The Killer Drug
The Detroit Free Press created a brilliant series by Jim Schaefer and Joe Swickard that explores how fentanyl, a drug more potent than heroin, swept across the country, killing more than 1,000 people nationwide, at least 300 of them in the Detroit area. Schaefer and Swickard's "Fatal Euphoria" traces how the killer drug was created in the lab of a self-taught Mexican chemist known as El Cerebro, smuggled to Chicago and then distributed by a street gang to cities and suburbs around the country. They personalize the lethal epidemic through the story of Lauren Jolly, a 17-year-old from suburban Detroit who overdosed on the drug, and Debora Collins, the prostitute who tried to save her life. Like a good novel, Schaefer and Swickard tell their story using strong characters, memorable settings and action that will keep you reading. www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/news05/70621038/