Balanced insight into failed harm reduction.

For the past 5 years, it has become evident that letting drug addicts "live their truth" has not worked and has made many cities in the West unlivable without addressing the growing problem of addiction, open air drug markets and allowing people to defecate and urinate on streets with no consequences. Unlike other commentators who complain, Michael Shellenberger also clarifies solutions to a libertarian utopian social justice approach that hasn't worked but also has made things worse for those who suffer as well as the general population.

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Great listen

Very informative, lots of information stuffed into one book. If you are naive on the homeless issues plaguing many cities, this is your best bet for unbiased opinions on how to solve it.

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Babies, bathwater, hell, and good intentions

Anyone who has a loved one who is experiencing or has died from serious overdose needs to read this book so that they can stop feeling gas lit by people telling us that more access to drugs is the answer to our loved one’s semi-suicidal behaviour. Schellenberger lays out precisely why more access to all drugs is the opposite of how we will rescue or dying or dead children. My adopted country of Canada is going heading in a reckless direction to legalize all illicit substances, ostensibly in the name of compassion for those experiencing addiction. It is brutally shortsighted. It is a radical version of libertarianism wearing the clothes of a Mother Theresa. Schellenberger calls these homelessness and addiction activists- often anarchists- ‘pathological altruists”; that is harsh, but has more than a kernal of truth. I hope that others, especially politicians and those working in the fields of psychology, addiction, community development, etc. will read this and realize that Schellenberger is correct in saying we are watching society‘s downfall if we continue on these shortterm feel -good measures that make things worse in the long run for those most vulnerable and their families friends and communities. For those who wish to know more on the voices resisting legalizing all illicit drugs, please read the work of Julian Somers, Lynette Reib, and Vincent Lam in Ontario Canada. They are among the few brave voices in the wilderness urging more compassionate and sensible drug policies that are intimately intertwined with our homelessness challenges in North America. The time has come, as Schellenberger says, and many who are willing to stay this publicly (and most who are not), for some type of mandatory institutionalization and treatment for those experiencing extreme and chronic mental illness and addiction. Effective and humane treatment does not need to look at all like asylums of the past, nor like the prisons and tent cities that currently house our mentally ill and addicted. Facebook, with a shred of interest in these topics, it is absolutely imperative reading.

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a must to add to your library

well done book! Adding clarity and information on what we have and continue to do wrong with our addiction epidemic.

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Knowledge Dense

Feels like it drags in back half but its message and meanings are clear and worth hearing.

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revolutionary for North American issues

Every city council needs to read this to deal with their mental health issues

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A must read for anyone that wants to understand these challenges

Incredible in depth research. Well presented and very thought provoking. I certainly have a more educated opinion on what can be done to combat the challenges of drug addiction, mental illness and housing in my city and others facing a negative decline.

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Sobering Read.

The picture Shellenberger paints of the mentally ill and drug addicted is pretty accurate. I live in Vancouver and I work for a company that has some contracts cleaning buildings on the lower East side. I see examples of these policies and their results almost everyday. I always heard that 'they' closed the mental hospitals and treatment centers but I always wanted to know who and why. This book lays out a logical course of events and identifes blind spots in ideology that at least needs some more looking into. It's a sobering look at how our tax dollars are spent and how these problems seem to always follow progressive cities around.

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educational but entertaining

shellenberger does a great job of explaining the (misplaced) WHY? behind the insanity. much is exolained

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Mandatory reading for everyone who cares about our civilization

A well researched work that explores the multi factorial root of every city’s homeless problem and why ideologies of those who claim to care the most for the homeless are the ones most responsible for the worsening of the problem. At the same time it suggests reasonable and tested methods to tackle this problem

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