Substance Abuse in America

James A. Swartz, PhD, is associate professor in the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois.

Rarely is a book as useful for advanced researchers as for undergraduates, but Substance Abuse in America is such a book. . . . The well-written introduction concisely summarizes early laws; Prohibition; the role of the nation's first drug czar, Harry Anslinger; the beginnings of the misuse of prescription drugs; and current problems. . . . Highly recommended.

• Reader's Guide to Related Documents and SidebarsForeword by David T. CourtwrightPreface: The Forgotten WarIntroduction1. The Early 20th Century: Patent Medicines, the Rise and Fall of Prohibition, the Narcotics Farms"The Whole Vast System of Bunco""A Big Wild Man Who Has Cocaine in His Body""A Hitherto Inoffensive Negro""In the Course of His Professional Practice Only""The Great Social and Economic Experiment, Noble in Motive and Far Reaching in Purpose""No One but a Physician""Nobody Shot Me""I Believe This Would Be a Good Time for a Beer""The Sick and Afflicted Shall Be Set in the Way of Strength and Hope"2. The 1930s through the 1950s: Harry J. Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Reefer Madness, the Kefauver Committee, the Beat Generation"As Dangerous as a Coiled Snake""It Has Something to Do with Something That Is Called Marihuana""It Is Concluded That Marihuana Is Not a Drug of Addiction, Comparable to Morphine""They Go from Sneaky Pete to Pot to Horse to Banging""They Took the Needle When the Thrill of Marijuana Was Gone""To Provide a More Effective Control of Narcotic Drugs and Marihuana""I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation Destroyed by Madness""Current Treatment of Addiction Is Unsatisfactory"3. The 1960s through the Mid-1990s: Amphetamines and Barbiturates, the Counterculture, LSD, Vietnam, the Heroin Epidemics, Cocaine Reemerges, Crack Cocaine, HIV/AIDS, Harm Reduction, Sentencing Disparities"Better Living through Chemistry""We Really Thought That Drugs Were Going to Change the World""Crapping around Will Not Be Tolerated""'Junky Johnny' Comes Marchin' Home""Like Dom Perignon and Caviar""We Are Fighting a Disease, Not People""From the Champagne of Drugs to the Beer of Drugs""He Liked the Prop. It Drove the Point Home""Heroin and Cocaine Infected Thousands of Drug-Stunned Addicts""The Experiment in Mass Incarceration"4. The Mid-1990s to 2011: Medical Marijuana, Black Tar Heroin, OxyContin, Methamphetamine, the Mexican Drug War, the War on Drugs Continues"Any Other Illness for Which Marijuana Provides Relief""Heroinville""It's Growing from Within""I Felt My Face Just Melting""It's All Rather Irrelevant"BibliographyIndex