What drives the drug trade, and how has it come to be what it is today? A global history of the acquisition of progressively more potent means of altering ordinary waking consciousness, this book is the first to provide the big picture of the discovery, interchange, and exploitation of the planet's psychoactive resources, from tea and kola to opiates and amphetamines.
Author(s): David T. Courtwright
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 289
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I - THE CONFLUENCE OF PSYCHOACTIVE RESOURCES
Chapter 1 - THE BIG THREE: ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, AND CAFFEINE
Wine
Spirits
Tobacco
Caffeinated Beverages and Foods
Sugar in the Psychoactive Revolution
Chapter 2 - THE LITTLE THREE: OPIUM, CANNABIS, AND COCA
Opium
Saint Morphine
The Ganja Complex
The Marijuana Complex
Coca and Cocaine
Chapter 3 - THE PUZZLE OF DISTRIBUTION
The European Distribution Engine
New World Hallucinogens—and Old
The Future of Regional Plant Drugs
Environmental Consequences
The Geographic Continuum of Drug Use
PART II - DRUGS AND COMMERCE
Chapter 4 - THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICES
An Hearbe of Great Estimation
A Most Excellent Thing
Amphetamine Democracies
The Medical Dilemma
Chapter 5 - A TRAP BAITED WITH PLEASURE
The Evolutionary Paradox
Why Exposure Matters
Addiction, Tolerance, and Demand
Intercourse and Enterprise
Problem Profits
Chapter 6 - ESCAPE FROM COMMODITY HELL
Making People Disappear
The Mustard Seed
A Stroll Down Madison Avenue
Carry on Smoking
McWorld
PART III - DRUGS AND POWER
Chapter 7 - OPIATES OF THE PEOPLE
The Labor Treadmill
Animals and Armies
Drugs and Prostitution
Barter and Slaves
Chapter 8 - TAXES AND SMUGGLING
The Varieties of Taxation
Tax Addiction
The High-Low Problem
How High Is Too High?
Chapter 9 - ABOUT-FACE: RESTRICTION AND PROHIBITION
Objections to Nonmedical Drug Use
Drugs in an Industrial World
The Medical Indictment
China: Nationalists and Internationalists
Chapter 10 - LICIT AND ILLICIT DRUGS
The Harmfulness of Licit Drugs
Drug Realpolitik
Follow the Leaders
Popular Resistance: The Case of the Soviet Union
Illicit Drugs: The Politics of De-escalation
Licit Drugs: The Politics of Escalation
Bibliographic Note
Abbreviations
Notes
Illustration Credits
Index
