{"product_id":"from-fire-to-fentanyl-cindy-swartz-garcia-9798244955736","title":"From Fire to Fentanyl: The Hidden Story of Human Addiction and Survival","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom Fire to Fentanyl\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Hidden Story of Human Addiction and Survival\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAddiction did not begin in a laboratory, a pharmacy, or a courtroom.\u003cbr\u003eIt began with the human body.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom Fire to Fentanyl\u003c\/i\u003e is a sweeping, deeply human history of intoxication-one that traces humanity's long relationship with mind-altering substances from ancient ritual and medicine to modern pharmaceutical systems, prohibition, and the synthetic drug crisis. Rather than framing addiction as moral failure or individual weakness, this book reveals it as a recurring survival response shaped by biology, trauma, culture, power, and policy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoving across civilizations and centuries, Cindy Swartz-Garcia shows how early societies once integrated intoxicants through ritual, care, and communal responsibility-and how those systems gradually hardened into moral judgment, criminalization, and control. The book follows this transformation through religion, empire, industrialization, war, medicine, and neuroscience, revealing how addiction became misunderstood, stigmatized, and ultimately engineered at scale.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBlending history, public health, neuroscience, policy analysis, and lived human experience, \u003ci\u003eFrom Fire to Fentanyl\u003c\/i\u003e explains why prohibition repeatedly fails, why treatment alone cannot repair systemic harm, and why modern responses to addiction so often deepen the very suffering they aim to solve.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not a book that excuses harm-or one that reduces addiction to a single cause. It is a book that restores context, dignity, and clarity to one of the most misunderstood human conditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eInside, readers will explore: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow early rituals and medicines governed intoxication long before law and punishment\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe role of faith, empire, and moral authority in reshaping substance use\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow industrialization and global trade engineered mass addiction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe invention of the \"addict\" as a social identity\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy war, trauma, and inequality accelerate substance dependence\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat neuroscience reveals about the body's memory of intoxication\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow policy choices-not just substances-drive addiction crises\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat a compassionate, evidence-based future could look like\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten for readers who want understanding rather than blame, \u003ci\u003eFrom Fire to Fentanyl\u003c\/i\u003e offers a powerful reframing of addiction as a shared human story-one that demands not fear or punishment, but responsibility, care, and informed action.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is the first volume in the \u003ci\u003eFire to Fentanyl\u003c\/i\u003e series, which also includes a companion scholarly volume and a policy-focused edition for educators, clinicians, and decision-makers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Cindy Swartz-Garcia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798244955736\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/21\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 396\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.51lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 10.00h x 7.00w x 0.81d","brand":"Cindy Swartz-Garcia","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48447292014847,"sku":"9798244955736","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_11b9c58c-7800-4041-9e07-1866ef92a2e3.jpg?v=1777230136","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/from-fire-to-fentanyl-cindy-swartz-garcia-9798244955736","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}