WV. That pushed a number of buttons. First of all, black tar heroin is only made in Mexico, and it...doesn’t cross the Mississippi river…[West Virginia] has the lowest percentage of foreign-born people of any state in the union, so what is all this black tar heroin doing in a state with no mexicans in quantities large enough to kill a dozen people in six months when they’d had one overdose in ten years?” (11:30) “And then [law enforcement] says: “and [all the drug dealers are] from the same town.” And I come forward in my chair and I go “really? Which one?” I had this overwhelming surge of knowledge that there was a small town somewhere in Mexico where everybody came to Columbus, OH to sell heroin like pizza. It was just a matter of finding it.” (12:45) “I think Opiates elected Donald Trump. One of the major facts of life in (the areas Trump won) is opioid addiction...Opiates bring with them a fatalism, a negativity...they create a feeling that things are falling apart....There is a dread of the future [in these areas]...he won because those counties swung the states they were in.” (22:10)

Author of “Jerry (from accounting)” Interview starts at 14:56 and ends at 45:09 "I love what Amazon is doing in terms of giving access to a platform in a kind of populist way. I think that is incredibly helpful. I think the distribution is amazing. It creates new readers. I love the $2 price point for a novella. I think that's definitely expanding who can have access to the writing and quality writing. Historically speaking the Big Five were very focused on content and less on how the distribution was happening, and that was what they were pretty good at. Amazon's strength was in more distribution and being ahead of the curve on the eBooks. I think Amazon now is catching up and really focusing on content across the board." News “Amazon's Ambitions Unboxed: Stores for Furniture, Appliances and More” by Nick Wingfield at The New York Times - March 25, 2017 “Amazon, the world's most remarkable firm, is just getting started” at The Economist - March 25, 2017 “Amazon could become our leading physical retailer before very long” by Mike Shatzkin - March 21, 2017 “Busy Week for Amazon Ends with Stock Surge to Record Close” by Angel Gonzalez at The Seattle Times - March 31, 2017 Tech Tip Is your Amazon Fire HD 8 sluggish? Try shutting off some apps. Interview with Timothy DeLizza Day One Magazine (send submissions to dayone-submissions@amazon.com) Jerry (from accounting) by Timothy DeLizza Goodreads page for Jerry (from accounting) My Medium post which mentions Jerry (from accounting) - March 8, 2016 The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens “Spiritual and Menial Housework” by Dorothy Roberts at Yale Journal of Law & Feminism - 1997 Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society by Paul Goodman Latham & Watkins Amazon Publishing's Little a imprint for literary fiction and nonfiction Books Timothy DeLizza is currently reading: There Are More Beautiful Things than Beyonce by Morgan Parker, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones, Human Acts: A Novel by Han Kang Outro “Dr. Ruth Readies for Blast Off!” (video released by Amazon Publishing for April 1, 2017) Next Week's Guest Bufo Calvin of the I Love My Kindle blog and I will rendezvous in Virtual Reality via an app named vTime to discuss how Amazon may get involved in VR this year. Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads! You can follow my essays on travel, authors, technology, politics, and daily life at Medium. Right-click here and then click "Save Link As..." to download the audio to your computer, phone, or MP3 player.

Journalist and author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic Sam Quinones, and Louise Reese, CEO of the West Virginia Primary Care Association, discuss the opioid epidemic in America and how West Virginia Community Health Centers are making a difference. Also, don't miss Louise Reese's op-ed on opioid addiction in WV http://bit.ly/2gN2VfB.

