I hope im there to see it. This is where i bought my first bag of heroin. It was 1980. I was 24 years old. But in a lot of ways, my whole life up to that point was leading to this address. Western massachusetts, the unlikely new frontier of americas war on drugs. Where heroin has become an exploding problem thats begun to touch nearly every family. Theres nothing like the north atlantic. Its majestic. I love the beach. Pretty much had my first everything on a beach. You name it, first time i did it, beach. I was miserable in love, happy in love, alternately, as only a 17yearold could be. This is where i lived. Very happy summer in the early 70s, and that was my room on the left. Thats an amazing spot, if you think about it. A bunch of knuckle heads working as dishwashers and pizza servers. We could live on a beach like this, happier, stupider times. I can still hear the play list, the brothers johnson. If you put on marvin gaye right now, id burst into tears. What do you do . Youre young and go to the beach. You get laid and you get high. It was here all the way out at the tip of cape cod, Province Town, massachusetts where the pilgrims first landed, and it was where i first landed. 1972, washed in a town with a head full of orange sun shine and a few friend. Province town, a wonderland of tolerance, longtime ra tradition of accepting artists, writers, the badly behaved, the gay, the different. It was paradise. The joy that can only come with a certainty that youre invincible, that none of the choices you make will have any effect on your later life. We didnt think about those things. I dont know what i thought i was going to be. At that point, i didnt think i was going to be a cook. I dont know what i thought i was going to be. I was just hanging out in a beautiful place. A golden time. I look back on those fuzzy memories, and they seem golden. First love, and then me. Johnny was sort of a central figure in all of our lives. My name is john yingling, this has been here since 1971. Province town is a special place. We all did drugs, acted young and crazy. Tony was wilder than some but not as wild as others. I always liked him. And you let me sleep on top of the walk in. I remember that. I cannot tell you how frequently i dream about this pizza. Im walking down commercial street, and theres a sense of dislocation and a loss as i stumble around this dream scape of 40 years ago. I was still here and living in hope. Unbelievable. Many of the old places in ptown are gone. But the lobster pot is still going strong all these years later, and still has what i want and need, the essentials. My friends worked in the kitchen here, starting the tradition among my set that cooking work was noble toil. At that point, i never intended a career as a chef. It was great to be a cook. I was getting to that. Yes. This is homemade portuguese kale soup, made on the premises. A ptown version of what i remember, kale, chorizo, kidney beans, potatoes . I missed you bad. That was precisely what i loved about the food, the portuguese things. Dishes like this stuffed cod with bread crumbs stuffed with scallop and crab, some red sauce. I hadnt been working for a while. I was a deadbeat. I was scarfing off everybody else, and paul comes home from work and says our dishwasher didnt show up today. Youre our new dishwasher, and i said really . The next day i put on the apron, and i didnt take it off for 30 years. Id wake up. Wed go to the beach until 2 00 or 3 00. It was fun. Roll into work. Work all night. Drinking, getting high, drilling out food. You got all the food you wanted, all the lick ere you wanted. All the sex you wanted. Yeah. And you were still an essential part of the economy. It was fun. I remember. The flag ship, its where i started washing dishes and started having pretensions of culinary grandeur. Who else got to live like that during that time . You had to be in a band. Here, we were dishwashers. You get older and realize you have to pace yourself a little bit. Otherwise we still wouldnt be here. Many of our friends from those days didnt make it. Yeah. Many of my friends didnt. Yeah. Keep drinking, keep drinking. Thank you, tony. This place has been here forever. Used to be the back room. Still there. Its all falling into place again. Yeah. Its not that much different. Its early spring, but come memorial day, it gets crazy and doesnt stop until labor day. Province town was always gay friendly. And the Atlantic House known as the a house is americas oldest operating gay bar. Everybody has come through these bars, most notably, tennessee williams. Everybody got seasick and started tripping. Now that its even, they all say have a cocktail so i can get my sea legs back. Really . Yeah. April kobral owns the joint, taken over