“He had a loving family, financial support, and the best treatment. He fell victim to an overdose anyway.”
heroin
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we have stories by Dan Kois, Matt Gallagher, Marina Benjamin, Caleb Daniloff, and Vauhini Vara.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Running With Hank
“How my daughter’s rambunctious mutt saved my sanity while she was lost to the darkness.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Drugs Killed 8 Friends, One by One, in a Tragedy Seen Across the U.S.
“It just, it took them.”
Posted inNonfiction
Postcard from the (Literal) Edge
In an excerpt from her recovery memoir, Erin Khar recalls the depths of her self-destruction as a heroin addict.
Posted inHighlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
‘Writers tell’: The Devastating Contrasts in Life, Death, and West Virginia
“Twelve years later, I birthed my son on my sister’s death day.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Bootlegging Jane’s Addiction
In this personal essay, Aaron Gilbreath considers the impact a live Jane’s Addiction recording has had on him, and the effect heroin had on the band’s — and his own — creativity.
Posted inNonfiction
180 Overdoses, 18 Deaths, One Week
The Cincinnati Enquirer’s harrowing chronicle of an ordinary week at the height of the heroin epidemic.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why Russia’s Heroin Addicts Are Going Through Hell
Russia’s aversion to harm reduction as a strategy to combat drug addiction has led to an HIV epidemic. In Yekaterinburg — the fourth largest city in Russia with a population of 1.5 million people — one in 50 are HIV positive. In Russia, addiction is considered a “moral sickness” and methadone is illegal — “a […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Why Is There a Patient Cap on Medication Used to Treat Heroin Addicts?
At Guernica, Lucas Mann (who lost his brother to heroin addiction) writes on why abstinence and methadone don’t work and how doctors are failing in their fight against arbitrary, DEA-enforced patient caps on buprenorphine — a promising treatment for heroin addiction. Curran began prescribing in 2002. He was stunned by the results, and so were […]