Street roots., April 10, 2015, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • April 10-16, 2015
QUINONES, from page 4
News
doctors really didn’t have very many tools
for treating pain except for these pills.
And it did help Some people. I think by
and large, though, it did not help as many
people as originally intended and the
wanton, widespread prescribing of these
pills for almost anything led to an
enormous increase of
A.G.: You write about the
pain pills all across
pain and pain treatment
America, which was
revolution in America. Can you "There was tills
largely unregulated. The
explain that?
enormous risin g
doctors did not pay too
sea level of p ills
much attention to people
S.Q.: (The pain revolution)
lh a l reached every
when they were using
was really instigated mainly
these pills, if they were
com er of America
by pain specialists and then
using them correctly. '
because
doctors
later by the pharmaceutical
And so people began
were prescribing
companies that made the
getting addicted to them.
medicine. Together, the
It. This was not
If those people didn’t get
expertise of the former
instigated by drag
addicted to them, maybe
combined with the
mafias» Had It been
their children got iiito
megaphone and money of the
the pills and those kids
only drag mafias
latter created this new,
began getting addicted.
doing
l
l
r
Its
effect
conventional wisdom that
would be ntinnscnle? That invariably has led
these pills can be used for
to heroin addiction all
pain treatment without
comparatively. B a l
across the country, and
addiction — “virtually non-
yon have m illio n s of that’s why you’re seeing
addictive” was the phrase
doctors buying Into
heroin addiction in
when Used for treating pain.
this idea."
Alabama; that’s why
So the pendulum began to
you’re seeing heroin
swing in the ’80s: that it was
sam quinones
addiction in Tennessee,
OK to use these pills for
in Idaho. These are not
cancer treatment. But the
states that anyone ever
pendulum kept swinging, and
thought of as heroin
it went far, far the other way. By the mid-
hubs, but because there where pills there
’90s it was the case where people began to
first, the heroin then comes, and that’s
believe that it was OK for the pills to be
what these guys, the Xalisco Boys, have
used for all manner of pain.
figured out.
This created — beginning in the la te ’80s
but really through the ’90s and into the
A.D.: In doing the research for this book,
current millennium — just an enormous
you interviewed many people, including a
amount of prescribing for all kinds of pain:
number of addicts and their families. I ’m
the extraction of wisdom teeth, any kind of
interested to hear how your perception of
surgery. There was this enormous rising
addiction changed over the course of your
sea level of pills that reached every corner
research.
of America because doctors were
prescribing it. This was not instigated by
S.Q.: It changed enormously. As I got
drug mafias. Had it been only drug mafias
into it, I realized, you don’t get addicted;
doing it, its effect would be minuscule,
you and your family get addicted. Your
comparatively. But you have millions of
parents, your brother, your grandparents,
doctors buying into this idea. Plus, they’ve
everybody gets addicted with you because
got patients in agony, more patients
they all have to deal with you as you
demanding, fix me, fix me doctor. The
of marketing, of customer service, of
convenience. So the stories dovetailed
organically into one large tale, but it was
really two stories of the marketing of drugs
in America.
Page 5
devolve into the kind of lying, cheating
addict. I came to view addiction as far less
of a choice.
Of course it’s very important to
understand that if you choose to use one of
these drugs, that is your choice. Once you
start using these drugs recreationally,
addiction is very often right around the
corner. I really came to view the parents’
plight as something very important to
show, to illustrate, because I felt no one
was listening to them. And so many
parents feel all alone. They don’t say
anything, they’re stigmatized, they’re
horribly ashamed that their son or
daughter is a junkie. You’ve got pills
everywhere, and then when people get
addicted to it, no one talks about it. It’s all
very quiet It’s tough to say, “My daughter
was hooking on the street and she died
related to her heroin addiction” or, “My
son who was a football player was found
dead on a McDonald’s bathroom toilet with
a needle in his arm.” That’s very tough for
people to say.
Where courage
comes from
b y J .M c C u rd y
Be still
She
Whispered...
Back into
The
Face of fear
You’re trespassing"
And
You
Don’t
Get
To live
Here
Because
Deep
In her DNA
She knew
That
Fear
Doesn’t
Get to live
Anyplace
Where
It’s
Not
Invited
A.D.: After doing this book, do you have
hope or optimism that America can get
through this epidemic?
S.Q.: I always have hope. Human beings
are not automatons. People change,
respond and adapt and there’s no reason
to think this has to go on and on. I believe
in Americans’ accountability. I believe that
we are in fact a country that does not wait
around for things to happen for us or to us.
But we take initiative, and when you do
th a t it is the opposite of the dope
addiction. Even though it’s common to say,
well, we’re a country with lots of drugs,
wd’re a dope-addicted country. I really
think it’s un-American to just sit there and
let stuff happen to you. So this is a very, I
believe, un-American scourge. I think
there’s a basic impulse in this country that
is about acting, taking accountability,
seizing the initiative, self-reliance. And all
of that is contrary to the slavery of
addiction to dope.
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