The old “this is your brain on drugs!” sizzling egg TV ads have nothing on Mark Kinzly. He knows what a life looks like on drugs: jail, homelessness, street dealing, a…
Courtney’s life spiraled out of control when she became dependent on opiates. After years of struggling with addiction, the 31-year-old Texas native heard about methadone treatment, a therapy in which…
Cat Nelson* took her first shot of heroin when she was 13 years old. By 17, she was using drugs regularly. By 20, she was in and out of rehab,…
As drug overdose continues as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, everyone who knows someone struggling with addiction has one word on their mind: naloxone.
When Lieutenant Tanya Smith strides through the halls of Georgia’s general assembly, all eyes are upon her. When she addresses her audience, partisan squabbling ceases and a rare silence washes…
Lieutenant Tanya Smith of Georgia rushed to the scene of a heroin overdose unlike any other in her law enforcement career in February 2012. Kneeling to check the victim’s pulse,…
Thick shining copper hair. That’s what I picture when I think of April. I try to block out the rest of the memory: the hair splayed on a dirty linoleum…
The scars on his face tell stories. Outside a coffee shop in downtown Winston Salem, North Carolina, Steve Daniels aka “Gator” sits straight and proud, eyeing the small tape recorder…
A remarkable thing happened in 2008: drug overdose surpassed auto fatalities as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Public health officials declared an epidemic, and communities united to…
In the pale light of early morning, a mobile unit sits curbside in Atlanta, Georgia’s most notorious crime zone. A woman in a tattered coat shuffles up to the vehicle.…