Topic: Sam Quinones

Author Sam Quinones appeared on C-SPAN to discuss his book "Dreamland," which details the rise of the opioid epidemic. Quinones explains how a Mexican gang from Jalisco developed a retail "pizza delivery" model for heroin in Columbus, Ohio. This marketing strategy coincided with a massive push by pharmaceutical companies to promote narcotic painkillers, creating a vast new market of addicts.

Sam Quinones describes how Purdue Pharma used aggressive marketing techniques, including giveaways and trips, to convince doctors that OxyContin was non-addictive. For the first 14 years of its existence, the drug lacked abuse-deterrent properties, allowing users to build high tolerances. When patients could no longer afford the pills, they often transitioned to cheaper heroin provided by the Jalisco traffickers.