For complete information and to register for the event, please visit: http://www.crcpl.org/one-book.htm

Chillicothe reads Dreamland by Sam Quinones

Acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones weaves together two riveting tales of capitalism run amok whose unintentional collision has been a catastrophic opiate epidemic. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma’s campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive—extremely addictive—miracle painkiller.

Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin assaulted small town and mid-sized cities across the country, driven by a brilliant, almost unbeatable marketing and distribution system. Together, these phenomena continue to lay waste to communities from Tennessee to Oregon, Indiana to New Mexico.

Finally, Quinones finds hope in the same Rust Belt river town that led the country into the opiate epidemic—Portsmouth, Ohio, where townspeople are turning away from dependence and toward economic as well as municipal self reliance, and with that—recovery.

The Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library joins with community partners to encourage all members of the community in reading and discussing Dreamland as a way to counter the challenges facing our community.