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Recent Reviews
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Addiction: A Disorder of Choice
by Gene M. Heyman
Publisher:
Harvard University Press 
Year:
2009 
Reviewed by Gary Greenburg
7/28/2009

Drawing from behavioural economics, Heyman shows how the failure to sacrifice short-term gains (getting high) for long-term gains (sobriety-aided productivity) is endemic to a consumer culture, and how important a person’s social context is to reining in the penchant for pleasure. This, he argues, explains the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous: it re-socialises addicts, giving them a reason to make the harder choice. Heyman implies that social institutions, particularly those that can guide by example and incentive rather than by precept, are crucial to preventing and “treating” addiction. [ read more ]

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Widespread Zombification in the 21st Century and the Wars of the Zombie Masters: Drugs: For Kids and the Occasional Interested Parent
by Brian Johnson, MD
Publisher:
Gegensatz Press 
Year:
2009 
Reviewed by Earth Erowid
7/27/2009

Beyond the unsuccessful humorous Zombie premise, factual problems throughout demonstrate a lack of expertise on the topics at hand. While some errors of fact will creep into any work, it seems clear that Johnson did not have a qualified fact-checker edit his writing before publishing it. In addition to errors of fact, what cements this book as unsafe for children is when the author tells some young readers that their parents “don’t really love [them]”. Despite a few positive messages and possibly useful anti-drug content, this book is unsuitable for children until it is re-written. [ read more ]

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Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World's Most Troubled Drug Culture
by Richard DeGrandpre
Publisher:
Duke University Press 
Year:
2006 
Reviewed by S Thyssen
7/10/2009

An examination of America’s legacy of vilifying some substances and deifying others. In an exhaustive series of well-referenced examples, the author updates the concept, discussing recent developments such as congressional hearings on tobacco and the troubling state of the antidepressant industry. He explores how the reputation of a drug, as well as its effects, are often heavily dependent on contextual factors distinct from its pharmacological action. [ read more ]

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On Drugs
by David Lenson
Publisher:
University of Minnesota Press 
Year:
1995 
Reviewed by S Thyssen
7/10/2009

Fourteen years after its publication, On Drugs still feels fresh in its call to move beyond divisive posturing and verbal constructions that quell discourse on one of the most significant questions we should be asking: how do drug-taking behaviors reflect and shape personal and societal consciousness? An intellectually invigorating yet down-to-earth pharmacography.
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Tastes of Paradise: a Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants
by Wolfgang Schivelbusch
Publisher:
Vintage Books 
Year:
1992 
Reviewed by S Thyssen
7/10/2009

Tastes of Paradise offers refreshingly succinct social analyses of the roles that spices, coffee, tea, chocolate, tobacco, and alcohol have played in Western culture, and complements longer works that cover similar territory, such as Dale Pendell’s Pharmako~ trilogy. [ read more ]

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Back from the Void
by Zoe7
Publisher:
Z Media 
Year:
2005 
Reviewed by David Arnson
7/10/2009

Author Zoe Seven’s magnum opus on contacting spirit forces, conspiracy theories, and working in Brazil with his plant allies, ayahuasca and Salvia divinorum. [ read more ]