(This content was created with the help of AI.) At Chicago’s Cook County Jail, the drug of choice now looks like office supplies. In a sweeping New York Times investigation, reporters Azam Ahmed and Matt Richtel trace how sheets of seemingly ordinary paper—books, letters, even legal documents—have become vehicles for powerful synthetic drugs that are killing inmates faster than investigators can identify what’s on them.
At least seven people have died since early 2023 after smoking drug-soaked pages, some laced with cocktails of opioids, tranquilizers, cannabinoids, and stimulants so new they aren’t yet illegal.
The story focuses on the Cook County facility, but authorities in prisons across the US are dealing with the same problem…