New Books in Drugs, Addiction and Recovery

Michelle Smirnova, "The Prescription-To-Prison Pipeline: The Medicalization and Criminalization of Pain" (Duke UP, 2023)

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Prescription-To-Prison Pipeline: The Medicalization and Criminalization of Pain (Duke UP, 2023), Michelle Smirnova argues that the ongoing o...

Peter Thilly, "The Opium Business: A History of Crime and Capitalism in Maritime China" (Stanford UP, 2022)

14 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Opium Business: A History of Crime and Capitalism in Maritime China (Stanford UP, 2022) explores the opium trade — but not through the relativ...

Pharmacological Histories Ep. 3: Bita Moghaddam on Ketamine

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Bita Moghaddam discusses the emergence of ketamine as a combat anesthetic in the Vietnam war, its transformation into a recreation dr...

Pharmacological Histories Ep. 1: Nancy D. Campbell on Naloxone

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing on interviews with approximately sixty advocates, drug users, former users, friends, families, witnesses, clinicians, and scientists; Nancy D....

Break on Through: Radical Psychiatry and the American Counterculture

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Break On Through, Lucas Richert explores Anti-psychiatry, psychedelics, and radical challenges to psychiatry and the conventional treatment of men...

High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Author of High Weirdness, Erik Davis discusses psychedelic politics, media paranoia, conspiracy theories, and consensus reality in the time of COVID-...

Mike Jay, "Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind" (Yale UP, 2023)

02 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Jay's Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind (Yale UP, 2023) is a provocative and original history of the scientists and writers...

Nadia Davis, "Home Is Within You: A Memoir of Recovery and Redemption" (Girl Friday Books, 2021)

26 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Home Is Within You As a young Latina and Native American lawyer and former wife of California’s attorney general and treasurer, Nadia Davis has long...

Hernán Flom, "The Informal Regulation of Criminal Markets in Latin America" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Political Scientist Hernán Flom has written a fascinating and nuanced analysis of how the criminal drug markets operate in Argentina and Brazil. Inst...

Clare Griffin, "Mixing Medicines: The Global Drug Trade and Early Modern Russia" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022)

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Clare Griffin's book Mixing Medicines: The Global Drug Trade and Early Modern Russia (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022) introduces the reader to the dynamic...

How Do We Treat Opioid Addiction?

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Parrino has been involved with the delivery of health care and treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) since 1974. As the president of the Ameri...

Judy L. Mandel, "White Flag: A Memoir" (Legacy Book Press, 2022)

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cheryl said many times that "I'm done with that life, I'll never go back to it." But she did. When her Aunt Judy finds her in jail after two years of ...

Elizabeth Kelly Gray, "Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914" (Oxford UP, 2023)

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Habitual drug use in the United States is at least as old as the nation itself. Elizabeth Kelly Gray's book Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America,...

Tricia Starks, "Cigarettes and Soviets: Smoking in the USSR" (Cornell UP, 2022)

11 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Seeing cigarette smoking as a cultural phenomenon of Western modernity is perhaps easier when the test case is outside the US where the narrative is ...

Carlos Alberto Sánchez, "A Sense of Brutality. Philosophy after Narco-Culture" (Amherst College Press, 2020)

06 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Contemporary popular culture is riddled with references to Mexican drug cartels, narcos, and drug trafficking. In the United States, documentary filmm...

Divine Intoxication: A Discussion about Alcoholism, Grace, Sainthood, and Women in the Church

01 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Author Heather King discusses her journey from the alcoholic abyss to redemption and new life (which she described in her book, Parched, 2006), St. Th...

Mikkael A. Sekeres, "Drugs and the FDA: Safety, Efficacy, and the Public's Trust" (MIT Press, 2022)

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How the FDA was shaped by public health crises and patient advocacy, told against a background of the contentious hearings on the breast cancer drug A...

Alejandro Anaya-Muñoz and Barbara Frey, "Mexico's Human Rights Crisis" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2019)

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lawless elements are ascendant in Mexico, as evidenced by the operations of criminal cartels engaged in human and drug trafficking, often with the act...

John Briscoe, "Crush: The Triumph of California Wine" (U Nevada Press, 2018)

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1910, the future of California wine looked dim. Beset by crises ranging from earthquakes to insect infestations, and with momentum moving toward pr...

P. E. Caquet, "Opium's Orphans: The 200-Year History of the War on Drugs" (Reaktion Books, 2022)

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The global war on drugs began some 150 years before US President Richard Nixon launched the current chapter of America’s drug war in 1971. In Opium...

