A Pro-User Anti-Prohibition Drug Bibliography. ---------------------------------------------- v.1.5 -- last updated 10/25/95 I started this list to suggest introductory readings on the contemporary American drug situation, to provide references giving a historical context to today's drug culture, and to offer a list of basic readings on the political-philosophical aspects of drug use. Copy & distribute this as you please, so long as you leave it intact. Some of these books may be hard to find, so feel free to forward it to your favorite bookstore, library, teacher, or anyone who wants to start researching drug use and its accompanying issues. If you have any suggestions or book lists of your own, please contact me. ----- Tommy Ranks -- Friend of a Friend -- foucault@paranoia.com Drug Culture/History: http://www.paranoia.com/~foucault/Babel ----- ----------- Introductory ----------- DRUGS, Richard G. Schlaadt and Peter T. Shannon. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1990. Focusing on the dangers and potentials for abuse of many drugs, this book also covers the social and legal aspects of the major contemporary drugs. Fairly well-balanced, discusses both the risks of drug use and the rationality of legalization. DRUGS: FACTS, ALTERNATIVES, DECISIONS, James M. Corry and Peter Cimbolic. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1985. A textbook that aims to reduce drug-use by honestly and unhysterically discussing the effects of drugs and their legal and social status, as well as studying the reasons people use drugs, and offering alternate methods of reaching altered consciousnesses. A reasonable approach, accentuating the user and the natural desire to achieve altered states of mind. DRUGS, SOCIETY, AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR, Oakley Ray and Charles Ksir. Saint Louis: Times Mirror/Mosby College Publishing, 1990. An excellent general overview, covering drug use and regulation, pharmacological basics, in-depth analyses of the legal drugs, tranquilizers and stimulants, narcotics, hallucinogens, and marijuana, and comments on "a rational look at drug use." Well-documented with an abundance of relevant quotes and statistics; a rich set of references follow each chapter. The earlier editions are somewhat dated, but the later ones, especially the 1993 edition, are well-illustrated and designed for textbook use. THE FACTS ABOUT DRUG USE: COPING WITH DRUGS AND ALCOHOL IN YOUR FAMILY, AT WORK, IN YOUR COMMUNITY, Barry Stimel. New York: The Hayworth Medical Press, 1993. Co-authored by the editors of Consumer Reports Books, this attempts to be a thorough and non-judgmental review of the most commonly used drugs, and their social and physiological effects. LIVING WITH DRUGS, Michael Gossop. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing LTD., 1993. Covers the history and effects of the major drugs, discusses "archetypal drugs of abuse", as well as several myths regarding drug abuse. Chapters about the human search for altered experience and the social context of drugs. RECREATIONAL DRUGS, Lawrence A. Young, Linda G. Young, Marjorie M. Klein, Donald M. Klein, Dorianne Beyer. New York: Berkley Books, 1977. 1-12 page chapters cover everything from Acid to DMT to Morphine to Spanish Fly to Yohimbe, dispelling many myths and offering a lot of history. Useful in that it covers many substances often left out in other introductory books. RESPONSIBLE DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE, Ruth C. Engs. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1979. Slightly dated, covers the basic drugs, laws, and physiological actions; includes many figures, diagrams, photographs, and self-examining quizzes. --------------------- Cultural / Historical --------------------- THE ALCHEMY OF CULTURE: INTOXICANTS IN SOCIETY, Richard Rudgley. London: British Museum Press, 1993. A thorough and well-illustrated (though sometimes confusingly sequenced) text on the uses of intoxicants from the Stone Age to the European Middle Ages to the present. In each case, the role of the intoxicant in question (fly agaric, hashish, hallucinogens, etc.) is examined in the context of its particular culture. THE ARTIFICIAL PARADISES IN FRENCH LITERATURE: 1. The Influence of Opium and Hashish on the Literature of French Romanticism and *Les Fleurs Du Mal*, Emanuel J. Mickel, Jr. (University of North Carolina - Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures Number 84.) Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1969. Particularly useful for its second and third chapters, "Historical Considerations of Opium and Hashish", and "Opium and Hashish in the Literary Society of the Nineteenth Century", which give many examples of productive drug use and lore. Also covers historical medical use, and ends with a detailed examination of Opium and Hashish use on the French Romantics, focusing on Baudelaire. Well worth reading, though probably hard to find. COCA EXOTICA: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY OF COCAINE, Joseph Kennedy. New York: Cornwall Books, 1985. A well-illustrated guide to the history of cocaine, its impact on the cultures with which it has interacted, and the reasons for its misuse and disfavor today. DRUGS, ADDICTION, AND INITIATION: THE MODERN SEARCH FOR RITUAL, Luigi Zoja. Boston: Sigo Press, 1989. About the way drugs are used/abused as expressions of a need for cultural fulfillment which is not being met today, and which ultimately ends in consumerism. A good criticism of many contemporary drug scenes. FOOD OF THE GODS: THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINAL TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, Terence McKenna. New York: Bantam Books, 1992. Attempts to construct a unified theory of the spiritual uses of drugs by examining their use throughout history. THE FORBIDDEN GAME: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF DRUGS, Brian Inglis. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975. The use of drugs alcohol, opium, cannabis, and other drugs through (mostly European) history; the last half of the book focuses on modern prohibition. Many specific examples of drug-users' contributions to civilization. HALLUCINOGENS AND SHAMANISM, Michael J. Harner, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. A collection of essays that take a social anthropological approach: "Banisteriopsis Usage among the Peruvian Cashinahua", "The Sound of Running Water", "Visions and Cures among the Sharanahua", "Shamanism and Priesthood in Light of the Campa Ayahuasca Ceremony", "Shamanism and Peyote Use among the Apaches of the Mescalero Indian Reservation", "Curing with Ayahuasca in an Urban Slum", "The Mushrooms of Language", "The Role of Hallucinogenic Plants in European Witchcraft", "Common Themes in South American Indian Yage Experiences", "Psychological Aspects of the Yage Experience in an Experimental Setting". HALLUCINOGENS: CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES, Marlene Dobkin de Rios. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984. Covers the use of hallucinogens in aboriginal and non-European cultures, mostly covering South and Central Americans, with chapters on Australians, Siberians, and Plains Indians of North America. Ends with a section, "Cross-cultural motifs". INTOXICATION: LIFE IN PURSUIT OF ARTIFICIAL PARADISE, Ronald K. Siegel, Ph.D. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1989. An excellent venture into the realm of the biological, historical, and sociological aspects of drug use. Experiments with lab animals given drugs are mixed with stories of field research. The results of habitual use are explored and given a historical context; a case is made for intoxication being a "fourth drive", and the implications of drug use in society are discussed. PHARMAKO/POEIA: PLANT POWERS, POISONS, AND HERBCRAFT, Dave Pendell. San Francisco: Mercury House, 1995. A blend of fiction and nonfiction, theory and history, poetry, text, and illustration. A free-verse new-age-y tome on the nature of plants and their effects on the mind, it divides intoxicants into Thanatopathia, Inebriantia, Euphorica, Phantastica, and Excitantia, and goes from there. Backs itself with numerous quotes and illustrations from varied sources. SOCIETY AND DRUGS: DRUGS 1: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS, Richard H. Blum and associates. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc. 1970. 132 pages of the history of drugs is followed by a cross-cultural study of drug use styles in non-literate societies, a case study of drinking behavior in Greece, a world view of drug use, some political chapters, the effect of the belief in demons on drug thought today, and a chapter on hippies. TASTES OF PARADISE: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF SPICES, STIMULANTS, AND INTOXICANTS, Wolfgang Schivelbusch, transl. from the German by David Jacobson. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992. A systematic study of *Genussmittel* - "articles of pleasure" which also, the author argues, tie the individual closer to society, often advancing that society in the process. Begins with the European spice trade in the Middle Ages and moves through coffee, chocolate, tobbacco, liquor, opium and hashish. ------------------------ Political/Philosophical ------------------------ AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR: RETHINKING OUR TRAGIC CRUSADE AGAINST DRUGS, Stephen B. Duke and Albert C. Gross. