RIGHTEOUS DOPEFIEND

Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg, in their book Righteous Dopefiend, take us up close and personal into the world of homelessness and drug addiction in urban America. For more than two decades they followed two dozen heroin injectors and crack smokers in their scramble for survival on the streets of San Francisco. Most importantly, more than just painting a bleak landscape, they conclude with proposals for policy changes and interventions, and look at how and why the U.S. has produced this shelterless population, condemned to lives of distress and suffering.