Publisher's Synopsis
This is a new, revised edition of a classic book. Following the history of narcotics control from the late nineteenth century to the early 1970s, Dr Musto traces two main themes in attitudes toward drugs users: tolerance and repression. The story of the development of narcotic use, legislation, and control involves American foreign policy, attitudes towards minority groups associated with particular drugs, the developing medical and pharmaceutical professions and the gradual growth of federal policing power. David Musto also considers the succession of cures and panaceas introduced by the medical and pharmaceutical professions, and concludes that each one has failed to fulfill eager expectations. For this paperback edition he has added a new chapter, reviewing developments over the past twenty years, and a new preface which relates the book to current drug issues and recent studies.;Students and professionals in sociology, law and medicine.
