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Introduction xiii this final point in relation to the latest drug scare over crack, the 1992 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse showed that only 3 percent of 18- to 35-year-olds—the group most likely to use drugs—had “ever used” crack. The same survey showed that less than one-third of those who had ever used crack had used the drug in the prior year.10 “In short, the evidence indicated that the lifetime prevalence of crack use began low and declined thereafter. And, despite all the claims that it is ‘instantane- ously addicting,’ a clear majority of those who do try it do not continue to use it.”11 Despite the lack of evidence to support the national terror over crack cocaine as well as the other substances that have been demonized in other drug scares, the end result of drug scares is always the same—a criminal justice crackdown on the drugs and drugs users. Do prescription drugs represent a new American drug scare? This question will be debated throughout the book, but it is important to note a few generalized differences between the prior drug scares and the cur- rent problem of prescription drug misuse in the United States. First, pre- scription drugs remain legal when appropriately prescribed and used. There are in fact legitimate therapeutic uses for the prescription medica- tions, whereas the medical uses of the prior demonized substances are nonexistent (i.e., alcohol and cocaine) or extremely limited (i.e., the use of heroin derivatives or marijuana for pain management). Second, there is no apparent racialized component to the prescription drug misuse crisis. In fact, prescription drug misuse is most often highlighted as a middle- class and/or white predicament, evidenced by OxyContin being termed “hillbilly heroin.” Third, as we document in detail in the next chapter, there is evidence that prescription drug misuse has increased at times over the past 20 years. Fourth, the extreme criminal justice response to the current prescription drug misuse problem is missing. As we docu- ment later in the book, the criminal justice system has certainly been part of crafting solutions to the prescription drug misuse problem, but the majority of efforts to stem the prescription drug misuse crisis have focused on an element that was notably missing from all of the prior drug scares—public calls for treatment. All of the notable differences between the current prescription drug misuse crisis and the prior drug scares aside, prescription drug misuse has certainly dominated media and political coverage over the past sev- eral years. The New York Times, for instance, published over 70 articles on prescription drug misuse in one year alone (July 2016 to July 2017), not to mention the thousands of articles and exposés published by smaller news- papers across the country. Furthermore, prescription drug misuse was a prominent theme of the 2016 presidential and congressional election.