Dreamland

In an incredible, eye-opening book, Sam Quinones recounts how enterprising farmers in a small Mexican town developed a unique distribution system that brought black tar heroin to the United States. Their scheme, which was created over 15 years ago, brought black tar heroin—the cheapest and most addictive type of heroin—to communities across the country that had never seen it before. In Charlotte, North Carolina, and Huntington, West Virginia, for example, drug dealers flooded their towns with heroin. To local residents' surprise, this new influx of heroin became more popular than cocaine among their users. Who were these farmers? Why did they flood U. S. cities with this dangerous product?