| View Larger Image | Dark Paradise: A History of Opiate Addiction in America | Paperbackby David T. Courtwright (Author)
| List Price: | $31.00 | | Price: | $24.66 | | You Save: | $6.34 (20%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Harvard University Press | | Edition: | Enlargedth Edition | | Page Count: | 352 Pages | | Publication Date: | May 31, 2001 | | Sales Rank: | 893,506rd |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
In a newly enlarged edition of this eye-opening book, David T. Courtwright offers an original interpretation of a puzzling chapter in American social and medical history: the dramatic change in the pattern of opiate addiction--from respectable upper-class matrons to lower-class urban males, often with a criminal record. Challenging the prevailing view that the shift resulted from harsh new laws, Courtwright shows that the crucial role was played by the medical rather than the legal profession. Dark Paradise tells the story not only from the standpoint of legal and medical sources, but also from the perspective of addicts themselves. With the addition of a new introduction and two new chapters on heroin addiction and treatment since 1940, Courtwright has updated this compelling work of social history for the present crisis of the Drug War. (20021201) |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)
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This book deserves 10 stars.***..Good history account!! by Guy F. Airey (San Antonio, TX USA)  5 Stars
May 22, 2008
The author, David Courtwright, provides an updated, historical account of one of the most puzzling questions on the American frontier: how did the drug (opium) addiction get so bad here-- so quickly. Then, he fine tunes his answer with another in which he describes the absolutely harsh laws, fines, and imprisonment of those who become caught in the law enforcement cycle of addiction. He shows quite clearly how doctors and politics played sessions of sanctioning, then criminalizing some of those who played this wheel of misfortune and are still spinning in it. One person "gets" 15 years for a first offense !!! It is written quite directly and to the point, in a reader- friendly fashion, and most everyone I know would enjoy his writing method. Propaganda, lies, exaggerations are used by our government to seeingly make these wonderful medicines, a social vampire. The author is patient and almost penitent in showing how society is punished much of the same way the addicts are for their wrongdoings In an wonderful plant meant to help for chronic pain and suffering for thousands of years, we have demonized it to the point of making it a menace. In that irony, there is no justification. Very little is mentioned of the FDA or DEA and it documeted very nicely. The notes in the back are FANTASTIC!! guyairey
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