from her father, a forward thinking dude, if there ever was one. It was built in 1798. How long in your family . Over 75 years. My father, he had Billie Holiday appeared, elle a fitzgerald. How has it changed . In 1972, my feeling was that this is a gay town and that i was here at the pleasure of somebody else. Which is sort of the opposite of everywhere outside of here at that time. This was a largely catholic, portuguese, mission community, but it was also hell town. Right. They sent their rejects here. Thats not kidding. Province town, i think always had the fixture of the bohemian people and the fisherman and the pirates, the writers, drunks, all that. Anyone with a lifestyle outside the mainstream was welcome here. Whatever floats your boat. You know . Its all good. To over one hundred of the webs leading job boards with a single click. Then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. And now you can use zip recruiter for free. Go to ziprecruiter. Com. Over a century ago, Province Town was a hardworking fishing village with Multigenerational Families of fisherman. My name is beau griben. My father fished, and i was pretty much raised here my whole life. Wheres where im from. Its who i am. It used to be two out of three families were fishing families. Most of them are gone now. Were a minority. Now its a homosexual community with a fisherman home. They arrived in 1840. The main families created a community built around fishing and lived around the industry into the 20th serccentury. It persisted even when i was here. These days, however, there are fewer and fewer boats to bless. I am scott rowe. Im a commercial fisherman, fourth generation. Started when i was five. It was cool back then. It was like 70 or 80 boats. They were five or six deep. Now its down to seven or eight. Its a part of my heritage. This is my office. I would never do anything else. Im going to do this until i cant move anymore. We roll into town like clock work, 2 30, 3 00 in the morning. Its quiet. The towns been ripped up all night long. We come down here, hit the water. What could be better . Good timing to be here and nice weather today. A little breezy. Might be a little nautical. A little bit. Im sure ill be fine. Ive watched the deadliest catch. Im ready. Time to press the fun button. Clear. All clear. Used to be that this was the best thing in the world. It was the greatest thing about fishing, you were kind of, like, the cowboy, a pioneer. You could go out, and as hard as you could push, competition was welcome. We were fiercely independent. Thats little by little taken away. Is there a limited number of them out there . Theres a total allowable catch. And the pay off aint much. A good day brings in 9,000 bucks. From that 9,000, take away 3,000 for the lease, 1,000 for fuel and split the remainder among the crew, and its a crap shoot. Many days theres nothing to catch. Then why do you do it . We love to do it. We say it all turns to [ bleep ] once we get back. Once we get out to there, we feel like were at home. Like i said, it aint easy. Today, according to beau, scott, and zeb, this was just a little breeze. How rough does it have to be when you say im not going out today . It starts blowing like 30, 35. We like days like this because the competition says in. My dad used to say when youre dry, youre not making any money. Were fishing. So its not going to snap and fly back . Not too often. I hate when that happens. Its a bummer. In the summer, you can smell the coconut. The guys decided they like this part of the beach, so theyre all out here nude sunbathing so i pick up my glasses and tell them wow, look at the breasts on that girl. You give it to them and they see something they werent expecting to see. Works every time, though. I cant believe you didnt cook nothing. I cant believe it, man. What . Anthony bourdain is on deck, and we dont have anything to eat. The best part of it is the anticipation to see whats in there. Every toe, im just like i cant wait. Youre looking and like whats going to be in there. Sometimes its a disappointment, but a lot of times, its a disappointment. How many did we get . Got a few. Is there . All right. Were out. Thats why its fishing and not catching. Yeah. Theyll taste all that much better. This place had been here forever when i rolled into town. A long time. I think this is the only place in town unchanged. Are these paintings of customers . How long do i have to drink up here to get my face up there . A couple years. When i grew up,his place, the old colony, its the only one left. I recognize these. You guys eat scallops . As hardworking men of the sea, we deserve these beers and oysters. These are fantastic. Wow. What a treat. Is there going to be a next generation of fisherman