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A new study in Britain has revealed that at least a million people go to their workplaces each day, having taken illegal narcotics. The most common drugs found in people were cannabis, opiates and cocaine, and even more shockingly, the numbers of drug users are up 43% compared with a previous study in 2007. When broken down by age, the data showed that people between 25 and 34 years of age were most likely to be on drugs at work.

Now, a new book by author JR Helton provides a contemporary commentary on modern-day drug use. Using his own personal experiences, his book, simply titled Drugs, is a story of Jake, what Helton calls, “a functional drug user in America.” Jake’s experiences with a myriad of narcotics is not the typical cautionary, morality tale. Neither is it a recklessly euphemistic story of the glory of drug use. Rather it is a commentary on how America’s rampant drug use uncomfortably co-exists with a national denial of a cultural and pervasive fondness for drugs.

The cover art for JR Helton’s Drugs, is by the celebrated artist and illustrator Robert Crumb. Crumb says “JR Helton really speaks to me – starkly honest, darkly funny, acutely observant, and captures the tragic absurdity of human life… [H]e’s right up there with the best of them.”

GUEST: JR Helton is a lecturer at the University of Texas, San Antonio. His earlier books include “Below the Line,” and “Man and Beast.”