Welcome!

This is the first blog of the new site. Obviously, the focus is on my book, Prisoner of War: The Story of White Boy Rick and the War on Drugs. It is a look at the trillion-dollar policy failure we call the War on Drugs, as seen through the amazing true tale of teen FBI informant Richard J. Wershe, Jr., aka White Boy Rick.

In addition to Rick’s story, early readers have remarked about the bizarre facts of this futile war-without-end. My previous blog, Informant America, focused almost exclusively on the story of White Boy Rick Wershe. Those blog posts can be found in the Archive section.

This blog will take a broader view. The War on Drugs continues to limp along, despite decades of lost battles on many fronts. Crack has been upstaged in recent times by opioids as the nation’s latest “drug epidemic.” As noted in the book, “epidemic” is a favorite descriptive term for widespread illegal drug use.

This blog will explore some of the larger issues of drug crime and punishment as the Trump Justice Department seeks to double down on a strategy that hasn’t worked for nearly 50 years.

Comments are welcome, but they will be moderated. That is, it won’t be a free-for-all forum for rants and online attacks. I will post all comments which seem to be serious, sober and free of profanity and viciousness. If you have something to contribute to the issues, please join the discussion. Internet trolls aren’t welcome.