The Psychedelic World of Hollywood Hospital

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Erika Dyck on the book she co-authored with Jesse Donaldson on an unusual chapter in Canada’s me...

NBN Classic: Matt Oram, "The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2018)

02 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode proved remarkably popular, so we're reposting it as an NBN classic for those who missed it the first time. Are we in the midst of a psych...

Mike Jay, "Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic" (Yale UP, 2019)

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Psychedelics are not terribly new. And the drug mescaline is certainly not new. Mike Jay's new book, Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychede...

Keri Blakinger, "Corrections in Ink: A Memoir" (St. Martin's Press, 2022)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Corrections in Ink (St. Martin's Press, 2022) is an electric and unforgettable memoir about a young woman's journey-from the ice rink, to addiction a...

Rick Strassman, "The Psychedelic Handbook: A Practical Guide to Psilocybin, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, and DMT/Ayahuasca" (Ulysses Press, 2022)

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Entering the world of psychedelic drugs can be challenging, and many aren't sure where to start. As research continues to expand and legalization loom...

Sanjiv Chopra, "Coffee the Magical Elixir: Facts That Will Astound and Perk You Up" (Bookbaby, 2021)

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Sanjiv Chopra about his book Coffee the Magical Elixir: Facts That Will Astound and Perk You Up (Bookbaby, 2021) 2.25 billion cup...

Allyson P. Brantley, "Brewing a Boycott: How a Grassroots Coalition Fought Coors and Remade American Consumer Activism" (UNC Press, 2021)

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Before the craft beer revolution, Coors was a hot commodity. Impossible to find outside a few states in the West, the beer had a level of "cool" that ...

The Heroin Clinic

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At Crosstown Clinic, doctors are turning addiction treatment on its head: they’re prescribing heroin-users the very drug they’re addicted to. This...

Jamie Ducharme, "Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul" (Henry Holt, 2021)

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It began with a smoke break. James Monsees and Adam Bowen were two ambitious graduate students at Stanford, and in between puffs after class they drea...

Tara Nurin, "A Woman's Place Is in the Brewhouse: A Forgotten History of Alewives, Brewsters, Witches, and CEOs" (Chicago Review Press, 2021)

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tara Nurin explores women in all aspects of the brewing industry in A Women's Place is in the Brewhouse (Chicago Review Press, 2021). Women have b...

Matthew Clark, "Botanical Ecstasies: Psychoactive Plant Formulas in India and Beyond" (Psychedelic Press, 2021)

07 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Botanical Ecstasies: Psychoactive Plant Formulas in India and Beyond, Dr Matthew Clark proposes that soma/hoama is instead an ayahuasca-like pla...

Legal Regulation of Drugs

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Carl Hart speaks with Kim about America’s punitive drug laws, and how we might change them for the better. He argues that we should legalize and reg...

Anna Sergi et al., "Ports, Crime and Security: Governing and Policing Seaports in a Changing World" (Bristol UP, 2021)

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and the US-China trade dispute have heightened interest in the geopolitics and security of modern ports. Ports are whe...

Robin Goldstein and Daniel Sumner, "Can Legal Weed Win?: The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics" (U California Press, 2022)

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cannabis "legalization" hasn't lived up to the hype. Across North America, investors are reeling, tax collections are below projections, and people ar...

Andrew Bickford, "Chemical Heroes: Pharmacological Supersoldiers in the US Military" (Duke UP, 2021)

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Chemical Heroes: Pharmacological Supersoldiers in the US Military (Duke UP, 2021), Andrew Bickford analyzes the US military's attempts to design...

Timmen Cermak, "Marijuana on My Mind: The Science and Mystique of Cannabis" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Few substances have been researched as extensively, and debated as fiercely, as cannabis. In Marijuana on My Mind: The Science and Mystique of Cannab...

On Addiction and Spirituality

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Grosso is a youth mental health group facilitator with Newport Academy, public speaker, writer, and author of Indie Spiritualist (Beyond Word...

Anthony Hatch, "Silent Cells: The Secret Drugging of Captive America" (U Minnesota Press, 2019)

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s no secret that the United States has the most expansive prison system of any nation in the world. And the US carceral system overwhelmingly and...

Maia Szalavitz, "Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction" (Hachette, 2021)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction (Hachette Go, 2021) tells a long-running, but largely unknown, story o...

The Future of Life Expectancy: A Discussion with Angus Deaton

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, Professor Angus Deaton of Princeton University and his wife Professor Anne Case published a paper highlighting the rising mortality rate amon...

