Sam Quinones
About Sam Quinones
“This presentation was extremely well received by the attendees. Feedback included praise for his obvious knowledge and expertise of the roots of the opioid crisis, and encouragement of his community approach and recognition of grassroots efforts. ”
Speech topics
DREAMLAND: America's Opiate Epidemic and How We Got Here
Speaking videos
Books by Sam Quinones
“The Perfect Tuba” (2025)
The Perfect Tuba
“The Least of Us True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth” (2022)
The Least of Us True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth
“The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth” (2021)
The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth
“Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic” (2015)
In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America--addiction like no other the country has ever faced. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland. With a great reporter’s narrative skill and the storytelling ability of a novelist, acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of capitalism run amok whose unintentional collision has been catastrophic. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma’s campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive--extremely addictive--miracle painkiller. Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico’s west coast, independent of any drug cartel--assaulted small town and mid-sized cities across the country, driven by a brilliant, almost unbeatable marketing and distribution system. Together these phenomena continue to lay waste to communities from Tennessee to Oregon, Indiana to New Mexico. Introducing a memorable cast of characters--pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents--Quinones shows how these tales fit together. Dreamland is a revelatory account of the corrosive threat facing America and its heartland.
“Antonio's Gun And Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration” (2008)
Sam Quinones's first book, True Tales From Another Mexico, was acclaimed for the way it peered into the corners of that country for its larger truths and complexities. Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream, Quinones's second collection of nonfiction tales, does the same for one of the most important issues of our times: the migration of Mexicans to the United States. Quinones has covered the world of Mexican immigrants for the last thirteen years--from Chicago to Oaxaca, Michoacan to southeast Los Angeles, Tijuana to Texas. Along the way, he has uncovered stories that help illuminate all that Mexicans seek when they come north, how they change their new country, and are changed by it. Here are the stories of the Henry Ford of velvet painting in Ciudad Juarez, the emergence of opera in Tijuana, the bizarre goings-on in the L.A. suburb of South Gate, and of the drug-addled colonies of Old World German Mennonites in Chihuahua. Through it all winds the tale of Delfino Juarez, a young construction worker, and modern-day Huckleberry Finn, who had to leave his village to change it.
At a glanceSam Quinones
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