{"product_id":"on-drugs-9780816627110","title":"On Drugs","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e A critical exploration of the user's perspective on drug consciousness-now in paperback! \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Engaging, articulate, and brilliantly argued, \u003ci\u003eOn Drugs\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 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 user's. 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.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom lotus-eaters to hippies to crackheads, history has shown the state's 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 society's 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.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e David Lenson is professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of \u003ci\u003eAchilles Choice: Examples of Modern Tragedy\u003c\/i\u003e (1975) and \u003ci\u003eThe Birth of Tragedy: A Commentary\u003c\/i\u003e (1987). A rock and blues musician, he is proudest of having played saxophone with John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, and Junior Wells. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Minnesota Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50860226248978,"sku":"9780816627110","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5c88d199-82fa-485f-a271-a98f6b761866.jpg?v=1737570900","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/on-drugs-9780816627110","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}