Everything You Know About Drugs is Wrong (The Making of Addiction and a New Approach to Overdose in America)

Why do we keep making the same mistakes in our treatment of the overdose crises? Overdose survivor and now nationally recognized prevention expert Stephen Murray shows that criminalization, stigma, abstinence-only recovery models, and the moralization of drug use have not stopped people from using drugs, but have instead reshaped how they use—quietly, hurriedly, and alone—turning ordinary moments of risk into fatal ones. By reframing overdose as a crisis of presence rather than failures of willpower, this revolutionary book offers a bold, humane vision of safety rooted not in punishment or perfection, but in making it possible for people to stay, to be seen, and to survive.

Through vivid, intimate portraits—a grandmother managing chronic pain, a construction worker who learns his cocaine contained fentanyl the hard way, a young experimenter, people moving in and out of recovery—Everything You Know About Drugs is Wrong shows that overdose risk is not the result of individual recklessness, but of system design. Again and again, Murray reveals the same pattern: people do not die because no one cared, but because caring carried consequences. Fear of punishment, losing housing, children, freedom, or dignity, has been built into our definitions of “help,” teaching people to disappear when their presence matters most.

At the center of the book is a simple but unsettling framework Murray calls the Vibe Check: When something goes wrong, does this system actually make people safer? Do people feel welcomed, or watched? When they tell the truth, does honesty bring support—or punishment? By applying this lens not only to drug policy, but to healthcare, public health, workplaces, families, and other institutions we trust to keep people safe, Murray shows how overdose is not an isolated crisis, but a stress test that exposes how we respond to vulnerability more broadly.

Everything You Know About Drugs is Wrong asks readers to move beyond self-blame and judgment toward a deeper understanding of how harm is produced, and how it can be prevented.