In ONE by ONE: A Memoir of Love and Loss in the Shadows of Opioid America, author Nicholas Bush opens up about his adolescent years in suburban Wisconsin as a heroin addict.

Thanks to drugs, Nicholas ended up in a military school against his will where his back was broken, literally. He was in and out of jail five times, homeless, held at gunpoint, robbed, had his apartment ransacked (more than once), and was in rehab twice. His memoir passionately shares the losses he suffered: five of his loved ones died from heroin overdoses, including two who were shot to death. Most tragic of all, drugs killed two of his three siblings: his older sister Allison and his baby brother Austin.

Offering a personal perspective on our opioid epidemic and a rare survivor story, Bush tells all about what drew and drove him to drugs, what his habit cost him, and how he found salvation. He also makes a compelling case against treating and punishing heroin users like criminals. “People locked in the vise grip of addiction are still just that: people,” Bush stresses.

NICHOLAS BUSH is a reformed drug addict devoted to helping people battling addiction in halfway houses and prisons. He has written several articles related to opioid addiction for PBS and the Johns Hopkins Medical Journal, and wrote an Op-Ed piece for USA Today. He grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with his wife and two daughters.