"There is no better briefing on this evil burlesque than Dan Baum's

richly anecdotal, statistics-saturated and more than occasionally

sarcastic aria of indignant muckraking. It's as if Lincoln Steffens and Jonathan Swift had teamed up for a miniseries. . . "

                                 -- John Leonard, The Nation

"For sheer government absurdity, the War on Drugs is hard to beat. . . . Yet we continue, devoted to a policy as expensive, ineffective, delusional, and destructive as government gets."

"Devastating. . . Baum's pointillist technique is highly effective in many ways. . . . A valuable work of reporting."

    -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

"Sobering. . . . Baum has a good eye for absurdity."

                                   -- Newsday

"There are no unnamed sources or made-up names. Baum talked to former policy makers who reportedly had not spoken for the record before. He takes care to give words in quotation marks credibility, saying all reflect conversations recorded in writing or are dialogues remembered exactly. Baum's diligence, if we take him at his word, is most refreshing."

                                -- San Diego Union Tribune