It's been called a crisis and an epidemic.
There's no doubt that opioid abuse in the U.S. has been on the rise over the last couple of decades.
An estimated 400 people die every year from opioid overdoses in L.A. County alone. And opioid-related hospitalizations have gone up about thirty percent, according to LA's Department of Public Health.
But a lot of opioid users are also getting locked up. And that's forcing the criminal justice system to reconsider how it deals with addicts.
Sam Quinones profiled Kentucky jail, the Kenton County Detention Center, that’s trying to open a path to rehab for its inmates in article for the New York Times.
He's a reporter and the author of “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic”. He joined Take Two's A Martinez to talk about what he found.