America’s Opioid Crisis: 12 Hard Lessons from Inside the War on Drugs

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 six administrations at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
Recommended to all those interested in learning about effective solutions to the opioid crisis as well as those concerned about the ongoing drug crisis in cities, states, and towns across the country. The book is also 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.＂

Richard J. Baum has served at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) for over 25 years in a variety of positions in five administrations. He was Acting Director of ONDCP - or Drug Czar - from March 2017 to February 2018. In this position he served as the principal advisor to the President on drug policy and worked directly with Cabinet Secretaries. For much of his tenure as Acting Director he served concurrently as Executive Director of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, overseeing ONDCP’s work with the Commission in drafting their two reports and coordinating and participating in their meetings in Washington. Through his work he has developed a wide and deep network of government, advocacy, association and academic colleagues and friends in the drug policy, public health, public safety, and media fields.

Mr. Baum has previously served in a variety of management and policy positions at ONDCP. During his career at the Drug Czar’s office,