Jim Gierach is a former Cook County, Illinois, prosecutor, occasional failed political candidate, and longtime fighter in the trenches taking on the war on drugs. He makes no bones about what he thinks need to happen.
This new entry in the growing literature on the opioid crisis digs deep and paints a picture that isn't pretty. But the book's laser-sharp focus on corporate and political malfeasance omits much of the context in which this crisis has unfolded, and that context is important.
The history of drug prohibition is increasingly well-trodden territory, but with Opium's Orphans, British historian P.E. Caquet brings a fascinating new perspective embedded in a sweeping narrative and fortified with an erudite grasp of the broad global historical context.
Transforming the War on Drugs: Warriors, Victims and Vulnerable Regions edited by Annette Idler and Juan Carlos Garzon Vergara (2021, Oxford University Press, 584 pp., $34.95 PB) If you