In the early 2000s, the press–at least in Boston, where I was living at the time–was full of shrill stories about drug-crazed addicts breaking into area pharmacies in search of something called “Oxycontin.” I had no idea what Oxycontin was, but I was pretty sure there must be something remarkable about it if ordinary drug fiends were risking jail time and worse by robbing mom-and-pop drug stores to get it. As Sam Quinones explains in his remarkable book Dreamland: The True Tale of American's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), the Oxycontin crime wave was an early moment in the emergence of a full-blown Opiate epidemic in the United States. For many young doctors working in “pain management in the 90s and naughts, Oxycontin was remarkable indeed. It gave them just what their predecessors in the eternal fight against pain lacked: a supposedly non-addictive opium-based medication that they could prescribe far and wide without fear of hooking their patients on it. And with all the best intentions, prescribe it far and wide these doctors did. But it wasn't non-addictive at all; masses of patients become dependent. And not only them. Drug-users learned that “Oxy” afforded a wonderful high, and it became highly coveted “on the street.” The rub was that this new “wonder drug” was either hard to get–unless you had access to a “Pill Mill”–and/or very expensive. So Oxycontin addicts got desperate. Some, like the ones the press was screaming about in Boston, stole the drug from the local CVS and the like. Most, however, turned to an old drug that was easier to get and cheaper: Black Tar Heroin from Mexico. In the wake of Oxycontin, Black Tar spread from the Southwest across much of the U.S., even to places like Western Massachusetts, where I live now and the heroin epidemic is in full, tragic swing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 2000s, the press–at least in Boston, where I was living at the time–was full of shrill stories about drug-crazed addicts breaking into area pharmacies in search of something called “Oxycontin.” I had no idea what Oxycontin was, but I was pretty sure there must be something remarkable about it if ordinary drug fiends were risking jail time and worse by robbing mom-and-pop drug stores to get it. As Sam Quinones explains in his remarkable book Dreamland: The True Tale of American's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), the Oxycontin crime wave was an early moment in the emergence of a full-blown Opiate epidemic in the United States. For many young doctors working in “pain management in the 90s and naughts, Oxycontin was remarkable indeed. It gave them just what their predecessors in the eternal fight against pain lacked: a supposedly non-addictive opium-based medication that they could prescribe far and wide without fear of hooking their patients on it. And with all the best intentions, prescribe it far and wide these doctors did. But it wasn't non-addictive at all; masses of patients become dependent. And not only them. Drug-users learned that “Oxy” afforded a wonderful high, and it became highly coveted “on the street.” The rub was that this new “wonder drug” was either hard to get–unless you had access to a “Pill Mill”–and/or very expensive. So Oxycontin addicts got desperate. Some, like the ones the press was screaming about in Boston, stole the drug from the local CVS and the like. Most, however, turned to an old drug that was easier to get and cheaper: Black Tar Heroin from Mexico. In the wake of Oxycontin, Black Tar spread from the Southwest across much of the U.S., even to places like Western Massachusetts, where I live now and the heroin epidemic is in full, tragic swing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/medicine

In the early 2000s, the press–at least in Boston, where I was living at the time–was full of shrill stories about drug-crazed addicts breaking into area pharmacies in search of something called “Oxycontin.” I had no idea what Oxycontin was, but I was pretty sure there must be something remarkable about it if ordinary drug fiends were risking jail time and worse by robbing mom-and-pop drug stores to get it. As Sam Quinones explains in his remarkable book Dreamland: The True Tale of American's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), the Oxycontin crime wave was an early moment in the emergence of a full-blown Opiate epidemic in the United States. For many young doctors working in “pain management in the 90s and naughts, Oxycontin was remarkable indeed. It gave them just what their predecessors in the eternal fight against pain lacked: a supposedly non-addictive opium-based medication that they could prescribe far and wide without fear of hooking their patients on it. And with all the best intentions, prescribe it far and wide these doctors did. But it wasn't non-addictive at all; masses of patients become dependent. And not only them. Drug-users learned that “Oxy” afforded a wonderful high, and it became highly coveted “on the street.” The rub was that this new “wonder drug” was either hard to get–unless you had access to a “Pill Mill”–and/or very expensive. So Oxycontin addicts got desperate. Some, like the ones the press was screaming about in Boston, stole the drug from the local CVS and the like. Most, however, turned to an old drug that was easier to get and cheaper: Black Tar Heroin from Mexico. In the wake of Oxycontin, Black Tar spread from the Southwest across much of the U.S., even to places like Western Massachusetts, where I live now and the heroin epidemic is in full, tragic swing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/drugs-addiction-and-recovery

