Download or read book The Drug Experience written by David Ebin and published by . This book was released on 1961 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here for the first time in one volume, a collection of drug-dreams, raptures and ravings, experiments and excesses--voyages "out of this world" charted by Hashish, Heroin, Cocaine, Opium, Mescaline, Peyote, LSD and many other drugs. Almost forty accounts in the first person--some as classical as Baudelaire, De Quincey and Havelock Ellis; others as contemporary as Alexander King, Mezz Mezzerow and Jean Cocteau--record the transfiguring or shattering experiences of those who dared to alter their consciousness, to reorder their perceptions through drugs. Motives vary: to kill pain, to kill boredom; to commune with the gods, to become a god. The setting too vary--a Greenwich Village "pad," to a Comanche tent on the Great Plains, a laboratory overlooking the Hudson River, a Paris night club for sensualists and a bandstand at a Chicago jazz session. But the mocking link is there--between the primitive and the scientific, the soulseekers and the sick, the sacred and the sensual. Featuring previously unpublished material, this anthology also includes personal reports from Theophile Gautier, Billie Holiday, William Burroughs, Barney Ross, Fitzhugh Ludlow--reports from a painter and a prizefighter, patients and doctors, human guinea-pigs and anthropologists, from the world of jazz, the Orient, the asylum. There is a cult-priest possessed by his gods, a schizophrenic restored to the possession of his sanity, a hipster flying high through the smoke of marihuana; all of them sharing the search for a new reality and the escape from the old one--through the use of mind-body drugs.--From jacket flap

Download or read book How to Change Your Mind written by Michael Pollan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Pollan keeps you turning the pages . . . cleareyed and assured.” —New York Times A #1 New York Times Bestseller, New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2018, and New York Times Notable Book A brilliant and brave investigation into the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs--and the spellbinding story of his own life-changing psychedelic experiences When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research. A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both suffering and joy, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.

Download or read book The Master Game written by Robert S. de Ropp and published by . This book was released on 2003-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the human psyche and the specific techniques through which one can achieve the highest possible levels of consciousness.

Download or read book The Drug Expert written by Craig W. Stevens and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2020-01-08 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Drug Expert: A Practical Guide to the Impact of Drug Use in Legal Proceedings targets academic and industry pharmacologists, pharmacology graduate students, and professionals and students of affiliated disciplines, such as pharmacy and toxicology. Users will find it to be an invaluable reference for those involved in the field. In addition, pharmacists and others who increasingly serve as expert witnesses and toxicologists will find an array of very useful information. Focuses on important topics for the consulting pharmacologist, including prescription, over-the-counter and illegal drugs and their effects on criminal and civil proceedings Details the “how-to aspects of being an expert witness in pharmacology by presenting real-life cases and effective tips and experiences Includes several appendices, such as a sample letter of engagement and fee schedule, a litigation report, a consulting invoice and valuable resources

Download or read book Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-09-03 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

Download or read book Pursuit of Ecstasy written by Jerome Beck and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1994-03-08 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors have produced the first "on the ground" study (not just clinical or chemical) of MDMA (3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), or "ecstasy" as it is frequently designated. A psychoactive substance related to both the amphetamines and mescaline, MDMA has become popular in recent years as one of the new "designer" drugs. First used in therapeutic treatment, its recreational or street use has increased in recent years. The authors track the efforts (with psychiatrists and researchers in opposition) of the DEA to ban the drug.

Download or read book Preventing HIV Transmission written by National Research Council and Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1995-09-14 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume addresses the interface of two major national problems: the epidemic of HIV-AIDS and the widespread use of illegal injection drugs. Should communities have the option of giving drug users sterile needles or bleach for cleaning needs in order to reduce the spread of HIV? Does needle distribution worsen the drug problem, as opponents of such programs argue? Do they reduce the spread of other serious diseases, such as hepatitis? Do they result in more used needles being carelessly discarded in the community? The panel takes a critical look at the available data on needle exchange and bleach distribution programs, reaches conclusions about their efficacy, and offers concrete recommendations for public policy to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. The book includes current knowledge about the epidemiologies of HIV/AIDS and injection drug use; characteristics of needle exchange and bleach distribution programs and views on those programs from diverse community groups; and a discussion of laws designed to control possession of needles, their impact on needle sharing among injection drug users, and their implications for needle exchange programs.

