for every unemployed American man: Eberstadt, “Our Miserable 21st Century.”
Disability claims nearly doubled: From a Washington Post analysis of Social Security Administration statistics, as reported in Terrence McCoy, “Disabled or Just Desperate? Rural Americans Turn to Disability as Jobs Dry Up,” March 30, 2017.
“one of the unemployed masses”: Author interviews, Henry County judge and former prosecutor Bob Bushnell and commonwealth attorney Andrew Nester, June 23, 2015.
“Crystal meth controls all the dockets now”: Author interview, Virginia state police special agent Joe Crowder, March 24, 2017. Methamphetamine was the most common drug involved in federal drug-trafficking offenses in 2015 (31.5 percent of all cases), followed by powder cocaine (20.5 percent), marijuana (17.1 percent), and heroin (13.3 percent), according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, “Drug Trafficking Offenses: Quick Facts,” 2005–2015 Datafiles.
Drug epidemics unfold “like a vector”: Lembke, Drug Dealer, MD, 16, and author interviews, Lembke, via email, April 15 and Oct. 26, 2017.
“One time I got pulled over, I had ten bags”: Author interview, Spencer Mumpower, April 19, 2012.
“one overdose where the son would die”: Author interview, Dr. William Massello, March 21, 2017. By the time he left the position in 2007, accidental drug overdose deaths in western Virginia had quadrupled, rising from about 65 a year in the early 1990s to 250.
“The issue is Interstate 81”: Author interview, Dr. Martha Wunsch, now an addiction medicine doctor in Northern California, Jan. 27, 2017.
Opioids infiltrated the toniest suburbs: OxyContin was the first drug to receive an “abuse-deterrent” designation from the FDA, according to Christopher Ingraham, “How an ‘Abuse-Deterrent’ Drug Created the Heroin Epidemic,” Washington Post, Jan. 10, 2017.
One of the most segregated cities in the South: Matt Chittum and Sara Gregory, “Decades of Inequality and Lack of Opportunity Have Generational Cost in Roanoke,” Roanoke Times, May 6, 2017.
beginning to migrate to the more affluent: Author interview, Crowder, March 24, 2017.
“nobody paid any attention to it until their cars”: Author interviews, Vinnie Dabney, Dec. 29, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2016. Dabney also told his story in a talk to at-risk kids at the Roanoke Higher Education Center, May 11, 2017.
“The early suburban wave mostly stayed hidden”: Author interview, Dr. Hughes Melton, April 2, 2017.
“We didn’t understand the connection”: Author interview, Nancy Hans, April 4, 2017.
Vice magazine swooped into Roanoke: Rob Fischer, “Bath Salts in the Wound,” Vice.com, Dec. 30, 2012. Bath-salt ban: Matthew Perrone, “Many Drugs Remain Legal After ‘Bath Salts’ Ban,” Associated Press, July 25, 2012.
“How dare you tell the newspaper these things?”: Author interview, Andrew Bassford, Jan. 6, 2016.
“If you tried to crunch ’em”: Author interview, Victoria (real name withheld, by request, to protect her job), Jan. 19, 2017.
the number of prescribed stimulants increased tenfold: Lembke, Drug Dealer, MD, 45–46.
2014 data review that illustrates the discrepancies: Frances Rudnick Levin and John J. Mariani, “Co-occurring Addictive Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,” published by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, 2014, available at https://basicmedicalkey.com/co-occurring-addictive-disorder-and-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder.
“A lot of us think that doctors”: Author interview, Cheri Hartman, Jan. 14, 2018.
the abuse of prescription drugs increased: Lembke, Drug Dealer, MD, 48.
Dr. John Burton watched the cultural shift: Author interview, Dr. John Burton, March 20, 2017.
two-thirds of college seniors reported: Lembke, Drug Dealer, MD, 48, and author interviews, Lembke; also http://drugfree.org/newsroom/news-item/full-report-and-key-findings-the-2012-partnership-attitude-tracking-study-sponsored-by-metlife-foundation/.
“I’d take just a couple”: Author interviews, Brian, May 1, 2012, and in several follow-up interviews and email exchanges.
“like shooting Jesus up in your arm”: Author interview, counselor and Suboxone support group facilitator Ron Salzbach, Jan. 4, 2106; confirmed by author interviews, Brian, May 1, 2012, Dec. 28, 2015, and April 9, 2017.
“It’s been seven days”: Author interview, Brian, May 1, 2012.
“cellphone is the glue”: Author interview, Brian, Sept. 3, 2012.
their chance meeting have lasting implications: Author interviews, Jamie Waldrop, Dec. 5, 2015, and multiple interviews through 2017.
“I just knew [Jamie] was this cool blond-haired chick”: Author interviews, Drenna Banks, Dec. 15, 2015, and March 23, 2017.
“I was a pretty bad robber”: Author interview, Christopher Waldrop, April 11, 2017.
a painkiller-selling scheme that placed Colton: From the Roanoke police search warrant, filed Nov. 4, 2012, by Detective P. B. Caldwell: “Based on my training and expertise, the currency [$1,350 found on site in cash] and the extreme shortage of oxycodone would indicate the distribution of these pills.”
supposed to be his last hurrah: Author interview, Banks, Dec. 15, 2015, and March 23, 2017.
chucking her prepared remarks in favor of: Remarks by Drenna Banks, Nov. 9, 2012, transcribed from a CD of Colton’s memorial service.
“I wanted to drink again”: Author interview, Christopher Waldrop, April 17, 2017.
Fewer than one-quarter of heroin addicts: Lembke, Drug Dealer, MD, 133; John Strang et al., “Drug Policy and the Public Good: Evidence for Effective Interventions,” Lancet, Jan. 7, 2012: 71–83; author interview, Dr. Hughes Melton, March 31, 2017.
for every one opioid-overdose death, there were 130: 2011 data sets compiled by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Drug Abuse Warning Network, Treatment Episode Data Set, and Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, “Prescription for Peril: How Insurance Fraud Finances Theft and Abuse of Addictive Prescription Drugs,” December 2007, courtesy of epidemiology mapmaker Jeremiah Lindemann, April 7, 2017.
CHAPTER SEVEN. FUBI
Interviews: Sgt. Brent Lutz, James Kendrick, Sheriff Tim Carter, Don Wolthuis, Shannon Monnat, Sgt. Kevin Coffman, Mark O’Brien, Dennis Painter, Courtney Fletcher, Kristi Fernandez, Agent Bill Metcalf, Lauren Cummings, Dana Cormier, Keith Marshall
Lutz was tracking the movements: Author interviews, Sgt. Brent Lutz, Jan. 19, 2016, and subsequent interviews about the FUBI ring, including May 24, 2016, and Oct. 27, 2016.
drug users are arrested four times more often: Human Rights Watch and American Civil Liberties Union, “25 Seconds: The Human Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use in the United States,” 2016: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/usdrug1016_web.pdf.
$7.6 billion spent nationwide: C. S. Florence et al., “The Economic Burden of Prescription Opioid Overdose, Abuse, and Dependence in the United States, 2013,” National Institutes of Health, Medical Care, October 2016, 901–906,