DACI's In The Know 2024 Community Conversation

In its mission to flatten the line on drug and alcohol misuse, the Drug Alcohol Coalition of Iredell will hold its second “In The Know” event on Monday, February 5, at the Statesville Civic Center from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Lunch is provided (please register only to help with lunch count).

The FREE event features a keynote address by noted author and journalist, Sam Quinones, a leading expert on the real toll of the opioid crisis at the "individual" level.

During his colorful 35 year journalism career, Quinones worked and freelanced for a variety of publications, including the LA Times, National Geographic, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Magazine.

He spent 10 years in Mexico covering Latin America, later returning to the U.S. to cover immigration, drug trafficking, neighborhood stories, murder, gangs, government, and politics.

Quinones’ latest books, Dreamland and The Least of Us, depict the real people’s experience of opioid crisis on people.

Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for the Best Nonfiction Book of 2015 and was selected in 2019 as one the Best 10 True-Crime Books of all time based on lists, surveys, and ratings of more than 90 million Goodreads.com readers.

In Dreamland, Quinones depicts the rise of OxyContin, an extremely addictive painkiller enthusiastically promoted by pharmaceutical companies, and the simultaneous influx of cheap and addictive black tar heroin from Mexico.

Quinones recounts the stories of pharmaceutical pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, teens, and parents and the massive opioid threat facing America.

In 2021, GQ Magazine selected Dreamland as one of the “50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century.”

The Least of Us continues the story of America’s opioid epidemic to include the spread of deadly fentanyl as well as the flood of catastrophic Mexican-made methamphetamine, responsible for waves of psychosis resembling schizophrenia and other mental illness and resulting in increased homelessness and tent encampments across the country.

The Least of Us also explores the neuroscience of addiction and the prevalence of legal addictive substances and services being ever-refined by consumer-product corporations.

In 2022, the National Book Critics Circle nominated The Least of Us as one of the best nonfiction books of 2021.

Quinones has lectured a more than 50 universities across the United States. He testified on the opioid crisis before the U.S. Senate Labor, Education, Health and Pensions committee in January of 2018.

EVENT DETAILS

TICKETS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO ATTEND EVENT! Please register only for planning purposes.

This year's day-long event will also include three afternoon break-out sessions on a variety of topics, an expert panel Q & A, and multiple opportunities to visit local agency booths to access information from local prevention, treatment, and recovery agencies.

Break out sessions include An Intimate Conversation with Sam Quinones, Alcohol – The Silent Killer, Clearing the Vapor – Facts About Vaping, My Child is Using . . . Why and Now What?, Hidden in Plain Sight teen bedroom , The Rundown - Prevention and Harm Reduction, In the Schools – Q & A, The Science of Addiction.

VENDOR APPLICATION INFORMATION

If interested in being a vendor, please e-mail kristin@daciredell.com with contact info, the group represented, and a brief sentence or two about why the organization wants to set up a table at “In the Know!”

If questions, contact Kristin Blumenstein at kristin@daciredell.com.