Description
Book Synopsis* Why do people use drugs? * What happens when people are intoxicated? * Are we being medicated into normality? Drugs and intoxication have been facts of human life for millennia. Across the world, many people use illicit drugs, smoke, and drink alcohol. Yet very little has been written about their experiences.
Trade Review"In this thoughtful journey through the obfuscations of drug narratives we learn that intoxication is after all an indelible aspect of ourselves."
Sociology "[A] fascinating and nicely subversive dissection of a universal behaviour - well worth reading."
Alcohol & Alcoholism
"Interesting, provocative and highly readable - Bancroft provides a critical text that works as a useful antidote to the coverage of drugs in more cautious and conventional accounts."
Nigel South, University of Essex
"Bancroft does an extraordinary job of reviewing the relevant literature and he makes excellent use of historical and cross-cultural examples in building a case for a contructionist understanding of drugs."
Robert Heiner, Plymouth State University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Preface
Chapter 1: Defining Drugs in Society
Chapter 2: Drugs and Alcohol in Historical Perspective
Chapter 3: Customs, Cultures and Experience of Intoxication
Chapter 4: Drug Problems, Abuses and Addiction
Chapter 5: Governing Drugs and their Users
Chapter 6: Lifestyle Medicines and Enhancement
Chapter 7: Drugs in a Culture of Intoxication
Bibliography
