[I] set my cardiac monitor down by the young man's head. He is lifeless, his face white with a blue tinge. I apply the defibrillator pads to his hairless chest...A week from today, after the young man's brain shows no signs of electrical activity, the medical staff will take the breathing tube out, and with his family gathered by his side, he will pass away at the age of twenty-three. When Peter Canning started work as a paramedic on the streets of Hartford, Connecticut, twenty-five years ago, he believed that people who used drugs were victims only of their own character flaws. Although he took care of them, he did not care for them. But as the overdoses escalated, Canning started to ask his patients how they had gotten started on their perilous jurneys. While no two tales were the same, their heartrending similarities changed Canning's view and moved him to educate himself abou tthe science of addiction. Armed with that understanding, he began his fight against the stigmatization of people who use opioids. In Killing Season, we ride along with Canning through the streets of Hartford as he tells stories of opioid overdose. A first reponder to hundreds of overdoses throughout the rise of America's opioid epidemic, Canning has seen firsthand the impact of prescription painkillers, heroin, and the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. Bringing us into the room (or car or portable toilet) with the victims of this epidemic, Canning explains how he came to favor the strategy of harm reduction, which advocates for needle exchange, community naloxone, and safe-injection sites. Through one paramedic's eyewitness view of addiction and overdose, readers will come to understand more than just the science and misguided policies behind the opioid epidemic. They'll also share in Canning's developing empathy. Stripping away the stigma of addiction through stories that are hard-hitting, poignant, sad, confessional, funny, and, overall, human, Killing Season will change minds about the epidemic, help obliterate stigma, and even save lives. -- From dust jacket.

Introduction --Prologue -- Hartford, Connecticut, 1995 -- Park Street, 2016 -- Antipathy -- Empathy -- Addiction -- Stigma -- Withdrawal and relapse -- Heartache -- Pain control -- Kelly and Veronica -- Opiod conference -- Harm reduction -- Fentanyl -- Responder safety -- Family -- Partners -- Mental health -- Age -- The war on drugs -- Temptation -- Children -- Community Naloxone -- Safe-injection site -- Cut -- Danger ahead -- The bakery -- Call of duty -- Plateau -- State capitol -- Epilogue.