Drugs with the power to disorient a user’s moral compass create a fundamental split in how addicts are perceived, and the difference trickles into the public policy and resources meant to combat the crisis. Meanwhile, as the societal response wavers, people are dying.

Because addiction is driven largely by genetic and environmental factors, overdoses can strike the same home twice, compounding the sense of grief and shame that is common among the epidemic’s survivors.

From its initial use, heroin alters chemical processes in the nervous system and makes the agony of withdrawal an overwhelming deterrent to quitting.

The grisly trend – fatalities from drug overdoses in Maine reached an all-time high in 2016 – only seems to be getting worse, prompting one caregiver to lament: ‘Where is the outrage?’ This 10-part examination lays out the ramifications of the crisis, mining answers from the human toll by telling the stories of those we’ve lost.