Journalist Sam Quinones says to understand the opiate epidemic, you have to look at the cultural baggage underpinning it. Poor people in Mexico are looking for a leg up, and disaffected people in the U.S. just want to check out.
The journalist Sam Quinones has called opiate addiction “the closest thing to enslavement that we have in America today.” It’s a scourge fueled by pharmaceutical companies and drug cartels, and it takes advantage of some heavy cultural baggage on either side of the border. Poor people in Mexico are looking for a leg up, while disaffected people in the world’s richest country just want to check out. Quinones joins us to discuss the culture of the opiate epidemic. (Rebroadcast)
Sam Quinones is a journalist, former LA Times reporter and author of three books. His latest is called Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic [Indiebound|Amazon|Audible]