Download or read book Drug Use for Grown Ups written by Dr. Carl L. Hart and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Hart’s argument that we need to drastically revise our current view of illegal drugs is both powerful and timely . . . when it comes to the legacy of this country’s war on drugs, we should all share his outrage.” —The New York Times Book Review From one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, a powerful argument that the greatest damage from drugs flows from their being illegal, and a hopeful reckoning with the possibility of their use as part of a responsible and happy life Dr. Carl L. Hart, Ziff Professor at Columbia University and former chair of the Department of Psychology, is one of the world's preeminent experts on the effects of so-called recreational drugs on the human mind and body. Dr. Hart is open about the fact that he uses drugs himself, in a happy balance with the rest of his full and productive life as a researcher and professor, husband, father, and friend. In Drug Use for Grown-Ups, he draws on decades of research and his own personal experience to argue definitively that the criminalization and demonization of drug use--not drugs themselves--have been a tremendous scourge on America, not least in reinforcing this country's enduring structural racism. Dr. Hart did not always have this view. He came of age in one of Miami's most troubled neighborhoods at a time when many ills were being laid at the door of crack cocaine. His initial work as a researcher was aimed at proving that drug use caused bad outcomes. But one problem kept cropping up: the evidence from his research did not support his hypothesis. From inside the massively well-funded research arm of the American war on drugs, he saw how the facts did not support the ideology. The truth was dismissed and distorted in order to keep fear and outrage stoked, the funds rolling in, and Black and brown bodies behind bars. Drug Use for Grown-Ups will be controversial, to be sure: the propaganda war, Dr. Hart argues, has been tremendously effective. Imagine if the only subject of any discussion about driving automobiles was fatal car crashes. Drug Use for Grown-Ups offers a radically different vision: when used responsibly, drugs can enrich and enhance our lives. We have a long way to go, but the vital conversation this book will generate is an extraordinarily important step.

Download or read book The Effects of Drug Abuse on the Human Nervous System written by Bertha Madras and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drug use and abuse continues to thrive in contemporary society worldwide and the instance and damage caused by addiction increases along with availability. The Effects of Drug Abuse on the Human Nervous System presents objective, state-of-the-art information on the impact of drug abuse on the human nervous system, with each chapter offering a specific focus on nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, sedative-hypnotics, and designer drugs. Other chapters provide a context for drug use, with overviews of use and consequences, epidemiology and risk factors, genetics of use and treatment success, and strategies to screen populations and provide appropriate interventions. The book offers meaningful, relevant and timely information for scientists, health-care professionals and treatment providers. A comprehensive reference on the effects of drug addiction on the human nervous system Focuses on core drug addiction issues from nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, and other commonly abused drugs Includes foundational science chapters on the biology of addiction Details challenges in diagnosis and treatment options

Download or read book The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience written by Robert Masters and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2000-04-01 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most important books written on the effects of LSD on the human psyche. • Its authoritative research has great relevance to the current debate on drug legalization. • Prolific authors Robert Masters and Jean Houston are pioneer figures in the field of transpersonal psychology and founders of the Human Potentials Movement. The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience was published in 1966, just as the first legal restrictions on the use of psychedelic substances were being enacted. Unfortunately, the authors' pioneering work on the effects of LSD on the human psyche, which was viewed by its participants as possibly heralding a revolution in the study of the mind, was among the casualties of this interdiction. As a result, the promising results to which their studies attested were never fully explored. Nevertheless, their 15 years of research represents a sober and authoritative appraisal of what remains one of the most controversial developments in the study of the human psyche. Avoiding the wild excesses taken by both sides on this issue, this book is unique for the light it sheds on the possibilities and the limitations of psychedelic drugs, as well as on the techniques for working with them. With drug legalization an increasingly important issue, The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience provides a welcome and much needed contrast to the current hysteria that surrounds this topic.

Download or read book The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Significant changes have taken place in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use. During the past 20 years, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis and/or cannabidiol (a component of cannabis) for medical conditions or retail sales at the state level and 4 states have legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis. These landmark changes in policy have impacted cannabis use patterns and perceived levels of risk. However, despite this changing landscape, evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use remains elusive. While a myriad of studies have examined cannabis use in all its various forms, often these research conclusions are not appropriately synthesized, translated for, or communicated to policy makers, health care providers, state health officials, or other stakeholders who have been charged with influencing and enacting policies, procedures, and laws related to cannabis use. Unlike other controlled substances such as alcohol or tobacco, no accepted standards for safe use or appropriate dose are available to help guide individuals as they make choices regarding the issues of if, when, where, and how to use cannabis safely and, in regard to therapeutic uses, effectively. Shifting public sentiment, conflicting and impeded scientific research, and legislative battles have fueled the debate about what, if any, harms or benefits can be attributed to the use of cannabis or its derivatives, and this lack of aggregated knowledge has broad public health implications. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids provides a comprehensive review of scientific evidence related to the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. This report provides a research agendaâ€"outlining gaps in current knowledge and opportunities for providing additional insight into these issuesâ€"that summarizes and prioritizes pressing research needs.

Download or read book On Drugs written by David Lenson and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been more than twenty years since President Nixon declared the War on Drugs. In On Drugs, David Lenson delivers a scathing indictment of this war as an effort based, like all attempts to eradicate "getting high", on an incomplete understanding of human nature. From lotus-eaters to hippies to crackheads, he contends, history has shown the state's inability to legislate the bloodstreams of its citizens. Lenson ventures beyond conventional genres to view the drug debate from the largely forgotten perspective of those who use drugs. In successfully walking the fine line between the antidrug hysteria of the 1980s and an advocacy of drug use, Lenson shatters the ban on debate regarding drugs enforced in the "Just Say No" campaign and reveals the myriad ways "straight society" demonizes the drug user. After considering several specific issues associated with drug use - including sex, violence, and money - Lenson concludes with his vision of the end of the Drug War by questioning the sense in condemning millions of Americans to lives of concealment and deceit.