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1993. Compares the debilitating effect of drug-use on society to the far greater debilitating effects of a "war" against drug-users on society. Begins considering the various forms of legalization. Well-documented. BREAKING THE IMPASSE IN THE WAR ON DRUGS, Steven Wisotsky. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986. Examines the corruption, loss of liberty, and black market networks created by the illegality of drugs, focusing on cocaine. Discusses the reasons for the intractability of the situation, and points towards solutions. THE CASE FOR LEGALIZING DRUGS, Richard Lawrence Miller. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1991. After briefly describing the effects of the major drugs, and the impact of the drug user on society, the argument is made that the drug laws filled mostly social and political needs: "Because drug control was not the purpose of the restrictive laws, it is unsurprising that drug use has thrived despite them." Many of the myths surrounding drug use are then dispelled, and past experiences with legalization are studied. A good argument clearly stated. CONFRONTING DRUG POLICY: ILLICIT DRUGS IN A FREE SOCIETY, Ronald Bayer and Gerald M. Oppenheimer, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. A collection of essays: "The Great Drug Policy Debate -- What Means This Thing Called Decriminalization", "The Social Demography of Drug Use", "Drug Policy: Striking the Right Balance", "Drug Legalization and the Minority Poor", "Social Behavior, Public Policy, and Nonharmful Drug Use", "From Prohibition to Regulation: Lessons from Alcohol Policy for Drug Policy", "To Build a Bridge: The Use of Foreign Models by Domestic Critics of U.S. Drug Policy", "Drugs, the Criminal Law, and the Administration of Justice", "Compulsory Treatment for Drug-dependent Persons: Justifications for a Public Health Approach to Drug Dependency", "Helping Women Help Children: Drug Policy and Future Generations", "Medicalization of Psychoactive Substance Use and the Doctor- Patient Relationship", "Legalizing Drugs: Lessons from (and about) Economics". DRUG CONTROL IN THE AMERICAS, William O. Walker. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989. A in-depth historical look at the political, production and transportation drug issues between the United States of America and Latin America up to the late 1940s, and the cultural differences that contributed to the current situation. DRUG LEGALIZATION: FOR AND AGAINST, edited by Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent. La Salle, Illinois: Open Court Publishing, 1992. An indispensable guide to the major arguments over contemporary American drug policy. A collection of essays by experts such as Milton Friedman, Ethan A. Nadelmann, Thomas Szasz, William J. Benett, Kurt Schmoke, William F. Buckley, Jr. and more. Approaches include economic, legal, moral, psychological, and historical. Truly an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the debate. THE DRUG SOLUTION, Chester Nelson Mitchell. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1990. A thorough examination and discussion of the practicalities of ending drug prohibition. DRUGS AND RIGHTS, Douglas N. Husak. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Argues for the right of adults to use drugs; begins with medical, legal, and political details, considers drugs and the harm it does to the individuals and to others, finishes by listing the few special cases in which drug use could not be left to a responsible individual (pregnancy, the under-aged.) DRUGS IN AMERICA: A SOCIAL HISTORY, 1800-1980, H. Wayne Morgan. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1981. Focusing on the opiates, tells the story of drug-users in America, their social situations, and the history of the prohibition movements. THE FACTS ABOUT "DRUG ABUSE", The Drug Abuse Council. New York: The Free Press, 1980. Report on the status of American drug use, and essays: "The Federal Government's Response to Illicit Drugs, 1969-1978", "Drug-Law Enforcement Efforts", "Heroin Treatment: Development, Status, Outlook", "The Influence of Public Attitudes and Understanding on Drug Education and Prefention", "Marijuana and Cocaine: The Process of Change in Drug Policy", "American Heroin Policy: Some Alternatives". THE MARIHUANA CONVICTION: A HISTORY OF MARIHUANA PROHIBITION IN THE UNITED STATES, Richard J. Bonnie and Charles H. Whitebread II. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1975. An extensive history of the suppression of Marijuana use in the United States, from the turn of the century to the 1970s. MARIHUANA RECONSIDERED, Lester Grinspoon M.D. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977. A comprehensive survey of the effects of Marihuana. MARIJUANA: COSTS OF ABUSE, COSTS OF CONTROL, Mark A.R. Klein. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. A consideration of the effects of illegality on the marijuana market, discussing drug consumption, supply and demand, and the possible effects of legalization. MARIJUANA-- THE NEW PROHIBITION, John Kaplan. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1975. Dated but thorough book, examining many myths and realities of Marijuana's effects and its legal status. OUR RIGHT TO DRUGS: THE CASE FOR A FREE MARKET, Thomas Szasz. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1992. An excellent approach to the politics of drug use. Analyses the laws against drugs, the legalization movements, and the American "War on Drugs" from a historical and sociopolitical perspective; argues against both the Prohibitionists and the half- hearted Decriminalizers. Very thorough; good bibliography and references sections. PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS AND HARM REDUCTION: FROM FAITH TO SCIENCE, Heather, Wodak, et al., editors. London: Whurr Publishers, 1993. A powerful, comprehensive introduction and analysis of the "harm reduction" approach to dealing with drug use, in which the damaging aspects of drug use, and not the drug user, are dealt with. 24 chapters by individual professionals and academics are divided into six parts: 1. Concepts and Definitions, 2. Perspectives on Harm Reduction, 3. Harm- Reduction Policies, 4. Applications to Specific Substances, 5. Harm Reduction and Developing Countries, and 6. Harm Reduction and HIV/AIDS. Definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested in a rational, humane approach to resolving drug issues. THE SEARCH FOR RATIONAL DRUG CONTROL, Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. After some historical and terminology basics, discusses the drug use debate "as a clash of presumptions between an emphasis on liberty and a preference for continuity in social and legal policy." Offers suggestions towards a more rational drug debate, without pretending to give any simplistic answers. SEX, DRUGS, DEATH, AND THE LAW: AN ESSAY ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND OVERCRIMINALIZATION, David A.J. Richards. Totowa, Rowman and Littlefield: 1982. Discusses the rights of the individual in matters of sex, drug- use, and choosing the moment of death. Puts drug-use in a useful context. WAR ON DRUGS: STUDIES IN THE FAILURE OF U.S. NARCOTICS POLICY, Alfred W. McCoy and Alan A. Block, eds. Boulder: Westview Press, 1992. A collection of essays from conferences held in 1990 and 1991: "U.S. Narcotics policy: an anatomy of failure", "International Narcotics Control: Bush's 'other war' --are we winning or losing?", "Failures at Home and Abroad: studies in the implementation of U.S. drug policy", "Reinforcing Poverty: the Bolivian war on cocaine", "Colombia's Cocaine Syndicates", "Honduras, the Contra Support Networks, and Cocaine: how the U.S. government has augmented America's drug crisis", "Drug Lords and Narco-corruption: the players change but the game continues", "CIA Assets and the Rise of the Guadalajara Connection", "A Smuggler's Paradise: cocaine trafficking through the Bahamas", "Heroin as a global commodity: a history of Southeast Asia's opium trade", "Heroin and Highland Insurgency in the Golden Triangle", "Pakistan: the empire of heroin." ----- Other ----- CANNABIS: REPORT BY THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON DRUG DEPENDENCE. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1968. A classic study in which a more tolerant approach to Cannabis is recommended. GANJA IN JAMAICA: THE EFFECTS OF MARIJUANA USE, Vera Rubin and Labros Comitas. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1976. Another classic study, "the first medical anthropological project center on marijuana", many good figures and "inspired" quotations. MIND, SELF, AND THE HALLUCINOGENS: A HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE, Russ Crescimanno. New York: MSS Information Corporation, 1973. A study of American youth drug users, and the effect of drugs on the mind/body relationship. NARCOMANIA: ON HEROIN, Marek Kohn. London: Faber and Faber, 1987. An analysis of Heroin and its impact on British culture: its history, mythology, and recent hysteria. Focuses on the reasons and purposes behind the various approaches to Heroin rather than on the basics of the drug itself. A PRIMER OF DRUG ACTION, Robert M. Julien. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1988. Basics on the effects of drugs on the human body, from Psychoactives to Birth Controllers, with many diagrams. REPORTER'S GUIDE: DRUGS, DRUG ABUSE ISSUES, RESOURCES, Allan Parachini. Washington DC: The Drug Abuse Council, 1975. Insightful look into the way reporters approached and researched drug and drug use. A useful tool for personal research; many resources listed, many myths uncovered. Somewhat dated.