This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America

Everything we know about drugs–from acid to epidemics to DARE and salvia–turns out to be wrong

Stock up on munchies and line up your water bottles: journalist Ryan Grim will take you on a cross-country tour of illicit drug use in the U.S.–from the agony (the huge DEA bust of an acid lab in an abandoned missile silo in Kansas) to the ecstasy (hallucinogens at raves and music festivals). Along the way, Grim discovers some surprising truths. Did anti-drug campaigns actually encourage more drug use? Did acid really disappear in the early 2000s? And did meth peak years ago? Did our Founding Fathers–or, better yet, their wives–get high just as much as we do? Not since Eric Schlosser took readers underground to marijuana's black market in Reefer Madness has a reporter trained such a keen eye on drugs and culture. Grim weaves a story based on solid reporting and wide-ranging research. This Is Your Country on Drugs explores our country's long and twisted relationship with drugs–but also asks readers to reflect on what it means to be an American.

Ryan Grim (Washington, DC) covers Congress for Politico and has written for Slate, Rolling Stone, Harper's, and the Washington Post.