Todd R. Clear and Natasha A. Frost, "The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America" (NYU Press, 2015)

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last 40 years, the US penal system has grown at an unprecedented rate―five times larger than in the past and grossly out of scale with the ...

Carl Erik Fisher, "The Urge: Our History of Addiction" (Penguin, 2022)

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Even after a decades-long opioid overdose crisis, intense controversy still rages over the fundamental nature of addiction and the best way to treat i...

Randall Horton, "Dead Weight: A Memoir in Essays" (Northwestern UP, 2022)

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dead Weight: A Memoir in Essays (Northwestern UP, 2022) chronicles the improbable turnaround of a drug smuggler who, after being sentenced to eight ...

Kile M. Ortigo, "Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide to Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration" (Synergetic Press, 2021)

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kile M. Ortigo's Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide to Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration (Synergetic Press, 2021) addresses major iss...

James McHugh, "An Unholy Brew: Alcohol in Indian Religion and History" (Oxford UP, 2021)

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The first book on alcohol in pre-modern India, James McHugh's An Unholy Brew: Alcohol in Indian Religion and History (Oxford UP, 2021) uses a wide ran...

Carl Erik Fisher, "The Urge: Our History of Addiction" (Penguin, 2022)

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, since 2000, the United States has experienced over 700,000 deaths due to drug overdose. A...

Kenneth Anderson, "Strychnine and Gold: The Untold History of Addiction Treatment in the United States" (2021)

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kenneth Anderson is the author of Strychnine and Gold, a two-volume history of the “untold story of addiction treatment in the United States.” An...

Keith Wailoo, "Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Police put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold for selling cigarettes on a New York City street corner. George Floyd was killed by police outside a store...

Amy C. Sullivan, "Opioid Reckoning: Love, Loss, and Redemption in the Rehab State" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Amy C. Sullivan explores the complexity of America’s opioid epidemic through firsthand accounts of people grappling with the reverberating effects o...

Diana S. Kim, "Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition Across Southeast Asia" (Princeton UP, 2020)

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition across Southeast Asia (Princeton University Press, 2020) Diana Kim situates the regulation of vi...

Alison Ritter, "Drug Policy" (Routledge, 2021)

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Taking a multidisciplinary perspective (including public health, sociology, criminology, and political science amongst others), and using examples fro...

Mark Lawrence Schrad, "Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition" (Oxford UP, 2021)

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition (Oxford UP, 2021) is a unique retelling of the history of temperance and prohibition. Ra...

David Herzberg, "White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The contemporary opioid crisis is widely seen as new and unprecedented. Not so. It is merely the latest in a long series of drug crises stretching bac...

Craig W. Stevens, "The Drug Expert: A Practical Guide to the Impact of Drug Use in Legal Proceedings" (Academic Press, 2020)

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Craig W. Stevens' book The Drug Expert: A Practical Guide to the Impact of Drug Use in Legal Proceedings (Academic Press, 2021) targets academic and...

Scott Cunningham, "Causal Inference: The Mixtape" (Yale UP, 2021)

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Just about everyone knows correlation does not equal causation, and probably that a randomized controlled experiment is the best way to solve that pro...

Adam Lehrer, "Communions" (Hyperidean Press, 2021)

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

[This episode contains explicit content.] Artists from Kurt Cobain to Amy Winehouse command fascination not only for their work but also for their dru...

Edward Slingerland, "Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization" (Hachette, 2021)

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ever since Noah exited the ark, human beings have been wanting to get drunk and high. Why? Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civil...

Jonathan Morris, "Coffee: A Global History" (Reaktion Books, 2018)

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Coffee: A Global History (Reaktion Books, 2019), Jonathan Morris discusses the diverse cast of caffeinated characters who drank coffee, why and w...

Kant Patel and Mark E. Rushefsky, "The Opioid Epidemic in the United States: Missed Opportunities and Policy Failures" (Routledge, 2021)

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The current opioid epidemic in the United States began in the mid-1990s with the introduction of a new drug, OxyContin, viewed as a safer and more eff...

Kevin A. Sabet, "Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn't Want You to Know" (Forefront Books, 2021)

13 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Called the “quarterback of the new anti-drug movement,” Kevin Sabet received his Ph.D. in social policy from the University of Oxford and has wo...

Teun Voeten, "Mexican Drug Violence: Hybrid Warfare, Predatory Capitalism and the Logic of Cruelty" (2020)

08 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With an estimated 250,000 people killed in 15 years, the Mexican drug war is the most violent conflict in the Western world. It shows no sign of abati...

