Inside America's Opioid Crisis

12 Hard Lessons for Today’s Drug War

Richard J. Baum

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781538186428
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Criminal Procedure
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Every component of the drug fight needs to change, from the health care system to the justice system, from Homeland security to Congress. American lives depend on it.
The country has been buffeted by four deadly overlapping waves of the opioid crisis, starting with prescription painkillers followed by heroin, fentanyl, and now dangerous drug combinations of opioids with methamphetamine, cocaine, and other substances, often sold as pills via social media. Fatal overdoses, reduced from peak levels, is still disturbingly high. Further, drug addiction, which impacts 28 million Americans, remains unchanged. Why are the country's efforts to reduce overdoses, addiction and drug-related crime not working better? What can be done to get us back on track?
This bold new book answers these questions-not with glib rhetoric or easy solutions-but with straight talk and a clear roadmap to take on the crisis. It is time for Washington to own up to its own errors and change how it takes on the drug problem. Major reforms are urgently needed, innovations in public health, justice and social policies are spelled out throughout this book which address the opioid crisis and prepare us for whatever comes next.
Each chapter focuses on a hard lesson, detailing past failures and then outlining a path forward based on the author's lived experiences working on drug policy for over three decades, through both the crack cocaine and opioid epidemics and five administrations at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
Recommended as the main text for courses that are focused specifically on drugs and society, war on drugs, crime and society, addiction or the opioid crisis. Higher level classes on public health, criminology, sociology, public administration, government it would be a good supplement, especially for those wanting to utilize the example of the opioid crisis as a case study on responses to this social problem of the opioid crisis and response, or the whole "failed war on drugs."

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Longest War: America Launches Drug Fight with Supply Control, Propaganda, and Prejudice
• 2 Coked Up: Building Washington’s Drug War Infrastructure in the Crack Cocaine Era
• 3 Prescription for Disaster: Purdue Pharma’s Crime of the Century
• 4 Fatal Errors: The Consequences of Pushing Prescription Drug Consumers into the Illicit Drug Market
• 5 The Real Treatment Gap: Why Most People Who Need Treatment Do Not Seek it and What to Do About it
• 6 Deep Recovery: Creating a Recovery-Friendly America
• 7 Precision Impact: Controlling Retail Drug Markets without Mass Incarceration or Racial Bias
• 8 True Justice: Combating Drug-Related Crime and Illicit Drug Use Effectively Requires Much Closer Collaboration Between Justice and Health Agencies
• 9 Defense in Depth: Smart Border Security and International Supply Control for Today’s Synthetic Drug Era
• 10 Maximizing Impact: Achieving Better Results from Investments in Anti-Drug Initiatives
• 11 The Fentanyl Generation: Protecting Youth from Today’s Dangerous Drug Threats
• Conclusion
• The 12 HARD LESSONS FOR TODAY’S DRUG WAR (full list)
• List of Recommendations and Proposed Budget to Fund Them
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright