Faguet, a retired professor of medicine in hematology/oncology at the Medical College of Georgia, examines the current crisis in pain management, in which doctors fear prescribing narcotics and patients fear addiction to them. He argues that narcotics are the least addictive drugs and that current policy penalizes pain sufferers and nonviolent offenders and that it will not reduce the supply of drugs as long as the illegal drug trade remains in place. He contends that drug use should be a health rather than a criminal matter, and proposes the repeal of all drug laws, the re-legalization of all illicit drugs, and the dismantlement of all enforcement agencies, which he sees as the only approach to solving the pain management crisis and worldwide crime, corruption, and human rights violations associated with the drug trade. Along the way, he discusses the history and politics of drugs, medical aspects of painkillers, and the geopolitical context in Colombia and Afghanistan. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)