Mike Pond’s riveting account of his trip to rock bottom and back lays the foundation of his plan to transform our flawed addiction treatment system from one steeped in shame and stigma, to one that delivers evidence-based, compassionate care.

He presents a provocative take that challenges our core beliefs about addiction and shows us how insisting on abstinence can make the addiction worse, kicking people out of treatment for relapse is bad medicine, and allowing a substance user to hit rock bottom: malpractice.

Based on his experience and the research done for the CBC documentary Wasted, Mike reveals what an effective addiction treatment system could look like: one that treats addiction like the life-threatening disorder it is, where treatment coast-to-coast is in the hands of mental health professionals and medical doctors, where standards are established based on scientific evidence, where brief screening is part of every annual physical and ER visit and where sufferers can access a national network of rapid response clinics. Just a few of the ideas to stop the hemorrhaging of 700 billion dollars every year that’s lost to addiction in North America.