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New York Times
14-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
The Heroin Pipeline That Linked New York to Vermont
Good morning. It's Monday. Today we'll look at a heroin network that stretched from the Bronx to Vermont, devastating families in both places. The opening scene is heartbreaking. An 18-month-old girl is crawling on her sleeping father, the kind of silly game that any parent who has ever tried to get five minutes of rest can relate to. But he doesn't wake up. He has overdosed on heroin. As my colleague Benjamin Weiser reports, that ending has become familiar to many families, too. For the past several years, Ben has been reporting on a heroin network that stretched from the Bronx to Vermont for a 4,750-word project with the headline 'How a Single Overdose Unraveled an Empire of Heroin.' The story begins in Rutland, Vt., with the death of David Blanchard III, 28, who overdosed in a motel room, with his girlfriend and their young daughter nearby. The article describes how a particular type of heroin, sold under the brand name 'Flow,' ensnared users, dealers, prosecutors and bystanders in a tangled weave of destruction across hundreds of miles. Fentanyl has taken the spotlight in the war on drugs, but the article shows how heroin fueled a crisis in Vermont just a few years ago. In 2012, Blanchard's heroin overdose was one of 50 opioid-related deaths in Vermont, Ben reports. By 2016, overdose deaths had doubled, to 106, and five years later, they had doubled again. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
09-07-2025
- New York Times
How One Overdose Unraveled an Empire of Heroin
'Where's your emergency?' the 911 operator asked. 'Rodeway Inn on Woodstock Avenue in Rutland,' the caller replied, her voice barely under control. 'My boyfriend lay down for a nap and he's not breathing.' The operator began explaining how to perform CPR, asking whether the boyfriend could be lowered to the floor. The caller, Ginger Parker, was immediately distracted: Their 18-month-old daughter had crawled on top of the still body. 'Honey, get off of him — please!' Ms. Parker pleaded, explaining to the operator that the toddler just wanted to help. The man she was trying to save that evening in August 2012 was David Blanchard III, who worked the night shift at Rutland Plywood in the small Vermont city. The 28-year-old with a neat goatee, dark hair and kind face lay on his back in a dingy motel room strewn with clothes, a sheet, children's toys and books, and a pink rubber duck. The operator told Ms. Parker to place the heel of one hand on the center of her partner's bare chest, the other on top and to intertwine her fingers. 'Push hard and push fast,' the operator said. 'You're going to do it a hundred times a minute.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
