Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug UseJacob Sullum goes beyond debate on legalization or the proper way to win the "war on drugs," to the heart of a social and individual defense of using drugs. "Saying Yes" argues that the all-or-nothing thinking that has long dominated discussions of illegal drug use should give way to a wiser, subtler approach. Exemplified by the tradition of moderate drinking, such an approach rejects the idea that there is something inherently wrong with using chemicals to alter one's mood or mind. "Saying Yes" further contends that the conventional understanding of addiction, portraying it as a kind of chemical slavery in which the user's values and wishes do not matter, is also fundamentally misleading. Writing in a lively and provocative style that earned him critical acclaim for his previous book, Sullum contrasts drug use as it is described by politicians and propagandists with drug use as it is experienced by the silent majority of users. The lives they lead challenge a central premise of the war on drugs: the idea that certain substances have the power to compel immoral behavior. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 1 |
Chemical Reactions | 31 |
Strong Drink | 54 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstinence Abuse and Mental addiction Alcohol Abuse alcoholic beverages American amotivational syndrome amphetamines ayahuasca Bakalar beer behavior Bob Wallace Bruce Rogers cannabis cause Chapter cigarette claim club drugs cocaine consumption crack crime dangerous disease doses drinkers drinking driving Drug Abuse drug policy drug testing drug users drug's drunk drunkenness Ecstasy effects experience feel Grinspoon habit harm hashish Health Services Administration heroin heroin users Ibid illegal drugs Interview intoxicants intoxication Journal kids less Lester Grinspoon liquor marijuana users MDMA medicine Mental Health Services methamphetamine moderation moral Mormons Narcotics National Household Survey opiate opium percent pot smokers problems Prohibition pseud psilocybin psychedelics psychiatrist psychoactive reported researchers risk smoking marijuana smoking pot social Stanton Peele Substance Abuse Survey on Drug temperance temperance movement things tion tobacco trip U.S. Department University Press violence war on drugs warnings wine wrote York Zinberg