Demons : our changing attitudes to alcohol, tobacco, & drugs / Virginia Berridge.
2013
HV5801 .B465 2013 (Mapit)
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Title
Demons : our changing attitudes to alcohol, tobacco, & drugs / Virginia Berridge.
Author
Berridge, Virginia, author.
Edition
First Edition.
ISBN
9780199604982 hardcover
0199604983 hardcover
0199604983 hardcover
Published
Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2013.
Language
English
Description
x, 292 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm.
Call Number
HV5801 .B465 2013
Dewey Decimal Classification
362.2/9
Summary
Binge drinking, particularly in young women, has become big news. Debates about the regulation and classification of cannabis are frequently voiced. Cigarette smoking is banned in public places, and emotive public health campaigns seek to reduce its use still further. Yet there are many sides to each of these arguments, and if we look back over the last 150 years, we see massive variety in the ways societies and states have related to drugs, drink, and tobacco. Virginia Berridge offers a much-needed long view, which helps illuminate our current concerns, and shows how three separate stories overlap and inter-connect. She takes us to the socially-acceptable opium dens of Dickens's London; to the absinthe craze of fin-de-siecle Paris. She asks whether prohibition in America proved to be helpful or harmful. She looks at how tobacco was promoted as a medicinal benefit. She considers the medical use of cannabis, LSD, and other drugs. And through all this, she traces the changes in scientific and medical knowledge. This is a complex story of whether, and how, the state should intervene. How do we balance the interests of personal freedom, public well-being, healthcare, and the economy? Is substance abuse a social issue, or a medical one? As governments, health services, and the World Health Organisation grapple with these issues, the wisdom and experience of history can help map the way forward.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-273) and index.
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