Matters of Substance: Drugs--and Why Everyone's a User

By Griffith Edwards

Book Overview

Why do people, countries, and centuries experience the same drug differently--and how should this affect the choices we make on drug control? "Matters of Substance" presents a new and lucid approach to the much-debated questions of drug control around the world. Griffith Edwards argues for a consideration of all drugs--from caffeine to crack--as more than the sum of their chemical structure. He shows that the effect of a drug is just as dependent on the social setting, historical legacy, and psychology of an individual as it is on any inherent quality of the drug. Attitudes about and control of drugs across the world are explored--from the use of marijuana in Amsterdam to cigarette smoking in the bars of New York. Various uses and abuses of drugs are examined within the web of ideas we hold about personal freedom, the right to pleasure, the responsibilites of government, and the impact of globalization. Authoritative and wide ranging, this book will inform and enlighten all future debates on drugs in society.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031233883X
• ISBN13: 9780312338831
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 1.2" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

It's very helpful to view drugs in ecological terms. Great book.

Matters of Substance is the most insightful book I've ever read on drugs. Edwards never inflames, and never understates. He looks far and wide at many cultures and countries, and never lets popular myths or received attitudes dictate his opinions. On cannabis, for instance, he stands resolutely against the libertarian stream and points out hypocrisy on the left between nicotine and cannabis attitudes. With cocaine, on the other hand, he lays much of the blame for the epidemic of the 1980s on the medical community, who over-prescribed the drug in powder form in the 50s, creating an environment ready for a designer drug.