Heroin was only one drug among many that worried Progressive Era anti-vice reformers, but by the mid-twentieth century, heroin addiction came to symbolize irredeemable deviance. "Creating the American Junkie" examines how psychiatristsand psychologists produced a construction of opiate addicts as deviants with inherently flawed personalities caught in the grip of a dependency from which few would ever escape. Their portrayal of the tough urban addict helped bolster the federal government's policy of drug prohibition and created a social context that made the life of the American heroin addict, or junkie, more, not less, precarious in the wake of Progressive Era reforms.

Weaving together the accounts of addicts and researchers, Acker examines how the construction of addiction in the early twentieth century was strongly influenced by the professional concerns of psychiatrists seeking to increase their medical authority; by the disciplinary ambitions of pharmacologists to build a drug development infrastructure; and by the American Medical Association's campaign to reduce prescriptions of opiates and to absolve physicians in private practice from the necessity of treating difficult addicts as patients. In contrast, early sociological studies of heroin addicts formed a basis for criticizing the criminalization of addiction. By 1940, Acker concludes, a particular configuration of ideas about opiate addiction was firmly in place and remained essentially stable until the enormous demographic changes in drug use of the 1960s and 1970s prompted changes in the understanding of addiction--and in public policy.

Prescription, illicit, and recreational drugs touch all of our lives yet a basic understanding of these chemicals is largely absent among Americans. Jerrold Winter offers a comprehensive account of psychoactive drugs, chemicals which influence our brains in myriad ways. Manifestations of their influence on the brain are quite varied. There may be the comfort provided by opioids to those who are dying or in pain or, in everyday life, the surge of contentment for the users of caffeine, nicotine, heroin, alcohol, or marijuana upon the taking of their drug of choice. Turning to the more exotic, a drug such as LSD may alter the way the world looks to us; it may even inspire thoughts of God. Adding to the purely scientific questions which confront us are the ways in which our society chooses to respond to the presence of psychoactive drugs. Should they be banned and their users sent to prison, tolerated as a reflection of man's eternal search for an escape from anxiety, pain, and the monotony of daily life, or celebrated as therapeutically useful agents? Our Love Affair with Drugs is written for experts and novices alike. There are stories of, for example, how Timothy Leary caused the repeal of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Readers will learn of the transformation by Sir Charles Locock of a drug intended to dampen female sexual activity into the first effective drug for the treatment of the ancient disease of epilepsy. Alexander Shulgin's love of psychoactive drugs and his unconventional research practices illuminate the story of methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a.k.a. Ecstasy, a drug now likely to find value in treating veterans and others suffering post-traumatic distress disorder. Winter links the excitement of drug discovery with the very practical matter of balancing the benefits and risks of these drugs.

The issue of 'recovery' has been increasingly prioritised by policymakers in recent years, but the meaning of the concept remains ambiguous. This edited collection brings together the thoughts and experiences of researchers, practitioners and service users from the fields of health, addiction and criminal justice and centres on current developments in addiction policy and practice. Tackling Addiction examines what recovery, addiction and dependence really mean, not only to the professional involved in rehabilitation but also to each individual client, and how 'coerced treatment' fails to take account of recovery as a long-term and ongoing process. Chapters cover the influence of crime and public health in UK drug policy; the ongoing emphasis on substitute prescribing; the role of recovery groups and communities; and gendered differences in the recovery process and implications for responses aimed at supporting women. Tackling Addiction will be essential reading for practitioners, researchers, policy makers and students in the fields of addiction, social care, psychology and criminal justice.

