Multimedia NYT piece examines impact of opioid epidemic on the Class of 2000 in rural town in southeast Ohio

Jonathan Whitt became addicted to painkillers at 16,
then began using intravenous opioids and heroin in
his late 20s. He has been in jail at least 10 times and has
done multiple stints in rehab, but has been in recovery
for four years. (NYT photo by Matt Eich)

An outstanding multimedia piece from The New York Times examines the impact of the opioid crisis on a group of rural high school graduates in southeastern Ohio who began their freshman year in 1996, the year Purdue Pharma came out with OxyContin.

"It had its jocks and its cheerleaders, its slackers and its overachievers. But by the time the group entered its final year, its members said, painkillers were nearly ubiquitous, found in classrooms, school bathrooms and at weekend parties," Dan Levin reports. "Over the next decade, Scioto County, which includes Minford, would become ground zero in the state’s fight against opioids. It would lead Ohio with its rates of fatal drug overdoses, drug-related incarcerations and babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome."

Minford, Ohio (Wikipedia map)

NYT reporters spoke to dozens of members of the Class of 2000, and heard tragic tales of addiction, jail or prison, stints in rehab, and even deaths. "In all of the interviews, one thing was clear: Opioids have spared relatively no one in Scioto County; everyone appears to know someone whose life has been affected by addiction," Levin reports.

Since the Class of 2000 graduated from Minford High, as many as 275 people have died in Scioto County.