In the early 2000s, the press–at least in Boston, where I was living at the time–was full of shrill stories about drug-crazed addicts breaking into area pharmacies in search of something called “Oxycontin.” I had no idea what Oxycontin was, but I was pretty sure there must be something remarkable about it if ordinary drug fiends were risking jail time and worse by robbing mom-and-pop drug stores to get it. As Sam Quinones explains in his remarkable book Dreamland: The True Tale of American’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), the Oxycontin crime wave was an early moment in the emergence of a full-blown Opiate epidemic in the United States. For many young doctors working in “pain management in the 90s and naughts, Oxycontin was remarkable indeed. It gave them just what their predecessors in the eternal fight against pain lacked: a supposedly non-addictive opium-based medication that they could prescribe far and wide without fear of hooking their patients on it. And with all the best intentions, prescribe it far and wide these doctors did. But it wasn’t non-addictive at all; masses of patients become dependent. And not only them. Drug-users learned that “Oxy” afforded a wonderful high, and it became highly coveted “on the street.” The rub was that this new “wonder drug” was either hard to get–unless you had access to a “Pill Mill”–and/or very expensive. So Oxycontin addicts got desperate. Some, like the ones the press was screaming about in Boston, stole the drug from the local CVS and the like. Most, however, turned to an old drug that was easier to get and cheaper: Black Tar Heroin from Mexico. In the wake of Oxycontin, Black Tar spread from the Southwest across much of the U.S., even to places like Western Massachusetts, where I live now and the heroin epidemic is in full, tragic swing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 2000s, the press–at least in Boston, where I was living at the time–was full of shrill stories about drug-crazed addicts breaking into area pharmacies in search of something called “Oxycontin.” I had no idea what Oxycontin was, but I was pretty sure there must be something remarkable about it if ordinary drug fiends were risking jail time and worse by robbing mom-and-pop drug stores to get it. As Sam Quinones explains in his remarkable book Dreamland: The True Tale of American’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), the Oxycontin crime wave was an early moment in the emergence of a full-blown Opiate epidemic in the United States. For many young doctors working in “pain management in the 90s and naughts, Oxycontin was remarkable indeed. It gave them just what their predecessors in the eternal fight against pain lacked: a supposedly non-addictive opium-based medication that they could prescribe far and wide without fear of hooking their patients on it. And with all the best intentions, prescribe it far and wide these doctors did. But it wasn’t non-addictive at all; masses of patients become dependent. And not only them. Drug-users learned that “Oxy” afforded a wonderful high, and it became highly coveted “on the street.” The rub was that this new “wonder drug” was either hard to get–unless you had access to a “Pill Mill”–and/or very expensive. So Oxycontin addicts got desperate. Some, like the ones the press was screaming about in Boston, stole the drug from the local CVS and the like. Most, however, turned to an old drug that was easier to get and cheaper: Black Tar Heroin from Mexico. In the wake of Oxycontin, Black Tar spread from the Southwest across much of the U.S., even to places like Western Massachusetts, where I live now and the heroin epidemic is in full, tragic swing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 2000s, the press–at least in Boston, where I was living at the time–was full of shrill stories about drug-crazed addicts breaking into area pharmacies in search of something called “Oxycontin.” I had no idea what Oxycontin was, but I was pretty sure there must be something remarkable about it if ordinary drug fiends were risking jail time and worse by robbing mom-and-pop drug stores to get it. As Sam Quinones explains in his remarkable book Dreamland: The True Tale of American’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), the Oxycontin crime wave was an early moment in the emergence of a full-blown Opiate epidemic in the United States. For many young doctors working in “pain management in the 90s and naughts, Oxycontin was remarkable indeed. It gave them just what their predecessors in the eternal fight against pain lacked: a supposedly non-addictive opium-based medication that they could prescribe far and wide without fear of hooking their patients on it. And with all the best intentions, prescribe it far and wide these doctors did. But it wasn’t non-addictive at all; masses of patients become dependent. And not only them. Drug-users learned that “Oxy” afforded a wonderful high, and it became highly coveted “on the street.” The rub was that this new “wonder drug” was either hard to get–unless you had access to a “Pill Mill”–and/or very expensive. So Oxycontin addicts got desperate. Some, like the ones the press was screaming about in Boston, stole the drug from the local CVS and the like. Most, however, turned to an old drug that was easier to get and cheaper: Black Tar Heroin from Mexico. In the wake of Oxycontin, Black Tar spread from the Southwest across much of the U.S., even to places like Western Massachusetts, where I live now and the heroin epidemic is in full, tragic swing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 2000s, the press–at least in Boston, where I was living at the time–was full of shrill stories about drug-crazed addicts breaking into area pharmacies in search of something called “Oxycontin.” I had no idea what Oxycontin was, but I was pretty sure there must be something remarkable about it if ordinary drug fiends were risking jail time and worse by robbing mom-and-pop drug stores to get it. As Sam Quinones explains in his remarkable book Dreamland: The True Tale of American’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), the Oxycontin crime wave was an early moment in the emergence of a full-blown Opiate epidemic in the United States. For many young doctors working in “pain management in the 90s and naughts, Oxycontin was remarkable indeed. It gave them just what their predecessors in the eternal fight against pain lacked: a supposedly non-addictive opium-based medication that they could prescribe far and wide without fear of hooking their patients on it. And with all the best intentions, prescribe it far and wide these doctors did. But it wasn’t non-addictive at all; masses of patients become dependent. And not only them. Drug-users learned that “Oxy” afforded a wonderful high, and it became highly coveted “on the street.” The rub was that this new “wonder drug” was either hard to get–unless you had access to a “Pill Mill”–and/or very expensive. So Oxycontin addicts got desperate. Some, like the ones the press was screaming about in Boston, stole the drug from the local CVS and the like. Most, however, turned to an old drug that was easier to get and cheaper: Black Tar Heroin from Mexico. In the wake of Oxycontin, Black Tar spread from the Southwest across much of the U.S., even to places like Western Massachusetts, where I live now and the heroin epidemic is in full, tragic swing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 2000s, the press–at least in Boston, where I was living at the time–was full of shrill stories about drug-crazed addicts breaking into area pharmacies in search of something called “Oxycontin.” I had no idea what Oxycontin was, but I was pretty sure there must be something remarkable about it if ordinary drug fiends were risking jail time and worse by robbing mom-and-pop drug stores to get it. As Sam Quinones explains in his remarkable book Dreamland: The True Tale of American’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), the Oxycontin crime wave was an early moment in the emergence of a full-blown Opiate epidemic in the United States. For many young doctors working in “pain management in the 90s and naughts, Oxycontin was remarkable indeed. It gave them just what their predecessors in the eternal fight against pain lacked: a supposedly non-addictive opium-based medication that they could prescribe far and wide without fear of hooking their patients on it. And with all the best intentions, prescribe it far and wide these doctors did. But it wasn’t non-addictive at all; masses of patients become dependent. And not only them. Drug-users learned that “Oxy” afforded a wonderful high, and it became highly coveted “on the street.” The rub was that this new “wonder drug” was either hard to get–unless you had access to a “Pill Mill”–and/or very expensive. So Oxycontin addicts got desperate. Some, like the ones the press was screaming about in Boston, stole the drug from the local CVS and the like. Most, however, turned to an old drug that was easier to get and cheaper: Black Tar Heroin from Mexico. In the wake of Oxycontin, Black Tar spread from the Southwest across much of the U.S., even to places like Western Massachusetts, where I live now and the heroin epidemic is in full, tragic swing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Quinones is an American journalist. He is best known from his reporting in Mexico and on Mexicans in the United States. Author of three books: * True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx. *Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration. * Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. This podcast is brought to you by: RunRockNRoll.com LA Half Marathon on October 30th. Use code "RunWithBeto" and get $15 off your entry. DicksCottons.com for all your fresh sunglasses. Use the code “DREAM” and get 50% off. craftbeerkings.com is our official beer supplier. Order all your fancy beers from them. Delivered to you door! Ask for Moe Twitter: @SamQuinones7 Open: @IamMarioRuiz Instrumentals: “Esta Noche” by @phillyfresh13 from @casadecalacas Cover Art: @DodgersBeat Tech Support: @tynowell

