Dreamland

I am reading an excellent book, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, by Sam Quinones. It is a well-written expose of how the opiate epidemic became, well, an epidemic. I have only read about one-seventh of the book and am greatly enjoying it.

The part I find most interesting is the detailed background Quinones goes into concerning some of the dealers and their lower-level workers. He makes it more understandable why so many young Mexicans want to get involved with this business. And I would surmise he knows much more than the average journalist because he lived in Mexico for about 10 years.

And he does a good job of breaking down the science behind opiates, helping you understand the details concerning black tar heroin and prescription pain pills.

Yet, its biggest asset is probably that it is just plain great storytelling. Whereas some books on the  subject can contain too many statistics and be too polemic, this one is exceedingly user-friendly.

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