Drug Addicts Are Human Beings: The Story of Our Billion-Dollar Drug Racket
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
Drug Addicts Are Human Beings: The Story of Our Billion-Dollar Drug Racket
By (Author) Dr. Henry Smith Williams
Feral House,U.S.
Feral House,U.S.
7th January 2026
United States
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Addiction and therapy
Pain and pain management
Medical ethics and professional conduct
Physical Properties
Paperback
304
Width 152mm, Height 228mm
Description
The War on Drugs is now a century old. The question isn't why aren't we winning, it's why are we fighting
In 1938, Dr. Henry Smith Williams saw the effects of decades of drug laws enacted between 1909 and 1924 that banned the importation and use of opium, cocaine, and marijuana and criminalized drug users to find out who benefited. No surprise, it wasn't the American public who were convinced by complicit newspapers that removing drugs and immigrants would eradicate crime but the pharmaceutical industry and law enforcement.
Dr. Williams' research and observations have proven true to a scale he could never have imagined.
Conservative cultural warriors in the early 1900s found a singular cause of every societal wrong: DRUGS. Especially when black, brown, and poor people use drugs. Harry Anslinger, who led the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930-1962, escalated the War in the wake of alcohol prohibition. Anslinger focused on marijuana, ignored the science of the day, and proclaimed it a scourge upon America. Drug laws enforced by newly empowered police at the height of Jim Crow legislation, eugenic 'science,' and rampant xenophobia created governmental policies that remain in place to this day.
Dr. Williams shows that the solution is treatment, not criminalization. But more importantly, he demonstrates the War on Drugs' sinister origins that are hauntingly familiar to anyone who's experienced friends and family dealing with the aftermath of the Purdue Pharma Oxycontin tragedy.
Feral House editor Christina Ward provides a brief updated history of the War on Drugs since 1938 and a biographical sketch of author Dr. Henry Williams, a flawed yet vigorous patient advocate. Contains reproductions of original illustrations by the author's brother and fellow physician, Dr. Walter Huntington Williams.
Author Bio
In the introduction of the original edition of his book Drug Addicts AreHuman Beings, it is stated that this is the author's 119thpublished book. In addition to his work as a writer, it is claimed thatWilliams had treated some 10,000 patients in his medical practice. It alsoannounces that he was an expert on the "chemistry and biology of the bloodcells" and had spent ten years intensively studying cancer. His brotherwas the doctor Edward Huntington Williams, with whom he wrote his Historyof Science (31 volumes). He also authored numerous articles for Harper's Magazine.
