This chapter presents a systematic content analysisContent analysis of how six major U.S. newspapers framed the heroin epidemicHeroin epidemic of the 1970s and the opioid crisisOpioid crisis of the twenty-first century. By examining 600 articles—300 from each drug era—the chapter reveals stark differences in language, imagery, sourcing, and dominant frames. Heroin was overwhelmingly framed as a criminal justice issue, often racialized and associated with urban Black and Latino communities. By contrast, the opioid crisis was portrayed through a public health lens, with empathy extended to mostly white, middle-class individuals affected by corporate malfeasance and overprescription. The study quantifies these disparities using coding procedures and chi-square analysis, showing how media coverage, both reflects and reinforces structural inequities. The chapter argues that content analysis offers essential empirical insight into how media shape public understanding, social stigma, and policy responses to addiction. It concludes by preparing the ground for the discourse analysis in Chap. 8 , where the deeper ideological implications of race and narrative framing are explored. The story of how the media shapes our understanding of drug addiction cannot be told without a careful, empirical examination of the words, images, and frames used to construct public meaning. For this chapter, I turn to a comprehensive content analysis of six major U.S. newspapers: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Columbus Dispatch, The Detroit Free Press, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Times-Picayune. These publications span a wide range of geographic, political, and cultural perspectives, offering a national lens through which to assess the shifting narratives surrounding America’s drug crises. They were selected not only for their regional coverage but also for their influence on public discourse, policy attention, and community identity.