For decades Interstate 95 has been notorious for its role in the illegal drug trade in America. Stretching from Florida to Maine. ibid.
‘It steals their dreams. It steals their lives.’ ibid. mother of addict
On October 26 2017 the level of opioid and heroin abuse in America had risen to such high levels that it was declared a national public health emergency. An estimated 2.1 million Americans are addicted to heroin or prescription painkillers. Every day 120 Americans died from an opioid overdose. America’s suburbs now have the highest overdose death rates in the country. Intervention: The Heroin Triangle, captions, Lifetime 2018,
80% of new heroin users have previously abused prescription opioids. ibid.
Children of addicts are 3 to 4 times more likely to become addicted to drugs or alcohol. ibid.
A cluster of communities just north of Atlanta, Georgia, have been devastated by the opioid epidemic. The area is known as the Heroin Triangle. Intervention: The Heroin Triangle II
More than 9 million children in the US live with a parent who uses illegal drugs. ibid.
The man who runs the house pimps Toni out in exchange for a room and drugs. ibid.
‘When Tiffany mixes heroin on top of Xanax, it’s a deadly combination.’ Intervention: The Heroin Triangle III, Tiffany’s partner
‘Billy, stop!’ Intervention: The Heroin Traingle V, Billy escapes intervention car
Tiffany is going to Hope by the Sea in San Juan Capistrano, California … Billy is going to PACE Recovery Centre in Costa Mesa, California. ibid. caption
‘You are dying! Allen, I need you!’ Intervention: The Heroin Triangle VI, mother
Allen is going to Mandala Healing Centre in West Palm Beach, Florida. ibid. caption
Taylor makes $4,000 a week as an exotic dancer. She spends most of her money on heroin. ibid.
This is Angela’s 9th attempt at getting sober. ibid.
‘They didn’t raise me to steal. Or a liar. They raised me better.’ Intervention: The Heroin Triangle VII, addict
Opioid withdrawal can begin within hours after use and last up to 10 days. Symptoms include diarrhoea, vomiting, increased heart rate and blood pressure. Intervention: The Heroin Triangle VIII
An Intensive Outpatient Program [IOP] is designed to accommodate work and family life. Intervention: The Heroin Triangle IX
Brazilian Amazon: We are currently boating through flooded forests to meet the Mayoruna Indians, a formerly cannibalistic tribe who use a strange frog-dried drug they call sambo. They use it to give themselves energy for hunting, they use it to abort pregnancies … an opioid peptide that’s a hundred time stronger than morphine, and some people say it’s psychedelic. Hamilton’s Phamacopeia: Getting High on Frogs, Vice 2012
And wake up feeling fantastic next day. ibid.
The Mayoruna village is a collection of huts spread across a large dusty clearing. ibid.
We’ll harvest the secretions and burn them and rub them into my wounds. ibid.
‘He says you throw up a lot when you do the frog.’ ibid. interpreter
Efavirenz: The only way to crack that kind of a mystery is to take the drug. Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia: Getting High on HIV Medication
South Africa has one of the planet’s most unique drug cultures. It is a realm where the Quaalude still abounds, and heroin has emerged only recently, not in its familiar guise as an intravenously administered powder but as a component in a mysterious smoking mixture called Nyaope. ibid.
The first I’d heard of an anti-retro-viral drug being used recreationally. ibid.
Psychedelic in a certain way … It’s not pleasant at all. ibid.
Lean, which is essentially a mild opiate made from mixing codeine cough syrup with spray, has always been popular in the South, but recently it’s had a bit of a resurgence. Why Lean Became Rap’s Most Wanted Drug, Vice TV 16.12
The soda and candy in lean mask the taste of the cough liquid. ibid.
Insite is North America’s first legal supervised injection site. Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis, Telus Health 2018
People are dying of drug overdoses in unprecedented numbers … We have contamination of the illegal drug supply with a drug called Fentanyl. ibid. Dr Daly, Vancouver
The war on drugs has been a war on people. ibid. Dr Morhaim
1 in 5 people prescribed an opioid will become a long-term user within 10 days. ibid. caption
In one day alone at peak time I responded to 22 separate overdoses in one shift. ibid. paramedic
The number of people who are dying in British Columbia alone are a hundred die a month, and in the worst months more like a hundred and fifty. It’s a terrible crisis for young people in the prime of their lives.’ ibid. Dr Wood, director BC Centre on Substance Use
Baltimore: the heroin capital of America. In 2015 Freddie Gray died in police custody sparking riots across the city. Looters raided dozens of pharmacies hunting for synthetic opioids. Two years on, an overdose epidemic is raging. Dope s2e2: Once You See It, You Can Never Unsee It, Netflix 2018
Fentanyl is the new killer ingredient that’s responsible for America’s current overdose epidemic … The addition of Fentanyl effectively hides the other cheap chemicals he uses to bulk out the raw heroin. ibid.
80% of heroin users become addicted through the use of opiates. ibid.
In 2016 over 600 people died of drug overdoses in Baltimore, double the murder rate. ibid.
Carfentanyl is an elephant tranquillizer. ibid.
It is the purest opium that has ever arrived in Europe. Peaky Blinders s5e4: The Loop, Chinese gangster, BBC 2019
Ada: How much [opium] have you got left?
Tommy: Seven, tons. I’d hate for it to run out, Ada. ibid.
Go to the library. Get some opium. Peaky Blinders s5e5: The Shock, Tommy to Arthur
‘There’s too much money to be made.’ Our World: America’s Opioid Crisis, BBC 2019
‘When they first entered life, your first breath of air came along with withdrawal symptoms.’ ibid. addict
‘There is no other medication that kills so many people as opioids.’ ibid. critic
One in eight children in America live with a parent who suffers from a substance use disorder. And they all have secrets they need to share. ibid.
Every eleven minutes someone dies of a heart attack. ibid.
America’s greatest health crisis. 80% of heroin users started their path to addiction on prescription painkillers. And now pharmaceutical companies have been blamed for igniting this epidemic. ibid.
It was in the 1990s that this opioid epidemic began. ibid.
It was Purdue Pharma, with their painkiller Oxycontin, that revolutionised how they were marketed. ibid.
Purdue Pharma has earned more than $35 billion from Oxycontin sales. The company is wholly owned by the Sacklers. In 2016 the family’s net worth was $13 billion. ibid.
I do it because I remember that this didn’t exist before. So, my kids, we gladly bring these to all of you. The Trade s1e1, gangster with toys, Sky Documentaries 2020
I’ve never seen this kind of epidemic before. We’re seeing folks that are struggling across the border in Mexico who would love to have that American dream, and they see what the drug trade has to offer – thousands of dollars a day, and that thirst takes over. ibid. border officer
31/32,000 vehicles a day that come into the United States – and quite frankly they can’t screen every vehicle. ibid.
There’s two kids in the back of the car. ibid. local rozzer stops vehicle with dope
I never thought that I would be like this – a junkie. When I was younger I was just hanging out with friends, skateboarding, you know just a normal suburban life. When I first started using, it was pain pills you know on a weekend – kind of like a party thing … A neighbour of mine was using heroin … I may as well try it out: I was seventeen … ibid. addict with distressed withdrawing partner
We have lost trust in the government so we fend for ourselves. We are always alert because the price of poppies keeps rising. ibid. Mexican gangsta