The book is too ambitious and attempts to describe the fentanyl and methamphetamine scourge from neurological, sociological, human-interest, and economic perspectives. I could have done without the neuroscience and stretched analogies between fast-food and drug addictions. I could also have done without the author’s simplistic and leftist economic views: corporations are bad. Finally, the author’s retelling of the Purdue Pharma/Oxycontin story was fine, but has been covered elsewhere in more detail and better. But the book is excellent and important at its heart: describing in heart-breaking detail the stories of addicts and dealers, and the cops and especially citizens who try to sort through the wreckage and make things better. The book finally calls out the media for focusing on housing costs rather than drug addiction when describing homeless tent cities, which reinforce a drug-centered life and are funded by pimping and theft. Makes clear that “leniency” for addicts is often the worst thing for them, as it allows them to continue their criminal and horribly self-destructive behavior. While drug courts can help, it is the threat of prison that gets addicts to choose to participate in treatment programs.