Listen to the audio-only version from the live Google Hangout with Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland, which describes the true story behind the opioid epidemic in the United States. What are your thoughts? Join the ALiEM book club discussion. http://www.aliem.com/aliem-bookclub-one-world-schoolhouse-education-reimagined/ Recorded Oct 2015

Colin Marshall talks with reporter Sam Quinones, who covered gangs, drugs, and immigration at the Los Angeles Times for a decade. He has written the books Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream, True Tales from Another Mexico, and the new Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic.

This week, disaster struck The Politics Guys. Well, okay, maybe not disaster exactly, but a truly nasty flu bug felled Trey late in the week. We'd planned to have Trey run the show along with a special more far left than Mike guest co-host, but that all fell apart when Trey's thermometer hit 105 yesterday afternoon. (He got some good drugs and is feeling slightly better today.)  Mike and Jay had planned to take the week off and so neither of them was ready to do anything but provide off-the-cuff, uninformed opinions. (Yes, we realize that sometimes it seems like they do that every week, but trust us, they spend a lot of time preparing.) And so, instead of throwing together some shoddy instant-analysis of the news (which you can get *so* many other places) we decided instead to run Mike's recent talk with San Quinones about the opioid epidemic. Sam lived for 10 years as a freelance writer in Mexico, where he wrote his first two books, returning to the U.S. in 2004 to work for the L.A. Times, covering immigration, drug trafficking, neighborhood stories, and gangs. In 2014 he resigned from the Times to return to freelancing, working for publications including National Geographic, the New York Times, and Los Angeles Magazine. He's the author of three books, including [Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic](https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1620402521/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1517072560&sr=8-1), which appeared on numerous 'best book of the year' lists and won the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction. He's spoken about the crisis in many venues, including Marc Maron's WTF and Russ Roberts' EconTalk (two of Mike's favorite podcasts), and he recently testified on the opioid crisis before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee. **The sponsors of today's show are:** **Dollar Shave Club**. Get the Dollar Shave Club Starter Set for just five buck by going to [dollarshaveclub.com/TPG](https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/TPG).  **Policy Genius.** Life insurance and more in minutes. Check it out for free at [policygenius.com](http://www.policygenius.com) **DaVinci.** Great, affordable meeting rooms in cities across the country. Go to [davincimeet.com/TPG](http://www.davincimeet.com/TPG) and, for a limited time, get 50% off your first purchase. **Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible**. If you're interested in supporting the show, go to [politicsguys.com](http://www.politicsguys.com) and click on the Patreon or PayPal links. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-politics-guys/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy