On Drugs
Publishing Details
On Drugs
By (Author) David Lenson
University of Minnesota Press
University of Minnesota Press
1st March 1999
United States
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Cultural studies
362.29
Physical Properties
264
Width 149mm, Height 229mm, Spine 15mm
Description
A critical exploration of the users perspective on drug consciousness-now in paperback!
Engaging, articulate, and brilliantly argued, On Drugs is destined to become a revolutionary classic that redefines what it means to be high. Calling for the acceptance of a diversity of consciousness, Lenson delivers a searing critique of the War on Drugs as an effort based, like all attempts to eradicate getting high, on an incomplete understanding of human nature.
In lucid prose, Lenson ventures outside the conventional genres of drug writing and offers a new look at the drug debate from a lost, and often forbidden, point of view: the users. Walking a fine line between the antidrug hysteria of the 1980s and an uncritical advocacy of drug use, he describes in provocative detail the experiences and dynamics of drugs of pleasure and desire-from nicotine to marijuana, alcohol to LSD, and caffeine to cocaine.From lotus-eaters to hippies to crackheads, history has shown the states inability to legislate the bloodstreams of its citizens. After considering several specific issues associated with drug use-including sex, violence, and money-On Drugs asks what drugs really do and challenges societys accepted notions of sobriety and addiction. Lenson concludes with his vision of the end of the War on Drugs by questioning the sense in condemning millions of Americans to lives of concealment and deceit.Author Bio
David Lenson is professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of Achilles Choice: Examples of Modern Tragedy (1975) and The Birth of Tragedy: A Commentary (1987). A rock and blues musician, he is proudest of having played saxophone with John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, and Junior Wells.