in the family . What happens after you . The next generation of fisherman that are coming onto our boats, theyre opportunists for the income. Its not for the love of the water. This is the end. The fishing is going to die. Cheers. All right. Thank you, guys. Cheers. This is going to end badly. Cheers. Its a nice house. I mean, it just feels like i never left in a lot of ways, but, of course, its 40 years later, almost, and that was the soddom and ga mor ra of the sea over there. I was an angry young man. It came as a rude surprise to me when i turned 30 because i figured id be dead by then. I was still quite some time from my first bag of heroin, but, you know, in a lot of ways, it was a foregone conclusion. My whole life was leading up to my first bag of dope. I left Province Town with restaurant experience, a tan, an ever deepening relationship with recreational drugs. Today im staying in massachusetts, heading to the western part of the state, one of the most boueautiful areas o the country. Mill towns, deeply felt, new england values. Norman rock well america where something unexpected has happened. Its a new mecca for heroin use. Over dosed. Dealing with crimes being committed that never happened before. Detectives are working around the clock. Not new york or baltimore, or l. A. , or chicago, but rural towns like this one are now statistically ground zero for the heroin epidemic. What happened . The next couple of years, if this heroin use trend continues to grow, it may be beyond getting a handle on. Im a detective with the Greenfield Police department, and my focus is under cover narcotic investigations. This is a wellknown area to us. Very active. Heroin use, the past year, its just increased to a level ive never seen any other drug come into an area. People that are in it are all affected. It hasnt topped out yet. Someone youve known or went to school with or work with. So, sonny crock et gets a ferrari. Whats wrong with this picture in. I wanted a lexus. Its been reported an explosion of heroin use, heroinrelated crimes, overdoses. How does that happen . I think once this area realized we had a heroin problem, we were already behind it, trying to play catchup. We are on the 91 corridor. Rout 91 has been dubbed heroin highway. Its a widely used road to go north and south. For a little money input, they get a high profit. Thats the typical heroin packaging. 50 bags here. 80 for ten. Its one dose per in. Theyll do from three to five bags at a time. Up to 30 bags a day. And the current economics of the town, i am the only one assigned to the narcotics position. How many heroined addicts do you think are walking the streets . High hundreds. Wow. Its hitting every age group, economic household. Its out there. We dont have gang members taking over motel rooms. The person selling you dope, more likely to be familiar than a stranger . Were going to meet a past distributor. Ive known for several years. We meet a powerful local dealer turned Police Informant out in the woods. How did you get into it . I needed the money to support my family. I couldnt get a job. How easy was it to get to the dope business . Not hard at all. Its cheap. Was there money in it . Oh, yeah. Its make may berry out here. Whos using it now . Kids. Kids. Todays heroin epidemic is different than the one that raves through america in the 1970s in a few ways. Back then, heroin was mostly seen as a poor people problem. Somebody elses problem. The sort of thing that musicians and criminals got into. Marginal people, far from the white main streets of may berry usa, but those people did to themselves, well, it was unfortunate but not our problem. Until somebody broke into your house. Today its absolutely the reverse. The new addicts are almost entirely white, middle class, and from towns and areas like this. How do you think you make it better . You dont. You dont . No. Theres going to be more robberies and killings. One person off the street, two more come in. At peak, how many customers did you have . Probably all of greenfield. What happened . How did the kid next door along with mom, pop, and grandmother too become users of hard core illegal narcotic drugs, the worst drug with the worst hepation . Well, maybe start here. Once youve found the right doctor, and have told him or her about your pain, dont be afraid to take what they give you. Often, it will be an open yoid medicati medication. This was sent around to doctors and encouraged them to prescribe the latest most wonderful drug for long term pain management, oxycontin. Some people are afraid. Less than 1 of patients taking these become addicted. Sales of oxycontinue con tin skyrocketed to 3. 1 billion in 2010. That same year, purdue tweaked the way they were making it in an attempt to, they said, limit its addictive qualities. Finally the government and Law Enforcement took a harsh look at the drug, and it became harder to get legally which sucked for the thousands and thousands who by now had a serious habit. Im ruth, im a family physician in greenfield, massachusetts, and i grew up here. My dad was a smalltown doctor. Im a total generalist, but for the last four and a half years, a lot of my practice has been focussed on addiction. I can get a bag of heroin easier than a joint. Once they start, they just slip down that rabbit hole, and maybe they make it out. Thats our goal is to get them out and live healthy again. Weve created this mess were in now. In downtown greenfield, the peoples pint. An eco conscious pub that brews its own beer, and composts the leftovers. Its where i meet up with dr. Poti for dinner. Whos doing dope . Everybody starts with pills. No nobody goes from marin to heroin. Theres an inbetween step. Its always pills. Pills that people get from their doctor. Particularly the young people, had an injury, a sports related injury, and they felt awesome on the drug and they were like how can i get more of that. After three to four months of looking for it, they couldnt find it, and then they jump. Whos fault . Who made a mistake . I think its complicated. Im not going to say theres one entity here responsible, but there was a lot of money to be made by promoting the treatment of pain to the highest level. Big pharma made a lot of money in this. And i was taught you give people as much Pain Medicine as they need. Get them them out of pain. We were also told these medicines arent all that addictive. We started handing out pills like crazy, 100 million americans have chronic pain. We did a disservice as doctors and as prescribers. We took data that was bull, and then we went forth and side prescribe it to everybody. We didnt know what we were doing. Your loving touch stimulates his senses and nurtures his mind. The johnsons scent, lather, and bubbles help enhance the experience. So why just clean your baby, when you can give him so much more . A few miles down the road. Sundays, church and picnics. Saturday nights, sox games, beer and bowling. This Bowling Alley is where time seems to have stopped. First opened in 1906. This is the second oldest Bowling Alley in america, dedicated to old school pin bowling. The crowd of people who grew up in shell born, and this is a reasonable expectation to kick my butt. Theyve been playing here since the 50s . I was never allowed to come near the Bowling Alley. My aunt did not think this was a good idea. Its a tiny ball. This looks really hard. Its very different, i grew up here. Very different. People dont know each other as well as everyone used to know each other. When i grew up in greenfield, everybody had jobs. I worked when i was 13. If i had to go back there now, i dont believe in drugs. I dont have anything to do with them, but what choice would i have, standing on the corner, i probably would get into a business. Whats a good wellpaying business. Imsz. Thats where we are. Yes, it used to be a very different world, towns like this one. And there were many. But like everywhere else, it seems the mills, the factories closed down and with them a certain kind of social contract with the people who work there. My name is ed gregory, originally from churn us falls, born and brought up here. My father was an employee of the mill as was my grandfather. During the heyday, there were three paper mills, a cotton mill, a silk mill, a foundry. It was a beehive of activity. Back then, the company took care of you. They built and provided homes for their employees, schools. The river provided energy. The Company Provided nearly everything else. The heyday is gone. People are definitely struggling to find work. The town just kind of died during the 80s. When the folks came to work, there were immigrants. Attracted by the manufacturing . Right. Maybe the possibility of owning a home in a decent part of the county here. So my father was here, a mill wright. Theyre a jack of all trades. You could work in a mill, live in a nice home, send your kids to home and make a living on a mills salary. You bet. What happened to business . Things are going to other countries but not coming back to the united states. Its redundant . Correct. Again, again, all over the country i keep running into situations like this, where industry has died or fled or relocated. I meet people like charles, hometown heros who for some reason, though they could probably go anywhere, take their skills and return to where they grew up. Shady glen diner, todays special, the new england boiled dinner. I hear rumors of corned beef and cabbage. Every week we have it. Slowly cooked corne