Fentanyl, Inc.
How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic
A deeply human story, Fentanyl, Inc. is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous and illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding government agencies that are challenged to combat it. “A whole new crop of chemicals is radically changing the recreational drug landscape,” writes Ben Westhoff. “These are known as Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and they include replacements for known drugs like heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana. They are synthetic, made in a laboratory, and are much more potent than traditional drugs” —and all-too-often tragically lethal.
Drugs like fentanyl, K2, and Spice—and those with arcane acronyms like 25i-NBOMe—were all originally conceived in legitimate laboratories for proper scientific and medicinal purposes. Their formulas were then hijacked and manufactured by rogue chemists, largely in China, who change their molecular structures to stay ahead of the law, making the drugs’ effects impossible to predict. Westhoff has infiltrated this shadowy world. He tracks down the little-known scientists who invented these drugs and inadvertently killed thousands, as well as a mysterious drug baron who turned the law upside down in his home country of New Zealand. Westhoff visits the shady factories in China from which these drugs emanate, providing startling and original reporting on how China’s vast chemical industry operates, and how the Chinese government subsidizes it. Poignantly, he chronicles the lives of addicted users and dealers, families of victims, law enforcement officers, and underground drug awareness organizers in the United States and Europe. Together they represent the shocking and riveting full anatomy of a calamity we are just beginning to understand. From its depths, as Westhoff relates, are emerging new strategies that may provide essential long-term solutions to the drug crisis that has affected so many.
“Timely and agonizing. . . . An impressive work of investigative journalism.” —USA Today
“Westhoff explores the many-tentacled world of illicit opioids, from the streets of East St. Louis to Chinese pharmaceutical companies, from music festivals deep in the Michigan woods to sanctioned ‘shooting up rooms’ in Barcelona, in this frank, insightful, and occasionally searing exposé. . . . Westhoff’s well-reported and researched work will likely open eyes, slow knee-jerk responses, and start much needed conversations.” —Publishers Weekly
“Our 25 Favorite Books of 2019” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Best Books of 2019” —Buzzfeed
“Best Nonfiction of 2019” —Kirkus Reviews
“50 Best Books of 2019” —Daily Telegraph
“Best Nonfiction Books of 2019” —Tyler Cowen
“Best Books of 2019” —Yahoo Finance
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Release date
March 30, 2022 -
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- ISBN: 9780802147950
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- ISBN: 9780802147950
- File size: 2165 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
July 1, 2019
Investigative journalist Westhoff explores the many-tentacled world of illicit opioids, from the streets of East St. Louis to Chinese pharmaceutical companies, from music festivals deep in the Michigan woods to sanctioned “shooting up rooms” in Barcelona, in this frank, insightful, and occasionally searing exposé. Westhoff narrates the dangerous rise of fentanyl alongside the emergence of a wide variety of other synthetic drugs, including cannabinoids and novel-psychoactive substances (NPS), that are fast becoming readily accessible. Interviewing over 160 people, including the chemists who create the drugs and the dealers who distribute them, as well as users and law enforcement, Westhoff offers a truly multifaceted view of the landscape of fentanyl use and abuse. The disparate narrative strands he weaves together—including tragic stories of drug users, straightforward analysis of the history of opioid use, tension-filled episodes of drug runs and supplier meet-ups, and the humane and hopeful work of the “harm reduction” movement—all come together to provide a more complex understanding of the rise of, and response to, the opioid epidemic. Westhoff’s well-reported and researched work will likely open eyes, slow knee-jerk responses, and start much needed conversations. Agent: Ethan Bassoff, Massie & McQuilkin. -
Library Journal
August 1, 2019
Exacerbating and complicating the epidemic of opioid misuse, addiction, and overdose is the careening growth in Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), an ever-expanding array of synthetic drugs designed to mimic the effects of traditional recreational and pharmaceutical chemicals--but typically with much higher potency, and trafficked in disguise, so that users simply do not know what they are taking. As soon as one NPS is identified and banned, another is developed, produced, and distributed to take its place. Journalist Westhoff (Original Gangstas) traces fentanyl and other NPS from academic labs to Chinese firms, Mexican cartels, and Dark Web entrepreneurs. He meets with users, survivors, and dealers, and travels to China to visit suppliers in the guise of a customer. Critiquing prohibition-oriented drug policy, Westhoff explores more pragmatic responses including grassroots harm-reduction activism and supervised injection facilities, needle exchanges, and treatment programs that could lower public-health costs and reduce fatalities. VERDICT Following after Sam Quinones's Dreamland, which surveyed the ravages of prescription pills and black tar heroin, this book will assist policymakers, activists, and general readers in understanding better how to respond to the drug crisis that is only more intractable now.--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Kirkus
Starred review from July 1, 2019
How a lethal synthetic opioid and its manufacturer is creating a global drug addiction crisis. In 2013, investigative journalist Westhoff (Original Gangstas: Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and the Birth of West Coast Rap, 2016) began researching potently addictive street drugs, and he learned about Fentanyl and other "novel psychoactive substances" while writing about "why so many people were dying at raves." The author describes Fentanyl and synthetic drugs (including K2 and Spice) as formerly medically sound panaceas whose formulas were hijacked and re-created with unpredictable potencies and physical effects. The staggering statistics he presents tell a much darker tale, as he shows how Fentanyl-laced cocaine and other new psychoactive substances are killing thousands of people. In order to uncover the origin of the epidemic and the epic race to develop effective deterrent systems, the author seamlessly blends past and present in his profiles of Belgian chemist Paul Janssen, who was responsible for Fentanyl's initial development in 1959; police officers; politicians; LSD drug kingpins, and St. Louis street dealers. While promising, the harm-reduction initiatives remain diluted beneath the shifting weight and influence of political red tape, global capitalism, and the biological and psychological bondage of drug dependency. Perhaps most compelling is Westhoff's undercover infiltration of several rogue Chinese drug operations. Some operate covertly, while others are blatantly transparent since China offers subsidies to companies manufacturing and distributing Fentanyl components. Also fascinating is the author's charting of Fentanyl's circulation from darknet marketplaces to overseas postal stops to regional distribution. While international interceptive efforts like "Operation Denial" have helped in the apprehension of the upper echelon of major distributors, they have failed to collar Fentanyl trafficking network kingpin Jian Zhang, who is believed to be largely responsible for the steady flow of the drug into the global market. Drawing material from official reports, drug databases, scores of interviews, and years of personal research, Westhoff presents an unflinching, illuminating portrait of a festering crisis involving a drug industry that thrives as effectively as it kills. Highly sobering, exemplary reportage delivered through richly detailed scenarios and diversified perspectives.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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- English
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