Customer Reviews

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

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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!

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.

No one is more responsible than Joseph Califano, Jr., for the fact that America now suffers the worse drug abuse crisis in our history, worse than nearly any other nation on earth. His tirelessly senseless crusades based on sensational, anti-scientific reports and bombastic rhetoric have pivotally shaped our calamitous national drug policy, received oceans of worshipful media, and soaked up millions in public funding for three decades. Now, he admits without irony, things are worse than ever.

"High Society" repeats more of Califano's formula for disaster. Make all youth abstain? How? We now arrest 800,000 persons under 21 every year for alcohol or drug possession and have dumped billions into no-no "prevention" policies for 25 years. Why would arresting millions and spending trillions doing more of what failed suddenly work?

And to what end? The drug-use surveys Califano relies on are meaningless. American Baby Boomers growing up in the 1950s and `60s had very low rates of teenage drug and alcohol use (82% of high school seniors in 1973 never used an illicit drug even once, approaching Califano's abstinence dream). Yet, Boomers then and now suffer by far the worst rates of drug-related deaths, hospital emergencies, crime, and other addictive ills of any generation, far higher than later generations that used drugs and alcohol more. Meanwhile, countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece, where use of alcohol by children and teens is widespread (usually daily), have the lowest rates of drunkenness, alcoholism, and related problems of any cultures. That's because they employ strict social and family controls on all ages rather than bombast and prohibition.

Yet, Califano, along with his allies such as drug czars John Walters and William Bennett, have relentlessly thwarted efforts to moderate drug and alcohol use by young and old Americans, insisting instead that the impossible panacea of complete, eternal abstinence is the only option even for mild drugs and, for persons under 21, everything. Califano's politically convenient ideology that problems would disappear if teenagers abstained fails to note that youths who don't drink or use drugs come from demographic groups (such as teetotaling religions) in which adults abstain as well, while kids who get drunk at young ages come from families with histories of adult drug/alcohol abuse, violence, and mental disturbance. Chasing around, arresting, and locking up the vast majority of teens who drink and use drugs while displaying no immediate or long-term consequences is a recipe for maximizing the odds they WILL become abusers.

This book, like Califano's career, extends his muddled fanaticism that has endangered generations of Americans. It reinforces the urgency of removing the failed drug warriors he represents from power so that new generations of ideas can emerge to fix the catastrophe they created.

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.

This was a very straight forward book perhaps stating what we already might know about drug usage but still refusing to consider the problem as VERY serious. The statistics given in the book really bring a better perspective and the wide range of drug usage is clearly shown. The one section that dealt with marijuana was worth devoting an entire chapter on the subject. A very good book and easy to understand. Excellent for parents to use to help with the decisions that their children might someday have to face.

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.

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!

High Society presents thought provoking insights into the issue of substance abuse and addiction. Califano is dead right when he argues that too much money is being spent on "shoveling up" instead of dealing with the root of most societal problems: substance abuse and addiction

"Americans, comprising 4% of the world's population, consume two-thirds of the world's illegal drugs" - Califano's attention-getting opening in "High Society." Three-quarters of illegal drug users work either full- or part-time. The total 2006 financial bill for all this, including cigarette smoking and alcohol abuse, was near $1 trillion for health care, low productivity, disability, welfare, crime and punishment, etc. Califano also points out that some 80% of adult inmates incarcerated for felonies and of juvenile arrestees are involved in drug- or alcohol-related offenses or have drug and alcohol problems. Further, at least 70% of abused and neglected children in the nation's family court and child welfare systems are offspring of substance-abusing parents, and during the nine years of the Vietnam war, more than 200,000 died from from illegal drug use, 3.5 million from smoking-related illnesses, and almost one million from alcohol abuse and alcoholism - compared to the 58,000 in the war.

"High Society" also provides data showing that making substances illegal helps, aside from the impact on crime. During Prohibition, American drinking slid to less than one gallon/year, vs. about four in the early 19th century and 2.2 currently. The book also provides impressive data showing that those taking "gateway" drugs (eg. cigarettes, alcohol, and/or marijuana) are far more likely to end up using cocaine and/or heroin than those that do not, and the younger this illicit use begins the worse the problem. (The good news is that if they hold off until age 21, they are not likely to ever get involved with "hard" drugs.)

A 2003 government report named tobacco as the top "root cause" killer (450,000), alcohol abuse was #2 (100,000), guns #6 (30,000), and illicit drugs #9 (20,000).

Successful treatment barriers include lack of peer-reviewed outcomes data (Califano recommends more financial support for research), many states having no standards for individuals professing to be treatment counselor (many are simply recovered addicts), programs having wildly varying definitions of success, and insurance companies' pursuit of false savings.

One general key topic, however, was not addressed: "Why does America lead the world in illegal drug use; does this extend to cigarettes and alcohol also, and if so, why?"

Could be the alternate title of this work.
It is a wake up call to the dangers of our consumer, feel good culture.

The point about removing beer advertisement from the media is certainly a point that will send chills up the spine of all the free market mavens, however it will comfort all those who view this as that the achilles heal of our youth.

The chapter on the dangers of marijuna might be somewhat of a hyperbole that is remindful of the "reefer madness" methaphor, however, save this reactionary chaper (personal bias)this is still a pivitol work in our evolving culture.