History of Narcotics and Drugs

Good & Bad Medicine

by Peter Linenthal

A working draft of a paper describing the problems and potentials of the drug ephedra, both today and thousands of... more A working draft of a paper describing the problems and potentials of the drug ephedra, both today and thousands of years ago.

I look forward to your comments to help me improve this paper.

Review of Andrei OIŞTEANU, Narcotice în cultura românǎ: istorie, religie și literaturǎ, ediție ilustratǎ [Iași-București: Polirom, 2011, 2nd ed.]

by Eugen Ciurtin

Published in Archaeus. Studies in the History of Religions 15 (2011), fasc, 3, pp. 507-509 [November 2011].
Published in Archaeus. Studies in the History of Religions 15 (2011), fasc, 3, pp. 507-509 [November 2011].

David T. Courtwright, De passion à poison: les drogues et la construction du monde moderne. Traduction et préface de Catherine Ferland (PUL, 2008)

by Catherine Ferland

Review of: Cocaine: Global Histories by Paul Gootenberg

by Brian Cowan

The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Aug., 2000), pp. 613-614

Despite the prominence of illicit drugs both in contemporary popular consciousness and in the social agenda of modern... more Despite the prominence of illicit drugs both in contemporary popular consciousness and in the social agenda of modern states, the history of drugs remains an underdeveloped field. This collection of essays on the history of cocaine in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries offers a promising step in advancing our understanding of the ways in which the new drug quickly became the focus of attention from international trading organizations (both legal and illicit), state centred prohibitionary regimes, and drug consumers alike.

Mafia and Drugs. Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Italy

by Fabio Bernabei

Fabio Bernabei for Swedish Carnegie Institute.
44th Carnegie seminar in 2º WORLD FORUM AGAINST DRUGS, Stockholm    May  25  2010.

“Selling is more of a Habit: Narcotraficante Lola la Chata and her Threat to Civilization,” Journal of Women’s History, 21.2, 2009

by Elaine Carey

“Las mujeres con brazos del oro: El tráfico de drogas, 1930-1960,” en Los otros. Una historia social y cultural comparada de la ley, el delito y las clases criminales en América, siglos XIX y XX, editado por Jorge Alberto Trujillo Bretón. Guadalajara: Universidad de Guadalajara, 2010.

by Elaine Carey

Women with Golden Arms: Narco-Trafficking in North America, 1910-1970

by Elaine Carey

What is a problem drug user?

by Toby Seddon

Published in Addiction Research & Theory

En sjukdom? Narkotikamissbrukarna och den politiska diagnosen 1967-1981.

by Johan Edman

Published in: "Narkotika. Om problem och politik" (Börje Olsson, ed.), Stockholm 2011. http://www.nj.se/produkt/9789139014157

Jakten på den verksamma vården. Kunskapssträvanden och målsättningar inom den svenska missbrukarvården under ett sekel.

by Johan Edman

Co-authored with Jan Blomqvist. Published in: "Narkotika. Om problem och politik" (Börje Olsson, ed.), Stockholm 2011. http://www.nj.se/produkt/9789139014157

Drug policy under New Labour 1997-2010: Prolonging the war on drugs

by Julian Buchanan

email me julianbuchanan@gmail.com if you'd like a free copy of this article

In 1997 New Labour came to power with a landslide victory. This period also marked a watershed for illicit drug use... more In 1997 New Labour came to power with a landslide victory. This period also marked a watershed for illicit drug use which had become so widespread across the UK that it was regarded as a mainstream adolescent experience. However, broadly speaking there were two groups of drug users: one group of young people who selectively used drugs on a recreational and largely non-problematic basis; while another group (usually unemployed and socially excluded), who used whatever drugs they could find in a chaotic and problematic manner. Drug taking had become a normalized activity and criminalization of these drugs seemed unenforceable, out of touch and inappropriate. Inheriting an unworkable 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act 1997 seemed an opportune time for the New Labour government to deliver on its ‘promise of change’ and introduce drug legislation fit for the new millennium. This article reflects upon some of the key policy and legal changes introduced by the New Labour government (1997—2010) to manage drug use and misuse.

Opium, Power, People: Anthropological Understandings of an Opium Interdiction Project

by Kathleen Gillogly

Contemporary Drug Problems 35/Winter, 2008, pp. 679-715.

Opium interdiction projects have dominated Thai state interactions with northern upland ethnic minority peoples since... more Opium interdiction projects have dominated Thai state interactions with northern upland ethnic minority peoples since the 1970s. One of these projects, the Sam Muen Highland Development Project (SMHDP), had great success in ending opium production. This success emerged out of the participation of the most peripheral peoples in international drug markets, the producers. To understand why Lisu villagers cooperated with the Project, I examine how state power was realized through its practice in the village through the Project. Lisu had tactics and strategies available to them. They strategically adapted through household and kinship practices. They tactically cooperated through the use of Project discourse and the performance of cooperation. Participatory drug interdiction was not just a "new tyranny"; it opened up new political processes at the microlevel. However, Lisu villagers' tactics for regaining local power were constrained by the global processes of drug control.

Let's Not Talk About Drugs

by Toby Seddon