What if the U.S. Congress considered legalizing drugs? A prominent surgeon, DR. TONY RYAN, finds himself at the helm of the country's first experimental drug distribution program, which has been set up in Santa Barbara. Two months into its uneventful operation, Ryan returns from a brief holiday to find not only the program suddenly on the brink of disaster, but himself perilously pitched into a high-stakes life-threatening attack. On one hand, Substance of Abuse is a "Crichtonesque beach-reader" novel -- an intriguing adventure from Santa Barbara to Rome. And, on the other hand, it has an original high-concept premise whose highly charged controversial nature will surely leave the reader much to think about long after the last page is turned.