Summary

Quinones concludes his narrative by switching the focus toward recovery and the actions taken to both help addicts and hurt heroin dealers. By the early 2000s, the nationwide uptake of opiate abuse and overdose prompted political officials, specifically Republicans, to change their traditional hardline “lock-‘em-up attitude” toward drug use (274). Those who, in the past, viewed drug treatment programs as “soft-headed do-gooderism,” were forced to change their tone when the opiate epidemic swept through their own neighborhoods (274). Now that junkies were part of the middle and upper-middle classes, conservative lawmakers became more accepting of drug courts instead of prison sentences for nonviolent offenders. To Quinones, this shift in attitude represents a larger shift among societal elites toward viewing addiction through a more compassionate lens.

According to one federal prosecutor, the Xalisco Boys were the “Phillip Morris of heroin” because of the combination of their...