41
" Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated—in the main, abominably—because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.” The true grotesque, in Baldwin’s view, isn’t the monster or the freak but rather members of mainstream society who, clinging to safety, abhor differentness. "
― Beth Macy , Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South
48
" He had even written a poem about one, titled “OxyContin,” published in Annals of Internal Medicine: It might have been easier If OxyContin swallowed the mountains, and took The promises of tens of thousands of young lives Slowly, like ever-encroaching kudzu. Instead, It engulfed us, Gently as napalm Would a school-yard. Mama said As hard as it was to bury Papa after the top fell in the mine up Caney Creek, it was harder yet to find Sis that morning cold and blue, with a needle stuck up her arm. Top of her class, with nothing but promise ahead until hi-jacked by the torment of needle and spoon. "
― Beth Macy , Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
54
" Portugal, which decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin, in 2001, adding housing, food, and job assistance—and now has the lowest drug-use rate in the European Union, along with significantly lowered rates of drug-related HIV and overdose deaths. In Portugal, the resources that were once devoted to prosecuting and imprisoning drug addicts were funneled into treatment instead. "
― Beth Macy , Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America