Various (Graubard, Stephen R. (Editor); Dorwart, Robert A.; Erickson, Patricia G.; Lewis, David C.; Schlesinger, Mark et al.)

Political Pharmacology: Thinking About Drugs || Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Vol. 121, No. 3 (Summer 1992)

Cambridge, MA: The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1992. First Printing. Softcover. “This issue of Daedalus sets out to address a host of complex and delicate questions that politicians and others who pretend and search for safety generally avoid….This issue of Daedalus is about drugs, licit and illicit. It is also about crime and punishment, themes that have dominated the thinking of other societies. It is about health and well-being, matters that must concern individuals and communities who understand the importance of public policy in shaping social and economic life. It is about history—that of the United States and others—but also about culture, our own, that of the modern world…In short, it is an issue devoted to the theme of complexity, to the proposition that a new war on drugs will not be won in four months or four years, [and] that ‘war’ is, in any case, the wrong metaphor, [and] to be avoided” (Abridged Qtn. from Stephen R. Graubaurd’s Preface to the issue). Here we have a resource that is at once a time capsule-esque snapshot of a previous era in American history—so much has “gone down” in relation to America’s relationships with drugs and the drug war (widespread marijuana legalization or varying forms of decriminalization, for one) that scholarship from this era on the subjects and positions covered & proffered in a magazine such as this might boast less relevance or potential now. While this can sometimes seem like (or be) the case, I here cite Emerson: “Every man is my superior in that I learn of him [or ‘from him’].” Even if 1000 papers have been written in response challenging, “debunking,” or refuting the policy proposals and ambitious thinking here proffered, some utility will pronounce itself, make itself useable, actionable and apparent to the serious reader of this volume. Contributor list, in full, reads as follows: (1) Mathea Falco, “Foreign Drugs, Foreign Wars”; (2) Peter Reuter, “Hawks Ascendant: the Punitive Trend of American Drug Policy”; (3) Mark A.R. Kleinman, “Neither Prohibition Nor Legalization…”; (4) Ethan A. Nadelmann, “Thinking Seriously About Alternatives to Drug Prohibition”; (5) Jeremy H. Skolnick, “Rethinking the Drug Problem”; (6) the notorious Thomas A. Szasz, “The Fatal Temptation: Drug Prohibition and the Fear of Autonomy”; (7) David C. Lewis, “Medical and Health Perspectives on a Failing U.S. Drug Policy”; (8) Mark Schlesinger and Robert A. Dorwart, “Recent Trends in Canadian Drug Policy”; (9) Dwight B. Heath, “US Drug Control Policy: A Cultural Perspective”; & finally, Jerri A. Husch’s “Culture and US Drug Policy: Towards a New Conceptual Framework.” In Very Good condition with moderate-to-pronounced shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers; moderate-to-significant bumping, a few minor bump-creases at/to select locales along same; enunciated bump-crease to bottom left-hand corner of back cover; some nonuniform exhibits of mild-to-moderate rubbing & few tiny, fleck like spots to same. Very Good. [Item #5356]

Price: $20.00