High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do about It

I can't rate this book high enough. The author has extensively documented his sources for the information contained in the book. I am familiar with many of his references and know he has cited them in context. At first I thought he was overstating many of the facts but upon further investigation I don't think he is. He makes essential points in several areas: futility of incarcerating drug users insteading of providing treatment, statistics about what works and what does not work in prevention of underage drug use, failed drug policies of other countries from whom we can learn. This book reminded me of another extensively referenced book from CASA: "Women Under the Influence", also an excellent book.

High Society would seem fictional and over exagerated had Joe Califano Jr. not backed up his statistics with over 1000 research footnotes. Everyone who has children or is concerned about the health of our society in general and in the workplace needs to read this book. Having lost an adult child (an M.D., MBA 28 year old) to multiple addictions in 2006 as well as owning my own business and needing to deal with alcohol, drug and tobacco issues at work; I can't recommend this book enough. If you think that your family or workplace would never be one of Califano's stattistics; you're fooling yourself!

Califano does a BRILLIANT job of describing the history of our country's substance abuse (from chewing tobacco to meth) and how we became a country of addicts. If we get nothing out of his book but one point it should be that our weakness is in spending the majority of our resources on TREATING substance abuse and addiction VERSUS PREVENTING it. As citizens we must insist that the government fund medical research to help us prevent us from becoming addicted in the first place--thus reducing crime, domestic violence, sexual abuse, poverty, teenage pregnancies and homelessness to name just a few. If you are interested in substance abuse, this is a MUST READ.

As a social worker in NYC, I see first hand what substance abuse and addiction is doing to American families. I work with abused and emotionally disturbed children in the New York City public schools whose families are threatened and affected on a daily basis by drug abuse. These children don't have a fighting chance, and will be raised in a cycle of poverty and drug use that will continue for generations and the sad fact is, no one really cares. This book could be their ticket to a better life. The revolution that Califano writes about would change these children's lives for the better. HIGH SOCIETY is a breath of fresh air. I wholly agree with Califano's analogy of a political moderate, left and right chanting to send more horses and more men to help put humpty-dumpty back together again, rather than dealing with why he fell apart in the first place. Shoveling up the havoc wreaked by substance abuse and addiction hasn't solved the problem, I agree that it is time for a revolution in the way we think about this issue. I hope this book serves as a wake -up call to the nation. Although we need to be concerned about drug use and abuse across the world, we REALLY need to start in our country and begin to really look at the biggest internal threat to our nations future.

This book opened my eyes and made me realize that we are a nation of addicts. I was stunned by the fact the the US is 4 percent of the world's population, but consumes more than half the world's illegal drugs. Once you get through the mind blowing statistics, you begin to really understand the scope of this problem and how it is slowly destroying our society. I agree with Mr. Califano in saying that substance abuse is a disease and not a moral failing. Addict means addicted and when someone is addicted to something, they just can't stop. We must stop writing people off because they have a disease and focus on treating them - all of them. We are looking for cures for cancer and AIDS, we talk about them in the open and pour money into the research. Mr. Califano is right - we should do the same for substance abuse and addiction. This book offers a refreshing way to look at this horrible problem that plagues so many of our brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, spouses, children and friends. More importantly, it offers hope and a solution. Sign me up for the revolution , I want to do my part!