Our Government: What the Fuck Do They Do All Day and Why Does it Cost So Goddamned Much Money? pp. 109-122 Summary and Analysis

The author opens the chapter with a section called "Drug Policy: The Whiffle Life." O'Rourke explains that Americans agree that something should be done about illegal drugs. The government, however, wastes time and money merely recognizing the problem. The American public articulates the problem as a hysterical mistrust of its young people. Crack cocaine, however, despite middle-class hysteria, is not a problem of the middle-class.

O'Rourke, admitting that he has freebased cocaine, sees crack as a drug of perfected evil. He does not, however, see hysteria as an effective means of waging the war on drugs. O'Rourke suggests that the hysteria...