The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth

Quinones follows up Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic (a 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award winner) with new reportage on drug trade and addiction in the United States. The book profiles individuals and communities to illustrate how the illicit drug trade has shifted from opioids to the far more dangerous fentanyl and new methamphetamine formulations; he makes the case that the nation is saturated with these potent fentanyl concoctions and homemade meth. His data demonstrates that fentanyl kills a steadily increasing number of people in the U.S., while the new meth can cause methamphetamine psychosis, with huge impacts for people experiencing homelessness. Quinones also interviews neuroscientists about addiction’s effects on the brain and learns that sugar and addictive drugs follow the same neural pathways. He writes that legal prescription opiates fueled the illicit drug trade, which he compares to American capitalist culture and powerful consolidated markets that promote consumerism. He also posits that the American culture of individualism leaves people with addiction on their own.