Download or read book American Trip written by Ido Hartogsohn and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How historical, social, and cultural forces shaped the psychedelic experience in midcentury America, from CIA experiments with LSD to Timothy Leary's Harvard Psilocybin Project. Are psychedelics invaluable therapeutic medicines, or dangerously unpredictable drugs that precipitate psychosis? Tools for spiritual communion or cognitive enhancers that spark innovation? Activators for one's private muse or part of a political movement? In the 1950s and 1960s, researchers studied psychedelics in all these incarnations, often arriving at contradictory results. In American Trip, Ido Hartogsohn examines how the psychedelic experience in midcentury America was shaped by historical, social, and cultural forces--by set (the mindset of the user) and setting (the environments in which the experience takes place).

Download or read book Habitus and Drug Using Environments written by Dr Stephen Parkin and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-09-28 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Informed by the thought of Pierre Bourdieu and framed by the philosophy of harm reduction, Habitus and Drug Using Environments provides a sociological analysis of public environments affected by injecting drug use. Drawing on ethnographic research across several locations, this book offers a qualitative and phenomenological account of the social organisation of public settings used for the preparation and administration of illicit drugs, informed by interviews with both injecting drug users and those whose employment is directly affected by public injecting drug use. With attention to current policy-related questions concerning the lived experience of ‘place’ upon the health of injecting drug users, how wider social structures contribute to participation in public injecting and the manner in which participation in public injecting amplifies drug-related harm, Habitus and Drug Using Environments sheds light on the ways in which health and place interact to produce and reproduce already established hazards associated with injecting drug use. As such, it will be of interest to sociologists, geographers, criminologists and policy makers working in fields such as drug use, risk behaviours and their relation to place, and health studies.

Download or read book Neuropathology of Drug Addictions and Substance Misuse Volume 1 written by Victor R Preedy and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2016-03-07 with total page 1134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neuropathology of Drug Addictions and Substance Misuse, Volume One: Foundations of Understanding, Tobacco, Alcohol, Cannabinoids, Opioids and Emerging Addictions provides the latest research in an area that shows that the neuropathological features of one addiction are often applicable to those of others. The book also details how a further understanding of these commonalties can provide a platform for the study of specific addictions in greater depth, all in an effort to create new modes of understanding, causation, prevention, and treatment. The three volumes in this series address new research and challenges, offering comprehensive coverage on the adverse consequences of the most common drugs of abuse, with each volume serving to update the reader’s knowledge on the broader field of addiction, while also deepening our understanding of specific addictive substances. Volume One addresses tobacco, alcohol, cannabinoids, and opioids, with each section providing data on the general, molecular/cellular, and structural/functional neurological aspects of a given substance, along with a focus on the adverse consequences of addictions. Provides a modern approach on the pathology of substances of abuse, offering an evidence based ethos for understanding the neurology of addictions Fills an existing gap in the literature by proving a one-stop-shopping synopsis of everything to do with the neuropathology of drugs of addiction and substance misuse Includes a list of abbreviations, abstracts, applications to other addictions and substance misuse, mini-dictionary of terms, summary points, 6+ figures and tables, and full references in each chapter Offers coverage of preclinical, clinical, and population studies, from the cell to whole organs, and the genome to whole body

Download or read book Therapeutic Uses of Cannabis written by British Medical Association and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1997-11-18 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the last Annual Representative Meeting of the British Medical Association a motion was passed that `certain additional cannabinoids should be legalized for wider medicinal use.'' This report supports this landmark statement by reviewing the scientific evidence for the therapeutic use of cannabinoids and sets the agenda for change. It will be welcomed by those who believe that cannabinoids can be used in medical treatment. The report discusses in a clear and readable form the use and adverse effects of the drug for nausea, multiple sclerosis, pain, epilepsy, glaucoma, and asthma.

Download or read book Sisters of the Extreme written by Cynthia Palmer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2000-05-01 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • An anthology of writings by some of the most influential women in history on the often misunderstood and misrepresented female drug experience. • With great honesty, bravery, and frankness, women from diverse backgrounds write about their drug experiences. Women have been experimenting with drugs since prehistoric times, and yet published accounts of their views on the drug experience have been relegated to either antiseptic sociological studies or sensationalized stories splashed across the tabloids. The media has given us an enduring, but inaccurate, stereotype of a female drug user: passive, addicted, exploited, degraded, promiscuous. But the selections in this anthology--penned by such famous names as Billie Holiday, Anais Nin, Maya Angelou, and Carrie Fisher--show us that the real experiences of women are anything but stereotypical. Sisters of the Extreme provides us with writings by women from diverse occupations and backgrounds, from prostitute to physician, who through their use of drugs dared cross the boundaries set by society--often doing so with the hope of expanding themselves and their vision of the world. Whether with LSD, peyote, cocaine, heroine, MDMA, or marijuana, these women have sought to reach, through their experimentation, other levels of consciousness. Sometimes their quests have brought unexpected rewards, other times great suffering and misfortune. But wherever their trips have left them, these women have lived courageously--if sometimes dangerously--and written about their journeys eloquently.