Book Review: Hurt: Chronicles of the drug generation

• DOI: 10.1177/1057567719873020
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Author: Tim Surmont
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Boeri, M. (2017).

Hurt: Chronicles of the drug generation. Oakland: University of California Press. 288 pp. $29.95, ISBN:

9780520293472.

Reviewed by: Tim Surmont , European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisboa, Portugal

DOI: 10.1177/1057567719873020

The United States is currently facing one of the most difficult challenges with respect to drug-related

harms: Opioids are responsible for the death of around 130 U.S. citizens every day. Examinations of

contributing factors to the so-called U.S. opioid crisis often journey back to the late 1990s when

pharmaceutical companies minimized the addictive component of opioids and health-care practi-

tioners subsequently adapted their prescription behavior. Yet this is but one element in a complex

historical context.

In her book Hurt: Chronicles of the Drug War Generation, Miriam Boeri draws a particular

genealogy of the U.S. opioid crisis; she takes the reader on an ethnographic tour of the lives of 38

baby boomers to build the arguments that are developed throughout the book. Boeri takes the reader

back in time for a better understanding of different factors that lay at the base of what is described as

a failing national policy—a policy that steers clear of scientific evidence and does not mix well with

personal lifelines, cultura l differences, inequalities , social deprivation, and the cri minal justice

system as a whole.

Hurt is written in a clear and engaging way, uncharacteristic of technical publications. At times, it

even feels like one is reading a novel, although her sound and well-grounded arguments quickly

remind the reader that this is not fiction but an empirical account of a terrible crisis. While there is no

shortage of books on the U.S. war on drugs, this one manages to involve the reader to the weaknesses

of the policy. This is definitely an achievement Boeri deserves credit for. Boeri also does not hesitate

in revealing her personal involvement and vulnerability: Her own brother is the protagonist who

connects the dots in her account, a narrative that meanders through the historical, social, and political

context of the lives of the baby boomers.

Boeri addresses important problems related to the implementation of unilateral and often punitive

responses to drug use though the analysis of the life trajectories of her research participants. Taking

this life course approach, she argues that identical treatment solutions are no guarantee for success

with different people. Her argument is supported by an intersectional perspective where race,

gender, and class are weaved throughout the narrative.

This book is not however just an account of the U.S. war on drugs. It is also a call for action. In it,

Boeri provides a strong case to disentangle treatment from law enforcement. Boeri draws on the

Portuguese case to show the opportunities that may arise when drug demand is addressed from a

public health perspective. The decriminalization of drug use has made Portugal an example of how

the disconnection of drug use and the criminal justice system has led to a steep decrease of drug-

related deaths as well as other harms related to the use of drugs. Drug policy should be, as it is

International CriminalJustice Review

2021, Vol. 31(1) 84-96

ª2019 Georgia State University

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