Our Love Affair with Drugs: The History, the Science, the Politics

Prescription, illicit, and recreational drugs touch all of our lives yet a basic understanding of these chemicals is largely absent among Americans. Jerrold Winter offers a comprehensive account of psychoactive drugs, chemicals which influence our brains in myriad ways. Manifestations of their
influence on the brain are quite varied. There may be the comfort provided by opioids to those who are dying or in pain or, in everyday life, the surge of contentment for the users of caffeine, nicotine, heroin, alcohol, or marijuana upon the taking of their drug of choice. Turning to the more
exotic, a drug such as LSD may alter the way the world looks to us; it may even inspire thoughts of God. Adding to the purely scientific questions which confront us are the ways in which our society chooses to respond to the presence of psychoactive drugs. Should they be banned and their users sent
to prison, tolerated as a reflection of man's eternal search for an escape from anxiety, pain, and the monotony of daily life, or celebrated as therapeutically useful agents?

Our Love Affair with Drugs is written for experts and novices alike. There are stories of, for example, how Timothy Leary caused the repeal of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Readers will learn of the transformation by Sir Charles Locock of a drug intended to dampen female sexual activity into the
first effective drug for the treatment of the ancient disease of epilepsy. Alexander Shulgin's love of psychoactive drugs and his unconventional research practices illuminate the story of methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a.k.a. Ecstasy, a drug now likely to find value in treating veterans and others
suffering post-traumatic distress disorder. Winter links the excitement of drug discovery with the very practical matter of balancing the benefits and risks of these drugs.


Author: Jerrold Winter
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 11/25/2019
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780190051464

About the Author

Jerrold Winter, PhD, professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York, Buffalo Jerrold Winter, PhD, is professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has taught on the principles of pharmacology, the elements of addiction, and the drug treatment of anxiety, depression, and psychosis to graduate and medical students. He has published more than one hundred scientific articles, and he is the author of two books: True Nutrition True Fitness and Optimal Aging.

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