Witness Life In A Small Town At The Center Of The American Opiate Epidemic
These photos document life in Portsmouth, Ohio, after the factory shut down. First came the pills. And then the heroin.
Not long after a large steel mill closed in the small town of Portsmouth, Ohio in the mid-1980s, the first pill mill appeared. With a handful of cash at an unscrupulous pain clinic, anyone could get a prescription Oxycontin or other painkillers. By 2009, there were 10 pill mills in the area. Addiction was so common that pills became local currency: You could use them to buy a refrigerator or pay the dentist.