Nova Science Publishers now introduce an interesting book on research to help reduce global tobacco-related diseases in four volumes. Volume One describes general topics on nicotinism and the emerging role of electronic cigarettes; Volume Two describes basic molecular biology of nicotinism; Volume Three describes emerging biotechnology in nicotinism; and Volume Four describes chronic diseases associated with nicotinism and disease-specific-spatiotemporal (DSST) charnolosomics and charnolopharmacotherapeutics for the targeted, safe and effective personalized theranostics of nicotinism. The most interesting and unique feature of this book is that it introduces the original concept of disease-specific spatio-temporal (DSST) charnolosomics along with conventional omics (including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, and metallomics) by employing combinatorial and correlative-bioinformatics to accomplish targeted, safe, and effective perosonalized theranostics of nicotinism. This book presents basic molecular biology and pharmacogenomics of nicotinism and the emerging role of e-cigarettes as an alternative to reduce tobacco cravings and related health risks, and to prevent second hand smoking-related health risks. The book illustrates specifically the novel concept of mitochondrial bioenergetics-based charnolopharmacotherapeutics for the clinical management of nicotinism with future prospects to minimize tobacco smoking behavior, and/or quit smoking with minimum withdrawal symptoms. This book presents recent knowledge and wisdom regarding more harmful aspects and limited therapeutic benefits of tobacco smoking through incineration or by vaping through e-cigarettes. The book is primarily for the health and well-being of highly vulnerable adolescents, who engage in drug seeking behavior, become victims of chronic tobacco addiction, and suffer from poor quality of life, early morbidity, and mortality. Moreover, tobacco exposure during intrauterine life can induce diversified embryopathies (such as abortion, stillbirth, sudden infant death syndrome, microcephaly, craniofacial abnormalities, growth retardation, ADHD, autism, and craniofacial abnormalities) in developing infants; and asthma, COPD, cancer, and infertility in adults. Hence, the primary goal is to minimize tobacco-induced early morbidity and mortality due to asthma, emphysema, cancer, heart attack, diabetes, obesity, infertility, major depressive disorders, schizophrenia, Alzheimers disease, and several other neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.. Volume Four describes chronic diseases associated with nicotinism and novel disease-specific-spatiotemporal (DSST) charnolosomics and charnolopharmacotherapeutics for the targeted, safe and effective personalized theranostics of nicotinism. This volume is systematically presented in three sections. Sections One: Disease-Specific Nicotinism consists of eight chapters: Chapter One Nicotine and Stroke; Chapter Two Nicotine and Diabetes; Chapter Three Nicotine and Obesity; Chapter Four Nicotine and Parkinsons Disease; Chapter Five Nicotine and Alzheimers Disease; Chapter Six Nicotine and Schizophrenia; Chapter Seven Nicotine and Major Depressive Disorders; and Chapter Eight Nicotine and Cancer. Section Two: Charnolopharmacotherapeutics of Nicotinism consists of Chapter Nine, which describes the therapeutic potential of disease-specific spatiotmporal charnolopharmaceuticals in nicotinism, and Section Three highlights conclusions and future directions. Those interested in learning more about the basic molecular biology, molecular genetics, emerging biotechnology, diseases linked to nicotinism, and their possible prevention and cure will find this book interesting, exciting, motivating, and thought-provoking. This book is written primarily for biomedical students, researchers, scientist, professors, doctors, nurses, and any members of the general public interested in enhancing their existing knowledge and wisdom regarding the deleterious effects of both conventional as well as emerging e-cigarettes on human health and well-being, particularly among adolescents and young adults.

Tobacco smoking is a major public health issue worldwide. Smoking causes more than a quarter of all cancer deaths, with nearly 80% of deaths from lung cancer, 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema and almost one fifth of deaths from cardiovascular disease. The role of tobacco smoke in the development of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases is widely discussed in the chapters of this book. It is responsible for many preventable diseases, contributes to a large number of premature deaths and accounts for enormous economic costs. The chapters in this book review a variety of topics related to the sociodemographic characteristics of people consuming tobacco, tobacco product promotion and merchandising consequences of smoking on health, the studied mechanism of damage and the different interventions promoted for tobacco control. The mechanisms by which cigarette smoke affects health are diverse. Thousands of chemical components -- mainly toxins and carcinogens -- are part of tobacco smoke. These components could act through specific or nonspecific mechanisms in the development of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Common pathways include DNA damage, gene mutations, vasomotor dysfunction and oxidative stress, among others. The effects on health of first-hand and second-hand smoke exposure have been widely studied, and there is growing evidence regarding consequences of third-hand smoke exposure. The constituents, dynamic transformation and distribution of third-hand smoke are a fruitful area of study, as much as the quantification of its exposure. In this book, many useful indicators of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, ranging from surrogate indicators to direct measurements of the components that reflect dose are analysed. Advances in this field can provide useful information on the extent and effects of smoking, implementing and assessing tobacco control policies. Furthermore, the World Health Organization developed a framework for an international treaty that provides evidence-based recommendations for health promotion and tobacco control. After more than ten years of its implementation, the effectiveness of different strategies adopted worldwide is analysed and reflections on the new challenges of its implementation are presented. In this book, smoking is reviewed pertaining to the effects and implications for health, as well as the current challenges on implementation and evaluation of tobacco control interventions.

This book, prepared by the foreign law specialists and analysts of the Law Library of Congress, provides a review of laws adopted in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and Uruguay with regard to legalisation, decriminalisation, or other forms of regulation of narcotics and other psychoactive substances. Individual country surveys included in this study demonstrate varied approaches to the problem of prosecuting drug use, possession, manufacturing, purchase, and sale. Furthermore, the book discusses medical and retail-selected legal issues of marijuana.

In May 1994, a box containing 4000 pages of internal tobacco industry documents arrived at the office of Professor Stanton Glantz at the University of California, San Francisco. The anonymous source of these "cigarette papers" was identified in the return address only as "Mr. Butts" - presumably a reference to the Doonesbury cartoon character. These documents provide a shocking inside account of the activities of one tobacco company over more than 30 years. This book seeks to show that the tobacco industry's conduct has been more cynical and devious than even its harshest critics have suspected. For more than three decades, the industry has internally acknowledged that smoking is addictive and that use of tobacco products causes disease and death. Despite this acknowledgment, based on the industry's own internal and contract research, the industry has engaged in a variety of tactics to deny its own findings and to convince the public that there is still doubt about the harmful effects of tobacco or that the effects have been exaggerated. These campaigns of disinformation, the text argues, have been designed to maintain company profits, to block government regulation, and to defeat

