Books - What are your favourite books about drugs?

[Chaote]

Illegal drugs-Paul Gallagher
The complete guide to canabis conniseurship-Steven Wissnia
If there was a school class about drugs "Illegal drugs" would be the text that you studied from.

[elbow]

Erowid has a really good bibliography of drug books and many of them are available used from Alibris.com or even the used books section of Amazon. I have a lot of them.

http://www.erowid.org/library/library.shtml

[Chaote]

i got tripping and breaking open the head for xmasd TRIPPING by C. Hayes is one of he best books i have ever read i HIGHLY recomend it

[Aopocetx]

Consumer's Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs is great, though with now-dated information (it's from the '70s).

[izzy31]

I have been to several book stores looking for something about the history of drug culture and other related books but can't find anything about drugs exept "Perscription Drug Dictionary" and "Self Recovery From Drugs". Do I have to order online or something? I've been to Borders and Barnes and Nobles all around but can't even find a section that categorizes that subject.

[Nagognog2]

Or order from your bookstore if you have the title. They have (or should) a big book with all the titles and publisher info. Or ask your local library to report you to the pol...er....borrow you a copy.

[matti_2003]

Your best bet would be to get them online. Bricks and morter shops in town centres can only hold so many books so are more likely to sell ones that they know there is a bigger market for. If you ask them though they should be able to order a copy for swiy though,

[izzy31]

Yeah I'll probably just get it online, but since I saw them online at borders.com and B&N.com, I figured they must have them in the store, and it said that they were in stock too, but I guess the website doesn't refer to what it actually has at stores.

[grandbaby]

Bricks & mortar bookstores can ALWAYS special-order anything you want (as long as it's in print). Support your local alternative independent bookshop (assuming you still have one) — you might be surprised what some of them have in stock.

Borders/B&N are the devil incarnate.

If you can't figure out where to go, give me your location and I'll be your handy bookstore finder.

[BackToBasics]

'From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs' by Winifred Rosen and Andrew T Weil

[psyche]

^^ Above is a good read, but it's information is very shallow and it only covers the most common ones. It is a book most suitable for someone who still thinks all the cheesecloths should be hidden when taking LSD. Here is a thread I made about it long time ago, it isn't actually a book review, but it was moved to the Book Reviews -forum

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17847

It deals with couple of things in the book that I think(or thought) are a bit inaccurate or even false.

[Bajeda]

Here is a list I've had made up for a while of books I wanted to get. Some I now have, most I am waiting until I have time to read. There are a number of books on drug culture, history, politics, and related topics that aren't quite specific to drugs.


Ketamine: Dreams and Realities by Karl Jansen

Entheogens and the Future of Religion

Hallucinogens: A Reader (New Consciousness Reader) by Charles S. Grob

LSD Psychotherapy by Stanislav Grof

LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann

Ethnobotany: The Evolution of a Discipline by Richard Evans Schultes

Ecstasy: In and About Altered States by Paul Schimmel and Lisa Gabrielle Mark

Rave Culture and Religion by G. St. John

Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture by Robin Sylvan

A Brief History of Drugs: From the Stone Age to the Stoned Age by Antonio Escohotado and Ken Symington

Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice by Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine

Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Columbia, and Indochina by Peter Dole Scott

The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death by Stanislav Grof

DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman

Hashish! by Robert C. Clarke

Shamans Through Time by Jeremy Narby

Drug Crazy: How We Got Into This Mess And How We Can Get Out by Mike Gray

Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered (Drug Policy Reprints Series #1) by Lester Grinspan and James B. Bakalar

Mushroom Wisdom: How Shamans Cultivate Spiritual Consciousness by Martin W. Ball

Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers by Richard E. Schultes, Hofmann, Rätsch

Psychedelics Encyclopedia by Peter Stafford

Tripping: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures by Charles Hayes

Acid Dreams: The Complete History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain

LSD Psychotherapy: An Exploration of Psychedelic and Psycholytic Therapy by William Vernon Caldwell

Drug, Set and Setting: The Basis for Controlled Intoxicant Use by Norman E. Zinberg

Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History by Jon Ott

Pharmako Gnosis: Plant Teachers And The Poison Path by Dale Pendell

Mokshu: Aldoux Huxley's Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience (I hope to be adding all the works in this to the archive in the near future)

Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics by Roger N. Walsh and Charles S. Grob

Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs by James P. Gray

Human Rights and the U.S. Drug War by Chris Conrad, Mikki Norris, and Virginia Resner

Maximizing Harm: Losers and Winners in the Drug War by Stephen Young

Ending the War on Drugs by Dirk Chase Eldridge

The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana by Jack Herer

Drugs: Should We Legalize, Decriminalize, or Deregulate? by Jeffrey A. Scholer

Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market by Thomas Stephen Szasz

Friedman and Szasz on Liberty and Drugs: Essays on the Free Market and Prohibition by Arnold S. Trebach, Kevin B. Zeese, and Milton Friedman

Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use by Jacob Sullam

The American Drug Scene: An Anthology by James A. Inciardi

The Sociology of American Drug Use by Charles E. Faupel et al.

Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen by James Bavard

Drugs in American Society by Erich Goode



There should be something for everyone in there!

Reputation Comments on this post:

Thanks for the nice big list.

[Alfa]

This is a pretty old thread.

I would be interested to learn what books our members are reading now.

I have just got my copy in of "Cocaine Politics" by Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshal (published by the University of California) and got 'Fear and Loathing in las Vegas' by Hunter S Thompson as a present.

[Perception Addict]

Illegal Drugs from A to Z, by Paul M. Gahlinger, Md, Phd is excellent, and i'll soon put a review of it up on the appropriate thread.

From Chocolate to Morphine, by Andrew Weil, Md is next on my list, and looks good.

I also like Plants of the Gods and the Golden Book of Psychadelic Plants.



Not specific to drug information, but great for tripped out or sober reading, Swim's current list of favorites includes:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics
the Yage Letters
1984
Brave New World
A Confederate General From Big Sur
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Handmaid's Tale

(the list goes on and on...)

[Jatelka]

I'm sure I've mentioned it elsewhere, but "Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground" by Marek Kohn is brilliant: Looks at sexism, racism and moral panic.

"Cannabis: A History" and "Opium: A History", both by Martin Booth are fascinating, and look particularly at the role of the British Empire.

"Once in a Lifetime: The Crazy Days of Acid House and Afterwards" by Jane Bussmann is a rather fun collection of anecdotes, news stories and opinion related to the UK Dance Scene

"Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture" by Simon Reynolds is a fairly exhaustive review of Dance Music, right from Chicago House through to Superstar DJ's.

There's also a series published by Sanctuary.

"This is: Nicotine" by Karen Farrington, "This is Cocaine" by Nick Constable, "This is Ecstacy" by Gareth Thomas, "This is Cannabis" by Nick Bromley and "This is Alcohol" by Nick Brownlee (there's also a "This is Heroin" by Robert Ashton, but I haven't read it!)

They're a fairly basic introduction to said substances, but have the advantage of being very impartial and fair.

Non-drug related favourites include:

"The Galactic Milieu" Series and "The Saga of Exiles", both by Julian May
"The Gap" Series and "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant", both by Stephen Donaldson

Honestly, I could go on forever. I read everything!

[Psych0naut]

The doors of perception, by Aldous Huxley is a classic. The detailed description of Huxley's experience with mescaline, a book which at the time of release, in the 50's, was very controversial. Excellent piece of work, as well as the succeeder, Heaven and hell from Huxley.

[rocksmokinmachine]

SWIM finds PIHKAL and TIHKAL very interesting reads even though he has limited chemistry background. They just facinate him.

[enquirewithin]

Junkie and The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. The first is a readable account of the young and gay Burroughs getting hoked on heroin. The second was made from notes he wrote under the influence of heroin-- peculiar but interesting. He also wrote The Yage Letters (with Allen Ginsberg). He was looking for a cure for his addiction but got some twisted trips instead.

[chemlove]

Pihkal was a really nice read its kinda hard at first, but once you really get into it its interesting and deals with a variety of compounds.