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Recent Reviews
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Krishna In The Sky With Diamonds: The Bhagavad Gita as Psychedelic Guide
by Scott Teitsworth
Publisher:
Park Street Press 
Year:
2012 
Reviewed by David Arnson
6/20/2012

Krishna In The Sky With Diamonds concentrates on a 55-verse section of the ancient Indian text “The Mahabharata” (chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita), a fascinating sequence that can be read on its own merits, or, as the author meticulously lays it out, as a parallel to an intense psychedelic experience. Teitsworth clearly knows his subject, and ties in his own past psychedelic experiences with insight and honesty. Also woven into the comments are quotes and references from other sources. [ read more ]

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Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture
by Robin Sylvan
Publisher:
Routledge 
Year:
2005 
Reviewed by David Bey
6/19/2012

Sylvan’s aim is to posit the power of rave culture as being globally transformative; however, he seems to think that the mere experience of universal connection is sufficient so far as positive political action goes. Missing also is the critique of rave culture as merely being part of what Herbert Marcuse called repressive desublimation: the blowing off of steam that serves in the long run to cement social norms. In the end, anyone in contemporary culture believing that the best way to enrich your soul is to lose your mind, and that the best means for doing that is through the exuberance of the body, is going to be fighting an uphill battle for legitimacy. In the struggle to honor and dignify this style of worship, Trance Formation is a solid resource. [ read more ]

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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander
Publisher:
The New Press 
Year:
2010 
Reviewed by Jonathan Taylor
5/30/2012

...a major work that definitively documents the racism inherent in the domestic application of the United States’ war on drugs. The historical comparison to the Jim Crow era of entrenched legal discrimination and the contemporary evidence of structural racism in all things police and prison-related are incontrovertible… [ read more ]

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To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War
by John Gibler
Publisher:
City Lights Publishers 
Year:
2011 
Reviewed by Jonathan Taylor
4/17/2012

Americans seem to pay little attention to the ongoing “drug war” in Mexico in which some 65,000+ people have died. The prevailing assumption is that this is either a turf war between rival cartels, or a war between the forces of the state (primarily the Mexican drug police and the military) and the traffickers. John Gibler’s To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War offers a competing explanation. [ read more ]

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The Amphetamine Debate: The Use of Adderall, Ritalin and Related Drugs for Behavior Modification, Neuroenhancement and Anti-Aging Purposes
by Elaine A. Moore
Publisher:
McFarland & Company, Inc. 
Year:
2011 
Reviewed by David Bey
3/12/2012

If the aim of Moore’s book is to “cover both sides of the debate over amphetamine prescription and use” then her work is, to put it mildly, an embarrassing failure. The book is unabashedly in favor of stimulant drug use, going so far as to dismiss the better part of those problems associated with said stimulants as being largely the result of insufficient legal access to speed, owing to pesky government restrictions. [...] If, however, the goal of The Amphetamine Debate is to provide aid, comfort, and what is essentially a resource guide for anyone wishing for greater legal access to stimulant medications––a resource guide camouflaged in a stupefyingly shallow way as a seriously researched impartial exploration of a difficult issue––than, for what’s it’s worth, I suppose the book is probably a success. However, woe betide anyone looking for a genuine engagement with the debate alluded to on the book’s cover. [ read more ]

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The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys
by James Fadiman, PhD
Publisher:
Park Street Press 
Year:
2011 
Reviewed by Craig K. Comstock
2/24/2012

Fadiman’s book tells several stories, all deeply engaging. The first is practical advice about how to set up and run an optimal session. (His own first “trip” was guided by Richard Alpert, who later became Ram Dass; and among the people Fadiman has guided is Stewart Brand, who started the Whole Earth Catalog.) While not advising anyone to take drugs, Fadiman has helped people who have decided to ingest these substances to have the best possible experience. [ read more ]

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Enter the Void
by Gaspar Noé (Director)
Publisher:
IFC Films 
Year:
2010 
Reviewed by Jon Hanna
2/21/2012

If the folks from The Partnership at Drugfree.org need any fuel to feed the ideals of their non-profit organization’s media-driven attempt at persuading America’s youth to eschew drugs, they could sponsor showings of Enter the Void. Children might learn that creative inspiration produced via the confluence of psychedelics and Eastern spiritual philosophies leads to self-indulgent, tiresome filmmaking. THIS is what results from smoking DMT, kids!
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O Uso Ritual das Plantas de Poder [The Ritual Use of Plants of Power]
by Beatriz Labate & Sandra Goulart (Eds.)
Publisher:
Editora Mercado de Letras 
Year:
2005 
Reviewed by Renato Sztutman
2/20/2012

If Western, Christian and modern society is marked by the strong stigma of drugs and their users, other experiences, in other times and cultures, may show a quite different scenario, for example, of the religious use and the positive associations of altered states of consciousness. This is the subject of the articles in The Ritual Use of Plants of Power. [ read more ]

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Álcool e drogas na história do Brasil [Alcohol and Drugs in the History of Brazil]
by Renato Pinto Venancio & Henrique Carneiro (Eds.)
Publisher:
Alameda Casa Editorial / Ed. PUC Minas 
Year:
2005 
Reviewed by Renato Sztutman
2/20/2012

The distinctions between drugs and food, vice and necessity, and medicine and poison may be found in history. The articles in Alcohol and Drugs in the History of Brazil show, for example, that modern mercantilism has favored the commerce of certain substances such as wine and tobacco, suppressing the use of others, which began to be associated with addiction and marginality and have been regarded as harmful to health. [ read more ]

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The Chemical Carousel: What Science Tells Us About Beating Addiction
by Dirk Hanson
Publisher:
Booksurge 
Year:
2008 
Reviewed by Jonathan Taylor
1/19/2012

Hanson paints a complex picture that includes findings from hundreds if not thousands of research studies. The heart of the book is a dissection of the effects of various commonly used psychoactive substances on the brain, and a discussion of possible treatment options, including newer pharmaceuticals compounds, that attempt to stem cravings and thus prevent the ubiquitous condition known as relapse. Hanson devotes three long chapters to discussing pharmacological agents used to treat substance abuse, addiction, and craving. Many new drugs either just coming on the market or not yet on the market are discussed. This detailed generalist account is probably the most comprehensive single work on the topic for the lay reader. [ read more ]