Negative Space: drugs
- Animal Play Behavior
- Robert Fagen’s work is a fascinating survey of anecdotes and studies regarding the desire for animals to alter their consciousness.
- 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.
- Common Recreational Drugs
- Alcohol, amphetamines, caffeine, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, ketamine, LSD, marijuana, mescaline, mushrooms, nitrous oxide, nightshades, tobacco.
- Dictionary of Word Origins
- John Ayto’s “History of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words” is a fascinating read, including a bit of history within the etymologies.
- Drug Abuse in Industry
- What does it cost and what can be done? Robert E. Hosty and Francis J. Elliott, Security Management, Vol. 29, No. 10, October 1985, pp. 53, 55-58.
- Drug Information
- Links to web sites with useful information about recreational drugs, especially caffeine and cannabis.
- Drug information archive
- Technical and other information on recreational drugs.
- Drug Sellers On the Net!
- Where to buy drugs on the Internet. Mostly legal drugs, such as coffee and tea, as well as information about drugs, and legal things made from illegal drugs, such as hemp.
- Drug Terminology
- Pocket Guide to Recreational Drugs: common terminology of drugs and drug use.
- Drug-Law Enforcement Efforts
- John R. Pekkanen summarizes enforcement efforts—and their general failure—up to New York in 1970-73.
- Drugs and Behavior
- From animals to humans, everyone in nature seems to want to do drugs, and left alone they seem to do it in moderation. Only humans create laws encouraging more dangerous and more concentrated drugs.
- 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 in Perspective
- From “What It Was Like to be Sick in 1884” to journalists jonesing for a drug-crisis fix, these articles try to put illegal drug effects in perspective compared to legal drug effects and other legal things that we do, such as drive cars.
- 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.
- The Federal Government’s Response to Illicit Drugs, 1969-1978
- Peter Goldberg summarizes some of the history of federal laws creating illegal drugs; among the federal actions is the Prettyman Commission, yet another commissioned study that discovered, surprise!, illegal drugs aren’t worth the pain and depredation that the laws against them cause. As usual, its recommendations were ignored.
- Foreward
- I. Newton Kugelmass, M.D., Ph.D., Sc.D., editor, writes the introduction with some fairly major editorializing.
- Foreword
- The policy conclusions and recommendations were judged with the same bias as the results of the Royal Opium Commission.
- 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.
- History of prohibition archive
- A history of food and drug laws, some ceremonial chemistry and good old Coca Cola.
- If you support keeping drugs illegal…
- If you support prohibition, you support robbery, assault, higher taxes, and rape.
- Influence of Public Understanding
- Peter Goldberg and Erik J. Meyers go over some of the crazy public response to drug war mania. Of course, some of this is probably parents lying to surveyors, especially if by “national survey” they mean one performed by the federal government.
- 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.
- Jungle Revelers
- When beasts take drugs to race or relax, things get zooey. Ronald L. Siegel writes about the drug habits of animals in Omni, March 1986, pp. 70-72, 74, 100.
- 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”.
- 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.
- Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
- These references are taken from the Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.
- Notes on Prohibition
- These are notes that I took while researching a “recreational drugs” comic book. These books also informed all of the writing that I have done for Strange Bedfellows and the Prohibition archive.
- Origins
- Eric Partridge’s “Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English” is a dense work filled with fascinating detail. If you are at all interested in etymology, this is the one book to have.
- 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.
- Pocket Guide to Recreational Drugs
- Pocket Guide to Recreational Drugs: A Practical Guide to the Safety and Health Issues of Licit
and Illicit Recreational Drug Use
- 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.
- Prohibition Politics
- The politics of prohibition, from alcohol to marijuana. Includes “Why End Prohibition?” and “The Pocket Guide to Recreational Drugs”.
- Simple Safety Tips
- Pocket Guide to Recreational Drugs: Simple safety tips for any drug, legal or illegal.
- 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.
- Use intelligence more intelligently to stop terrorism
- In 1996, Peter McWilliams pointed out that the law enforcement effort dedicated to enforcing laws against plants would be better put to use tracking terrorists.
- Usenet
- Usenet is the AM radio of the information highway. When people talk about the discussion groups on the net, they’re usually talking about Usenet.
- Victimless Crime My Ass
- “I hope I pissed you off, maybe you’ll do something. Don’t bother e-mailing me your anger. The Vets did not fight and die so that a few could run my and your life. They died for freedom: everyone’s and anyone’s.”
- What lack of drugs does to you
- It’s amazing what a lack of drugs does to an otherwise rational human being.
- Who Uses Psychotropic Drugs?
- What kind of person uses the various kinds of mind-altering drugs?
More Information
- Drug Law Studies Over the Years
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How many times does science have to say “no problem” before politicians get the picture? A great collection of summaries of major prohibition studies over the years.
- From Chocolate to Morphine•
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The subtitle is “Everything you need to know about mind-altering drugs.” Philosophically this is true: everything you need to know is that you should understand what you are using. This book is not an in-depth discussion of drugs, however; it is a general guide to recreational drug use, effects, and warnings. The book is designed for teen-agers, and should be in the home of every parent and teacher. “Education based on truthful information is the only solution to the drug problem.”
- Licit & Illicit Drugs•
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You can also purchase a copy used; as one reviewer wrote, “I learned more in one night from this book than I did in 18 years of being a youth in the Drug War.” I can’t stress enough just how amazing this book is.
