Ep. 391: The Last High
Guest: Dr. Daniel Kalla
“The Last High” by Dr. Daniel Kalla explores the perfect storm of greed, addiction, and crime behind the malignant spread of fentanyl, a deadly drug that is killing people faster than any known epidemic.
Dr. Kalla knows all too well the deadly consequences of an affliction that has been pushed off of the headlines, while the world has panicked over COVID-19 – an affliction that has not gone away and is still consuming victims by the minute.
According to Worldmeter, at the time of this recording (which is March 7, 2022), more than $70 billion US dollars have been spent on illegal drugs. According to the Center for Disease Control, more than half a million people died in the US alone due to overdoses between 1999 and 2019.
The mounting death toll came in waves. The first is being attributed to an increase in prescribing opioids in the 90s. The second wave began in 2010 with a rapid increase in overdose deaths involving heroin. And the third, and most deadly wave, began in 2013 with the introduction of fentanyl.
Dr. Kalla’s book “The Last High” is a thriller where an ER doc, like the author, teams up with a detective to track down the source of a supply of deadly fentanyl that is killing teens.
Stuart McNish invited Dr. Kalla to join him for a Conversation that Matters about how the best feeling you ever had could kill you and whether we are any closer to loosening its deadly grip.
