Abstract
Two California cosmetic surgeons are in the news. The first is Tony Ryan, a general plastic surgeon from Santa Barbara. We meet Tony and his wife, Montana, at the Little Nell Hotel in Aspen, Colo, where they are on a working ski vacation. Tony is the fictional creation of Mark Berman, Santa Monica cosmetic surgeon and chairman of the Academy's credentials committee. Mark's book, titled Substance of Abuse, is about Tony assuming the job of leading the country's first experimental legal drug program in Santa Barbara. It involves a murder, political corruption, a smart wife, and international travel and intrigue. It is reminiscent of John Grisham's novel The Firm. The underlying theme of the work is libertarian and points out the failure of the war on drugs. Illegal drugs cost us tens of billions of dollars a year because users commit crimes in order to keep buying, causing police and prosecutors to expend their time and resources chasing drug users instead of real criminals. Moreover, our overflowing prisons are full of criminals convicted of so-called victimless crimes, and those incarcerated drug criminals are taken out of the economy, often leaving their families wards of the state. Perhaps someday drug usage will be decriminalized and an effective system of rehabilitation will be in its place.
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