Aleksandra Bartoszko, "Treating Heroin Addiction in Norway: The Pharmaceutical Other" (Routledge, 2021)

20 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Focusing on the world of Norwegian Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) in the aftermath of significant reforms, Aleksandra Bartoszko's book Treating...

Noah Hurowitz, "El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord" (Atria Books, 2021)

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"El Chapo. The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord" (Atria Books, 2021) is a stunning investigation of the life and legend of Mexican ...

Benjamin T. Smith, "The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade" (W. W. Norton, 2021)

06 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For over a century Mexico has been embroiled in a drug war dictated by the demands of their neighbor to the north. In The Dope: The Real History of t...

Sarah Hepola on Drinking in a "Dry" Texas County

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Cover Story, a podcast by New Books Network devoted to long form journalism. Today, we are talking to Texas-based writer Sarah Hepola. Hepo...

Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández, "Narratives of Vulnerability in Mexico's War on Drugs" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020)

14 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández's book Narratives of Vulnerability in Mexico's War on Drugs (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) explores the current human rig...

Rod Phillips, "French Wine: A History" (U California Press, 2016)

08 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today on New Books in History, Rod Phillips, Professor of History at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, talks about his book, French Wine: A Hist...

Stephen V. Bittner, "Whites and Reds: A History of Wine in the Lands of Tsar and Commissar" (Oxford UP, 2021)

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Whites and Reds: A History of Wine in the Lands of Tsar and Commissar (Oxford UP, 2021) tells the story of Russia's encounter with viniculture and w...

Javier Guerrero C., "Narcosubmarines: Outlaw Innovation and Maritime Interdiction in the War on Drugs" (Palgrave, 2020)

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Javier Guerrero's "Narcosubmarines: Outlaw Innovation and Maritime Interdiction in the War on Drugs" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) is about the encounter...

Edward B. Westermann, "Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany" (Cornell UP, 2021)

10 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The title of Edward Westermann's new book, Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany (Cornell University Press, published in associ...

Giulia Zampini on Researching Drug Taking

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Giulia Zampini about her research into drug taking, and particularly about the "People and Dancefloors" project. Based on a par...

Iván Monalisa Ojeda, "Las Biuty Queens: Stories" (Astra House, 2021)

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing from his/her own experience as a trans performer, sex worker, and undocumented immigrant, Iván Monalisa Ojeda chronicles the lives of Latinx ...

Anita Hardon, "Chemical Youth: Navigating Uncertainty in Search of the Good Life" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020)

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Anita Hardon's Chemical Youth: Navigating Uncertainty in Search of the Good Life (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) explores how young people engage with c...

Michael Rosino, "Debating the Drug War: Race, Politics, and Media in the War on Drugs Debate" (Routledge, 2021)

09 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Since President Nixon coined the phrase, the "War on Drugs" has presented an important change in how people view and discuss criminal justice practice...

Dennis McDougal, "Operation White Rabbit: LSD, the DEA, and the Fate of the Acid King" (Simon and Schuster, 2020)

07 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Operation White Rabbit: LSD, the DEA, and the Fate of the Acid King (Simon and Schuster, 2020) traces the rise and fall—and rise and fall again—...

Stephen Snelders, "Drug Smuggler Nation: Narcotics and the Netherlands, 1920-95" (Manchester UP, 2021)

31 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why did the international drug regulatory regime of the twentieth century fail to stop an explosive increase in trade and consumption of illegal drugs...

Mack P. Holt, "The Politics of Wine in Early Modern France: Religion and Popular Culture in Burgundy, 1477-1630" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

25 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Todays’ guest is Mack P. Holt, Professor Emeritus of History at George Mason University in Virginia, talking about his recent book, The Politics o...

Dying from Despair in the USA: A Discussion with Anne Case

15 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row—a reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in m...

Kenneth V. Faunce, "Heavy Traffic: The Global Drug Trade in Historical Perspective" (Oxford UP, 2020)

17 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Much of the world's politics revolve around questions about the development of the international market for drugs; the roles merchants, government off...

Haggai Ram, "Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel" (Stanford UP, 2020)

13 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: ...

Nicholas Bartlett, "Recovering Histories: Life and Labor after Heroin in Reform-Era China" (U California Press, 2020)

08 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Heroin first reached Gejiu, a Chinese city in southern Yunnan known as Tin Capital, in the 1980s. Widespread use of the drug, which for a short period...

Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter, "Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade" (Columbia UP, 2013)

23 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970s surfing and smoking pot went hand in hand. As surfers traveled the world in search of perfect waves in places like Bali, Indonesia, some ...

Nancy D. Campbell, "OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose" (MIT Press, 2020)

03 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Reducing harm or shrinking the likelihood of accidental death are remarkably contentions projects—in areas from sex education, to pandemic managemen...

Ido Hartogsohn, "American Trip: Set, Setting, and the Psychedelic Experience in the Twentieth Century" (MIT Press, 2020)

13 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Are psychedelics invaluable therapeutic medicines, or dangerously unpredictable drugs that precipitate psychosis? Tools for spiritual communion or cog...

Chas Smith, "Cocaine and Surfing: A Sordid History of Surfing’s Greatest Love Affair" (Rare Bird, 2018)

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Surfers are the ultimate bad boys, living the counter-culture life of decadence and hedonism as they travel the world in search of the perfect wave, p...

M. Newhart and W. Dolphin, "The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience" (Routledge, 2018)

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Medical marijuana laws have spread across the U.S. to all but a handful of states. Yet, eighty years of social stigma and federal prohibition creates...

Sara Luna, "Love in the Drug War: Selling Sex and Finding Jesus on the Mexico-US Border" (U Texas Press, 2020)

23 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sex, drugs, religion, and love are potent combinations in la zona, a regulated prostitution zone in the city of Reynosa, across the border from Hidal...

Jennifer J. Carroll, "Narkomania: Drugs, HIV, and Citizenship in Ukraine" (Cornell UP, 2019)

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Against the backdrop of a post-Soviet state set aflame by geopolitical conflict and violent revolution, Narkomania: Drugs, HIV, and Citizenship in Ukr...

Carly Israel, "Seconds and Inches" (Jaded Ibis Press, 2020)

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today I interview Carly Israel about her bold new memoir, Seconds and Inches (Jaded Ibis Press). In the opening sentence of her introduction, Israel w...

Linville Meadows, "A Spiritual Pathway to Recovery from Addiction: A Physician’s Journey of Discovery" (The Meadows Farm, 2020)

23 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Addiction occurs among physicians at the same rate as in the general population, about 10%. Unlike the general population, however, an intensive rehab...

Joseph E. Davis, "Chemically Imbalanced: Everyday Suffering, Medication, and Our Troubled Quest for Self-Mastery" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

18 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Everyday suffering—those conditions or feelings brought on by trying circumstances that arise in everyone’s lives—is something that humans have ...

Danielle Giffort, "Acid Revival: The Psychedelic Renaissance and the Quest for Medical Legitimacy" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)

11 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Psychedelic drugs are making a comeback. In the mid-twentieth century, scientists actively studied the potential of drugs like LSD and psilocybin for ...

Lesly-Marie Buer, "RX Appalachia: Stories of Treatment and Survival in Rural Kentucky" (Haymarket, 2020)

03 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Using the narratives of women who use(d) drugs, this account challenges popular understandings of Appalachia spread by such pundits as JD Vance by doc...

He Bian, "Know Your Remedies: Pharmacy and Culture in Early Modern China" (Princeton UP, 2020)

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

He Bian’s new book Know Your Remedies: Pharmacy and Culture in Early Modern China (Princeton University Press, 2020) is a beautiful cultural histor...

Thomas John Lappas, "In League Against King Alcohol" (U Oklahoma Press, 2020)

10 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Many Americans are familiar with the real, but repeatedly stereotyped problem of alcohol abuse in Indian country. Most know about the Prohibition Era ...

Casey Schwartz, "Attention: A Love Story" (Pantheon, 2020)

04 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Combining expert storytelling with genuine self-scrutiny, Casey Schwartz details the decade she spend taking Adderall to help her pay attention (or so...

Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020)

02 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for S...

Chris Fleming, "On Drugs" (Giramondo Publishing, 2019)

14 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"After I’d finished my rapid-fire history of self-justification he paused and then said, deadpan and rural-Australian-slow: 'Right. Ok. So how is th...

B. Earp and J. Savulescu, "Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships" (Stanford UP, 2020) )

11 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Consider a couple with an infant (or two) whose lives have become so harried and difficult the marriage is falling apart. Would it be ethical for them...

Laurence Monnais, "The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals: Medicines and Modernity in Vietnam" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

04 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Situated at the crossroads between the history of colonialism, of modern Southeast Asia, and of medical pluralism, this history of medicine and health...