Consuming opioids for nonmedical reasons has occurred for centuries. Although epidemiologic research on opioid misuse can be difficult, we do know that it differs from what has been witnessed in the past. The types of opioids, the methods in which they are consumed and the geographical locations most affected are just some of the characteristics that have changed over time. Efforts are currently underway to predict the course of the opioid epidemic through the use of mathematical modeling and computer programming.

Opium, manufactured from the sap of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), has been cultivated by humans for centuries. It has been used, in one form or another, for medicinal as well as recreational purposes, and is the precursor to all modern-day opiate pharmaceutical agents. Morphine, the active ingredient in opium, was isolated from opium in 1803, and very quickly became widely used as strong painkiller. As a result of its effectiveness and widespread use many people began to become addicted to the medication. In an attempt to create a safer and less addictive alternative to morphine, heroin was synthesized from morphine in 1874 and marketed by pharmaceutical company Bayer as a morphine substitute, and so the modern world’s struggle with opioid misuse continued. Over a century ago the world recognized that opioid addiction was a significant problem that needed to be addressed, and yet today we are faced with an escalating epidemic of opioid misuse and addiction, a world in which few, if any of us, have remained unscathed. This chapter focuses on the specific factors which have led to the exponential increase in opioid misuse throughout the world over the last century

In 1996, the year Infinite Jest was published, the Federal Drug Administration approved Oxycontin as a prescription drug, a move that would have dire repercussions for Americans’ relationship to opiates. Indeed, Wallace’s novel appeared at a pivotal moment in what is now considered the opiate crisis. Drug use, of course, appears throughout Wallace’s fiction, including the pot-smoking LaVache of The Broom of the System, the numerous addicts in Infinite Jest, and the amphetamine-popping Chris Fogle in The Pale King. Wallace’s work fits into a long tradition of drug use and recovery in fiction, a genre that reaches back to Homer, Thomas De Quincey, William Burroughs and many more. This chapter will argue that Wallace’s fiction marks a sociopolitical shift in this genre: the commercialization of addiction under late capitalism. This approach to Wallace’s work will, like the recent Cambridge Companion and Marshall Boswell’s latest monograph, further thicken our understanding of Wallace’s literary and sociocultural context.