Unbroken brain

This was so great!!!! Szalavitz weaves together elements of memoir, a truly astounding synthesis of decades of research on addiction, and American cultural history of our long and racist series of wars on drugs. She then uses this tapestry to make the very compelling argument that addiction is best understood as a learning disorder, and translates that understanding into what our drug policy should look like. It's just a really excellent piece of work. There are wild details of personal history (the first time she did heroin was with the Grateful Dead), deservedly pointed social critiques, and huge amounts of compassion for people struggling. I really appreciate Szalavitz' insights as they relate to my current work setting, but this feels like an important book for most people interested in people to read. My one quibble is that I would have loved more citations for the huge volume of research she cites - she does a great job translating for the general public, but it would also be nice to be able to see more quickly what work she's referring to when.