by Dan Baum
First published 1996
Dan Baum examines America's war on drugs and reveals a stark contradiction. Federal agencies pour billions into enforcement while cocaine, heroin, and marijuana become easier to obtain than ever before. Baum traces how politicians promise tougher crackdowns yet drug availability continues to rise. He documents the gap between public rhetoric and street reality. Police make more arrests while dealers adapt faster than law enforcement can respond. Baum shows how each new policy initiative fails to reduce supply or demand. The book exposes why traditional approaches cannot solve the drug problem. Baum offers readers a clear analysis of policy failure and its human costs.
Genres: addiction, abuse, crime, non-fiction, 21st-century, drugs
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: human-costs, policy-failure
396 pages · Hardcover · Little Brown & Co
Content warnings: addiction, drug-use