Reading the recent Willamette Week story, “Saving Ryan: Why it was left to two Portland judges to bring this junkie back from the brink,” September 15, 2010, by James Pitkin, reminded me of two things (more than two, actually, but only two that can be written about in the space of a blog post):
One: A book: “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through his Son’s Addiction,” by David Sheff
Two: If you haven’t read about Portugal’s approach to drug addiction, crime, and health care, here are a few articles I’ve referred people to, though there are others if you want to do a full literature search. But these offer a good introduction to tease and tempt you into reading more: