In the early to mid nineties, I joined a comic book writers group. One of the scripts that I wrote as part of this was The Cartoon Guide to Recreational Drugs, a comic book about the general prohibition of drugs. The first issue was about the history of prohibition.
These were notes I took while researching that book. Where possible, I provide a link to purchase through my association with Amazon.Com. You would certainly want to follow these up before using them: I read the whole book, so I know how much I would trust the information. You haven’t, so you’ll want to follow-up and check for yourself.
Besides helping me write the comic book, these books have also been used as sources for the rest of this web site.
- Altered States of Consciousness
- No book about altered states in the late sixties/early seventies could avoid the political implications of their work, and Charles T. Tart addresses those issues, though he appears happier investigating the literature on them and their similarities to other altered states.
- American Indian Myths and Legends
- Tobacco and peyote were ritual drugs for tribes that had access to them. Their legends tell of the discovery of rites that made the drugs more useful for insight and medicine.
- Animal Play Behavior
- Robert Fagen’s work is a fascinating survey of anecdotes and studies regarding the desire for animals to alter their consciousness.
- Beliefs, Behaviors, & Alcoholic Beverages
- Subtitled “A Cross-Cultural Survey”, Mac Marshall (University of Michigan, 1979 ) collects essays on the use of alcohol in cultures throughout the world. Perhaps surprisingly, even the intoxicating effects of alcohol appear to be more a matter of psychology than of actual physiological changes.
- Beyond the War on Drugs: Overcoming a Failed Public Policy
- Steven Wisotsky’s 1990 book is subtitled “Breaking the Impasse in the War on Drugs”. It comes with an introduction by Thomas Szasz and in many ways is a repeat of so many books that have come before, chronicling the failures of the war on drugs but it also quantifies the “successes”: how the war on drugs energizes crime and corruption. “The law can imprison a black marketeer, but not the market itself.”
- The Cartoon Guide to Recreational Drugs (213.7 KB)
- The Birds and the Bees do it, Pigs and Porcupines do it. But evidence suggests that humans are champion drug users. We are born with a natural urge to alter our consciousness. Children spin until they drop for the same reason that their parents drink alcohol. Nature requires it.
- Ceremonial Chemistry
- Thomas Szasz subtitled this “The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers”. It’s a brilliant piece of work drawing on history from as far back as the witch trials and persecution of Jews. His thesis is that mankind requires scapegoats on a ritual scale. While hardly a ground-breaking idea, the depth of his examination is.
- Cocaine: A Drug and Its Social Evolution
- Lester Grinspoon & James B. Bakalar have written a fascinating book about the history of cocaine use, mostly in the United States.
- Cocaine: Its History, Uses and Effects
- Richard Ashely surveys the history of cocaine use, from popes to Freud, and up to the consolidation of the coke business into organized crime in the seventies.
- Coffee and Coffeehouses
- Ralph S. Hattox’s book is subtitled “The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East”. He summarizes the history of coffee’s rise in the Near East, and its growth as a social facilitator much like alcohol elsewhere, with cafés replacing the function of bars.
- The Compleat Psilocybin Mushroom Cultivator’s Bible
- Psilocin and psilocybin are among the most potent naturally-occuring psychoactive substances and the least toxic.
- The Crisis in Drug Prohibition
- David Boaz edits this collection of reasons for ending modern prohibition.
- Dealing With Drugs: Consequences of Government Control
- Ronald Hamowy edits this collection of articles about the consequences of prohibition on crime levels, racism, and corruption. Arnold S. Trebach describes U.S. drug policy in terms familiar to anyone who has read Animal Farm.
- Drinking in America: A History
- Mark Edward Lender & James Kirby Martin. The Free Press, New York, 1982. Seems almost pro-prohibition, and definitely pro-temperance, possibly even pro-legal-system-controlled temperance.
- Drinking: Behavior and Belief in Modern History
- Susanna Barrows and Robin Room edit this 1991 collection of articles on the history of drinking in modern culture.
- Drugs and Drug Abuse
- James Cassens wrote this for “The Christian Encounters” series. Some interesting information culled from a variety of sources.
- Drugs From A to Z
- Richard R. Lingeman compiles a summary of recreational drug terms and slang, and includes some interesting if anecdotal histories and other information.
- Drugs in American Society
- Erich Goode writes about how American Society deals with drugs; it is very much a matter of redefining reality. When we realized that recreational drugs such as marijuana were “non-addicting” we couldn’t handle saying so. Thus, we began using a new term for “things people like to do”: dependance.
- Drugs, Society and Behavior 87/88
- William B. Rucker and Marian E. Rucker have collected a range of articles, essays, and even a satire or two, that shed light on our society’s multiple-personality-like treatment of various drugs.
- Etymologies of Drug Words
- Etymologies (Dictionary of Word Origins, Origins, Webster’s Ninth)
- The Facts About Drug Abuse
- From the Drug Abuse Council in 1980, this collection of reports attempts a “credible, coherent, and verifiable” entry into the debate about prohibition.
- From Chocolate to Morphine
- “Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs”, Andrew Weil & Winifred Rosen’s high-school level text dealing with recreational and mind-altering drugs is a fascinating and useful book to keep on hand.
- The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition
- By Herbert Asbury, this “informal history” of alcohol prohibition is as good an argument against the prohibition of recreational drugs as any written.
- Growing Wild Mushrooms
- Bob Harris’s “Complete Guide to Cultivating Edible and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms” seems to be very step-by-step, and comes with good color pictures.
- Hallucinogenic Drugs
- F. Christine Brown, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Research Associate in Psychiatry. Publication #825 American Lecture Series, American Lectures in Living Chemistry (Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1972).
- A History of Alcoholism
- Jean-Charles Sournia’s book contains the immortal (in my pages, anyway) quote, “It would seem that if alcohol is a vice, then virtue is unattractive, and if drinking is a malady, then good health alone is not enough to satisfy man.”
- Intemperance: The Lost War Against Liquor
- Larry Englemann’s Intemperance is a great history of prohibition. The bumper sticker “Don’t shoot, I’m not a bootlegger” could just as well be transported to homes today for overeager, paranoid police: “Don’t shoot, I’m not a drug dealer.” Companies such as Ford fired people based on their opposition to prohibition. And people claim heaven if we just step up enforcement.
- Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise
- Ronald K. Siegal hypothesizes that, along with sex, food, and sleep, that intoxication is a basic, natural need in humans. He makes a strong case that recreational drug use is not just something that people like to do, it is something that humans require to survive.
- Licit & Illicit Drugs
- Edward M. Brecher and the Editors of Consumers Reports. The full title is “The Consumers Union Report on Narcotics, Stimulants, Depressants, Inhalants, Hallucinogens & Marijuana—including Caffeine, Nicotine, and Alcohol”.
- Marihuana, The First Twelve Thousand Years
- Ernest L. Abel has written a fascinating, if sometimes apocryphal, history of marijuana, gleaned from the archaeological record, myth, and written history.
- Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding
- Raymond P. Shafer, chaired. the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. They submitted their official report to Congress on March 22, 1972. Whereupon, like most official inquiries that were given the freedom to investigate, it was completely ignored: it recommended lightening or outright removing sentences for marijuana use.
- Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine
- Lester Grinspoon & James B. Bakalar write a fascinating combination of medical history and survey on the medical uses of marijuana. The descriptions by patients, especially cancer and glaucoma patients, of what happens when they lose access to marijuana are heart-breaking.
- Marijuana: The New Prohibition
- John Kaplan, an internationally recognized expert on drug-abuse, “analyzes the medical and social evidence on America’s third most widely-used drug and discusses the case for legalization.”
- The Marriage of the Sun and Moon
- Andrew Weil’s Marriage of the Sun and Moon is a fascinating, if extra-ordinarily non-rigorous, journey through contrasts and consciousness. Andrew Weil.
- The Natural Mind
- Andrew Weil’s Natural Mind is mostly about the mind’s apparently amazing ability to trigger healing in the body, and that’s a fascinating topic in itself. Among these, he also discusses some of the bad research on LSD and the “damage” it purportedly causes in the laboratory.
- The New Larousse Gastronomique
- Prosper Montagné’s cookbook is the foundation of many a kitchen; but there are a few recipes that you aren’t going to be able to master without risking prison time. It’s fascinating that at one point ingredients such as cocaine were unremarkable fare for dessert.
- Opiologia
- Written by Angelo Sala and translated by Tho. Bretner, M.M., 1618, London.
- The Opium Problem
- Charles E. Terry and Mildred Pellens. This was originally published in 1928 by the Bureau of Social Hygiene, Inc. shortly after opium became illegal (1914). Before Harrison, most addicts used under the supervision of their physician; after Harrison, most addicts used under the supervision of other addicts. The law appeared to have no effect on the number of addicts, except perhaps to increase them.
- Our Right to Drugs
- What is it about drugs that make us more scared about them than chainsaws, bleach, and gasoline? Thomas Szasz writes, with a historical and psychiatric perspective, about what can produce a holy utopia where parents will send their children to prison, and children their parents.
- The Praises and Prejudices of Wine
- Bruce S. Lane’s quotes provide a fascinating collection of historical, religious, and literary quotes about the wonders of wine. However, I’m not sure how trustworthy they are. I’d double check before using any of these.
- A Primer of Drug Action
- Robert M. Julien’s reference guide is both comprehensive and accessible, and continually updated. There’s not much here as far as history is concerned but it’s a treasure trove of information about drug effects.
- Psilocybin Cultivation
- F. C. Gould’s cultivation book covers quite a bit of ground. Gould makes the interesting observation that black market forces result in the more powerful LSD being much more popular than psilocin.
- Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide
- O. T. Oss & O. N. Oeric have written an easy-to-follow book on growing psilocybin mushrooms. Some of the description is a bit rich, however, though that befits a guide to growing shrooms.
- The Role Of Ethanol Abuse In The Etiology Of Heroin-Related Deaths
- A. J. Ruttenber, H. D. Kalter, and P. Santinga write in the Journal of Forensic Sciences Vol 35, No. 4, July 1990, pp 891-900.
- The Straight Dope
- Answers to the Questions that Torment Everyone. Cecil Adams.
- The Timetables of History
- Bernard Grun’s book is a massive outline of historical events; it provides little detail, but is invaluable for deciding what details might be interesting to research.
- Tobacco and Shamanism in South America
- Johannes Wilbert summarizes methods of tobacco use in South America, European perception of tobacco use in South America, and likely actual use, from historical documents and modern ethnography.
- Toward a Sane National Drug Policy
- Rolling Stone tackles the drug issue with an article by Ethan Nadelmann and Jann S. Wenner in Rolling Stone, May 5, 1994.
- Uses of Marijuana
- Solomon H. Snyder writes about the history of marijuana use, with an emphasis on medical use and mostly from the 1800s up. One of the interesting points he makes is that the hypodermic needle was part of what reduced interest in marijuana as a medicine. Marijuana isn’t soluble in water, and thus isn’t injectable. A drug that can’t be injected is of less interest to doctors more and more interested in miracle drugs.
Related Pages
- Congressional Drug Test
- Drug Information
- Drug Sellers On the Net!
- Drugs Around the World
- Notes on Prohibition
- Altered States of Consciousness
- American Indian Legends
- Animal Play Behavior
- Beliefs & Alcohol
- Beyond the War on Drugs
- Ceremonial Chemistry
- Cocaine: A Drug and Its Social Evolution
- Cocaine: Its History, Uses and Effects
- Coffee and Coffeehouses
- The Crisis in Drug Prohibition
- Dealing With Drugs
- Drinking in America: A History
- Drinking in Modern History
- Drugs and Drug Abuse
- Drugs From A to Z
- Drugs in American Society
- Drugs, Society and Behavior 87/88
- Ethanol and Heroin
- Etymologies of Drug Words
- The Facts About Drug Abuse
- The Forbidden Medicine
- From Chocolate to Morphine
- The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition
- Growing Wild Mushrooms
- Hallucinogenic Drugs
- A History of Alcoholism
- In Pursuit of Paradise
- Intemperance
- Licit & Illicit Drugs
- Magic Mushroom Guide
- Marihuana: 12,000 Years
- Marijuana: The New Prohibition
- The Marriage of the Sun and Moon
- The Natural Mind
- The New Larousse Gastronomique
- Opiologia
- The Opium Problem
- Our Right to Drugs
- Praises of Wine
- A Primer of Drug Action
- Psilocybin Bible
- Psilocybin Cultivation
- Sane National Drug Policy
- Signal of Misunderstanding
- The Straight Dope
- The Timetables of History
- Tobacco and Shamanism
- Uses of Marijuana
- Pocket Drug Guide
- Prohibition Reading
- Robert Randall 1948-2001
- Using (Recreational) Drugs
