Pill City

How Two Honor Roll Students Foiled the Feds and Built a Drug Empire

By: Kevin Deutsch

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

April 28, 2015, West Baltimore, Maryland: ground zero in America's Opiate Wars.

In this crime-plagued section of the city, the death of Freddie Gray has triggered the worst domestic rioting since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and created a terrifying new breed of criminal entrepreneur.

Here, as looters and arsonists lay waste to already blighted parts of Baltimore, two of the city's brightest students are helping to carry out a historic drug robbery spree - one that will flood the city with highly addictive pain pills and heroin. The teens' plan: to use their gang connections and computer programming skills to set up a high-tech drug delivery service and Dark Web marketplace. The result: the boys became America's youngest drug lords, in the process sparking bloody gang warfare and a nationwide wave of addiction and murder. Now mixing in deadly circles, Brick and Wax soon found their own lives were on the line.

In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, Newsday criminal justice reporter Kevin Deutsch chronicles the rise of these gangland upstarts as they help steal $100 million worth of high-powered opiates and build a national narcotics empire from scratch.

As gripping and compulsive as a thriller, Pill City takes listeners into the heat of the action as Brick and Wax outwit the FBI and DEA, as gang members like Damage and Lyric live and die by their own brutal code, as the cops battle to stop the carnage, and as a high school coach risks a bullet to get addicts into rehab. A gritty, hard-hitting story of gangland survival, Pill City will open the world's eyes to the plague of drug-related killings rocking America and reveal the deadly cost of the Baltimore riots.

©2017 Kevin Deutsch (P)2017 Blackstone Audio

Good story...baaad narration ugh!

I almost didn’t listen to this book because the narrator was horrible. Enunciating every syllable in every word was super annoying. I had to tune him out to enjoy the story...but I highly recommend this book!

Excellent telling

Sad story, sad that this is going on right under the nose of most citizens. This story is more accurate in describing the “opiate crisis” we are hearing about in the United States right now. This story needs to be heard by the masses so that people will be making educated decisions instead of lashing out at Pain Management patients, who are not the problem. People will respond if they understand the problem. Just like the smoking commercials of the 80s, they did and continue to have an impact. Dumping this in the laps of pain management specialists and their patients only causes more and more suicides as I’m reading every day, they don’t feel like they have a choice. When their pain medicine is taken away for an epidemic that they didn’t cause or create. . From cancer patients to chronic pain patients, it’s becoming more and more commonplace.

Interesting story

The book was good. I'm just still surat how people can do this to there communities and then wonder why there are no opportunities. They keep tearing stuff down and wonder why there is nothing left. It's sad.

A true insight into the encrypted world

Surprisingly raw and real an amazing story!
Wonderful narrative drawing parallels between pain and pressure

Excellent book for those interested in the Nations Opiate crisis

This book offers insight into the opiate drug world that includes prescription opiates and illegal opiate drugs. While extremely graphic, this book mirrors the reality. I was shocked by the devastation this book describes, all caused by opiate addiction.

Just started this....

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The narrator is really not good. At time he sounds robotic. Its hard to get passed. I started to warm up but this book started with a glossary of people and drug street names. Problem is you can't really go back to referencing it and on top of it when those drugs are referenced just a short time later the author writes "illicit drugs" What? Didn't you just tell us what they were. Anyway perhaps my opinion will change as this goes on but so far fairly unimpressed. Being from this area I thought I would really be in the story but its a bit story telling and a bit factual.

Would you recommend Pill City to your friends? Why or why not?

Maybe - Im just a little bit in to it and looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Might be a better book to read than listen to.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Mirron Willis?

Anyone.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes - actually if made in to a movie I think it might prove to be good!

Fascinating and heartbreaking

Brilliantly researched and written. As heartbreaking a story as it is, I couldn't stop listening.

Amazing story, incredible book

Controversial. Intense. Authentic. This book delivers. Hell of a read; not your average true crime book. I’d give it six stars if I could.

Incredible book

What made the experience of listening to Pill City the most enjoyable?

The quality of the research that went into this book was incredible -- we need more in-depth journalism like this.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Pill City?

I can't say because I don't want to post spoilers. But it involves a gas station.

Brutal.. Amazing journalism of a terrible truth

This sorry provides insights into the minds of those on many sides of America's drug problems. If someone in your life is dealing with opiate addiction, it may help you understand more of the bigger picture.