Very excited to have Sam Quinones on The Lonely Podcast.
Sam is a remarkable independent journalist and reporter with over 35 years of experience in the business. Earlier in his career, Sam spent 10 years living in Mexico and working as a freelance journalist, where he published two of his first non-fiction novels.
Among many famous journals, Sam wrote for the LA Times, the New York Times, National Geographic, the Atlantic, and many more.
Sam is mostly known for his two most recent books, the first, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, was published in 2015 and received the National Book Critics Circle award. It was also selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon, Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Entertainment Weekly, and much more. Dreamland provides a grim view into the opiate epidemic in America, explains its roots, and its devastating effects throughout the country. The book had a tremendous impact on the way American society viewed the Opiate crisis and was pivotal in shifting the narrative against big Pharma.
His most recent book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, was released in 2021 and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award. The Lease of Us provides a deep dive into the history of Fentanyl and Methamphetamine and how these drugs revolutionized the international drug market and drug consumption in America.
Sam has a unique ability to provide, on the one hand, a deep explanation of the root causes of the crisis while, on the other hand, sharing extremely touching individual stories that would help one restore faith in humanity.
During our conversation, we discussed what led Sam to investigate these issues, namely the opioid crisis and the prevalence of synthetic drugs on America’s streets. His journies around the country in pursuit of the truth, the impact of the “Drugafication of America” on our society, the danger in modern-day synthetic drugs, the unwanted outcomes of the legalization of Marijuana, the role of Big Pharma and big business in this crisis, and Sam’s Marshall Plan to Save America.
This was one of my favorite episodes thus far, and I’m sure you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
.........................................................................
.........................................................................
YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE ON:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/nlaKekW-2-k
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ktRM7SIzVWcAhE9jqGIq3
Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lonely-podcast/id1510273071
.........................................................................
.........................................................................
TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) - Introduction
(04: 53) - What brought Sam to write Dreamland
(07:17) - How the Mexican Drug Cartels found a new heroin market in America
(14:50) - Why Columbus Ohio became the epicenter of the Opioid Crisis?
(16:15) - What is unique about the Opioid Crisis that is different than any other drug crisis?
(17:30) - Why Fentanyl and Methamphetamine are different than any other drug in history?
(24:45) - How "regular people" fall into drug addiction
(28:00) - The disease of addiction and effective treatment
(32:50) - Why the homelessness crisis is so extreme in San Francisco?
(37:00) - Reasons for homelessness
(41:00) - the role of Marijuana?
(44:00) - The Drugafication of America
(49:00) - How effective drug legalization looks like?
(54:00) - The impact of "Dreamland" on the narrative against Big Pharma
(60:00) - The Sackler Family and Purdue Pharma
(64:00) - The Marshall Plan to Save America
.........................................................................
.........................................................................
LINKS TO SAM'S WORK:
The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth: https://www.amazon.com/Least-Us-Tales-America-Fentanyl/dp/1635574358
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic: https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1620402521/ref=sr_1_1?crid=271W7AI22JU3I&keywords=dreamland%20sam%20quinones&qid=1645989580&s=books&sprefix=dreamland%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-1
True Tales from Another Mexico: https://www.amazon.com/True-Tales-Another-Mexico-Quinones/dp/0826322964
Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration: https://www.amazon.com/Antonios-Gun-Delfinos-Dream-Migration/dp/082634254X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Sam’s Website: https://samquinones.com/
Sam on X: https://twitter.com/samquinones7
