Ebook: How We Hurt: The Politics of Pain in the Opioid Epidemic

"In early 2018, TIME magazine published an online photojournalism series on what has become known as the U.S. "opioid epidemic." "The Opioid Diaries" requires visitors to scroll down through a series of black-and-white photographs, each of which is accompanied by captions and quotes. In the first image, situated at the very top of the page, a man and woman are photographed crouching in the back of a van, which the caption says is parked in San Francisco. Inside it, the couple balances on their shins as they aim needles full of clear liquid at the veins they've found in each other's arms. Further down the page is a pick-up truck with a man named Chad reclining in the driver's seat. His body is lax and, although his eyes are open, his head is cocked backward so far that it nearly escapes the frame. He overdosed shortly before the picture was taken and now lies in a state of semi-consciousness as a trio of paramedics lean through the truck's open door and try to revive him. Below Chad's image is a photograph of two people - a elderly woman and a young man - embracing inside a funeral parlor in New Hampshire. The woman's 24-year-old granddaughter, Michaela, can be seen in the background lying colorless and quiet inside her open casket. Scrolling down, a quote appears in large block letters on the screen; they belong to an Ohio Sheriff who, commenting on what he's seen of the opioid epidemic in his own state, says simply: "It's nonstop. It's every day.""--