Dopesick - Beth Macy Page 0,141

false bottom: Wolthuis’s sentencing memo, United States v. Kareem Shaw, U.S. District Court for the Western Division of Virginia, Harrisonburg Division, April 21, 2015.

Wolthuis tallied the offense: Sentencing memo, United States of America v. Ryan Kenneth McQuinn, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Harrisonburg Division, Feb. 27, 2015. McQuinn’s release date was scheduled for May 13, 2018, including a sentence reduction for prison drug addiction and/or mental health treatment.

One of his first death cases: Author interview, Wolthuis, June 28, 2017.

And as far as she knew, Jesse’s problem: Author interviews, Kristi Fernandez, May 23 and Aug. 17, 2016; Dennis Painter, June 17, 2016; and Courtney Fletcher, June 10, 2016, and May 17, 2017.

“So glad to be sober on this date”: Postings by Jesse Bolstridge, from April 2013, at jesse.bolstridge.

“To be clear, the evidence supports long-term maintenance”: Author interview, Dr. Nora Volkow, April 27, 2016. Volkow’s testimony, presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jan. 27, 2016: drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-congress/2016/what-science-tells-us-about-opioid-abuse-addiction.

even Hazelden, the Betty Ford–affiliated: Maia Szalavitz, “Hazelden Introduces Antiaddiction Medications into Recovery for First Time,” Time, Nov. 5, 2012.

Jesse still owed $25,000 for that earlier rehab stint: Author interview, Fernandez, Sept. 10, 2017.

“The whole system needs revamped”: Author interview, Tracey Helton Mitchell, May 8, 2017.

“in any given episode, they only see”: Author interview, Dr. John Kelly, May 25, 2017.

He was forty-eight hours away from a do-over: Author interview, Fernandez, June 20, 2016.

“I’m not trying to do dope”: Details from the last weekend of Jesse’s life came from interviews with Fernandez, Painter, Fletcher, and Sgt. Brent Lutz.

“Arthur, I have been hearing a lot of foul shit lately”: Ronnie Jones’s letter to Arthur (no last name given), written by Jones on Jan. 13, 2015, and submitted by Wolthuis as evidence of continued harassment and drug dealing, even after Jones’s arrest, in the government’s case.

“Most agents would have written it off”: Author interview, Wolthuis, June 2, 2016.

The thirty-seven-year-old New York native had recently: Details of how Metcalf tracked Santiago came from multiple author interviews with Metcalf as well as from presentencing memoranda prepared in the case by his lawyer, Alberto Ebanks, and federal prosecutor Wolthuis, filed July 15, 2015.

“He deeply regrets his actions”: Ebanks’s presentencing memorandum, United States v. Matthew Santiago, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Harrisonburg Division, filed July 7, 2015.

“wings on pigs”: “Gunman ‘Assassinates’ 2 NYPD Officers in Brooklyn, Kills Self,” NBCNewYork, Dec. 21, 2014.

in nearby Winchester he could now buy it: Compared with thirty dollars for a bag, or point, of heroin in Woodstock: Author interview, Lutz, Oct. 26, 2017.

when rural America becomes the new inner city: Janet Adamy and Paul Overberg, “Rural America Is the New ‘Inner City,’” Wall Street Journal, May 27 and 28, 2017. Economic activity is more concentrated now in cities, and even many companies (for example, Amazon fulfillment centers) that were initially drawn to rural areas for lower taxes have picked up and moved to metro areas. The rural/urban divide has widened further following the 2007–2009 recession, with wages one-third higher in cities than rural areas, an inequality gap that is 50 percent wider than it was in the 1970s.

to get hauled back to jail: Painter’s mug shot was posted on the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, June 28, 2016, and noted that he was arrested for possession of a Schedule I/II drug, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana (second offense).

Jesse’s was one of 8,257 heroin-related deaths: “Drug-Poisoning Deaths Involving Heroin: United States, 2000–2013,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 2015: cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db190.htm. Overall, there were 43,982 drug-overdose deaths in 2013.

even after its own expert panel voted 11–2: Barry Meier, “Addiction Specialists Wary of New Painkiller,” New York Times, Nov. 15, 2013.

“the benefits of this product outweigh the risks”: Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, “Why Did the F.D.A. Approve a New Pain Drug?,” The New Yorker, Dec. 2, 2013.

withdraw an opioid pain medication because of: Melanie Eversley and Sara Wise, “Risk of Abuse: FDA Wants Opioid Painkiller Pulled from Market,” USA Today, June 8, 2017.

annual death toll for drug overdose: Sixty-four thousand deaths reported in 2017 for 2016: drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.

“The most damaging thing Purdue did”: Author interview, Dr. Andrew Kolodny, Jan. 6, 2016.

The point was by then moot: Author interviews, Barbara Van Rooyan, Jan. 16, 2017, and several follow-up correspondences, including letter from Department of Health and Human Services to Barbara and Kirk Van Rooyan, Sept. 10, 2013: “The Agency is requiring certain other modifications to the labeling, including the indication, for ER/LA [extended release, long-acting] opioid analgesics to help improve the safe