This book discusses the influences, treatment options and health effects of substance abuse. Chapter One examines the phenomenon of alcoholism and alcoholic psychoses in Russia from the late Soviet to post-Soviet period. Chapter Two studies the validity and reliability of alcohol use data collected via the Amazons Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a commonly used tool for social science research. Chapter Three assesses and compares certain parameters of sexual functioning in patients with alcohol dependence syndrome. Chapter Four summarizes the results of two double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot studies conducted in order to evaluate the efficacy of mirtazapine for the treatment of persons with comorbid major depressive disorder and alcohol use disorder (MDD/AUD). Chapter Five presents a re-offense prevention program which specifically addresses the participants social network composition. Chapter Six reviews the epidemiology of the hepatitis B virus infection among non-injecting drug users. Chapter Seven discusses the macro- and micro-level factors that influence the emergence and sustainability of recovery high schools (RHS) and conclude that both grassroots advocates and policy-makers must consider the myriad ecological forces and their influence on the development of particular recovery support programs.

The title of the book harks back to Michael Dorris's seminal work The Broken Cord (1987) which eloquently brought this hidden' population into the light. However, the metaphorical umbilical cord is not truly broken, and the unique neurodevelopmental disorder resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure will continue to be one ghost in our delivery rooms, nurseries, and lives which haunts us. Why a different knot'? Because management becomes knotted with the origins of the infant's prenatal life, whether they are birthed, fostered, adopted, either same culture or inter-country adopted. The knot' (as in Not it'), also speaks to medical professionals and society's continued ambivalence to acknowledging another inconvenient truth. Maternal drinking in pregnancy causes Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND) whether dysmorphic, called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), or non dysmorphic, ARND itself. These are both transgenerational developmental psychiatric disorders. The prevalence of ARND continues to be under-recognised as it is mainly presented as a faceless 'hidden disability' (masquerading as ADHD, Mood Disorder or ASD), rather than a facial dysmorphic disorder. The subtle denial and minimisation of transgenerational alcohol abuse is aided only by diagnosing the far less frequent dysmorphic ARND (FAS). This creates a false security across social classes concerning alcohol's true transgenerational epigenetic effect. Thus, the real financial costs and health care burden of trans-generational ARND , with an international prevalence of 1 in 100 live births, is avoided.

In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented sex testing for female athletes at that year's Games. When it became clear that testing regimes failed to delineate a sex divide, the IOC began to test for gender--a shift that allowed the organization to control the very idea of womanhood. Ranging from Cold War tensions to gender anxiety to controversies around doping, Lindsay Parks Pieper explores sex testing in sport from the 1930s to the early 2000s. Pieper examines how the IOC in particular insisted on a misguided binary notion of gender that privileged Western norms. Testing evolved into a tool to identify--and eliminate--athletes the IOC deemed too strong, too fast, or too successful. Pieper shows how this system punished gifted women while hindering the development of women's athletics for decades. She also reveals how the flawed notions behind testing--ideas often sexist, racist, or ridiculous--degraded the very idea of female athleticism.

The United States, at the local, state, tribal, and Federal levels, has made a concerted effort to enhance, expand, and codify multiple measures designed to address the serious threats posed by illicit drug trafficking across the Southwest border and violence in Mexico. Despite many successes, improved cooperation, coordination, unity of effort, and information sharing, illicit drug trafficking continues to be a multi-faceted threat to our national security which requires additional focus and effort. Also, the vastness of the 5,225-mile border shared by the United States and Canada as well as ever-changing drug trafficking trends prove challenging for the law enforcement and intelligence entities operating along the Northern border. However, by building upon a strong history of partnership and shared commitment, U.S. and Canadian agencies can find success in reducing the cross-border flow of illicit drugs. The National Northern Border Counternarcotics Strategy sets forth the Administration's plan to curtail the illegal trafficking of drugs and drug proceeds across the U.S.-Canada border. In this book, five strategic objectives provide an overview of current efforts and planned actions that will help in the success of the plan.

In this book, the authors present current research in the study of alcohol and substance abuse. Topics discussed in this compilation include the correlation of alcohol misuse and team sport participation; the cutaneous effects of adultered cocaine; foetal alcohol syndrome; cocaine and the affects it has on the kidneys; coping and autonomic dysfunction act in tandem with alcohol-related subclinical atherosclerosis; alcohol consumption and alcoholism mortality in Russia; and oxycodone abuse prevention in cancer patients.

In this thought-provoking book, Laura Tappata brilliantly guides the reader from a description of the existential problem of psychological addictions to a possible solution leading to a potentially positive outcome for the individual. The central theme of the book is anchored in the dismal nature of "post-modern identity" with a focus on searching for meaning in what we are and who we are. This identity is characterised as being narcissistic and fragile, suggesting from the outset that we need to somehow strive for a stronger and more well-defined self in order to, first, survive and, then, possibly thrive emotionally. Living in this post-modern world naturally leads to a superficial existence and the seemingly blind quest of acquiring non-essential and meaningless things designed to bolster our ill-defined, weak and vulnerable self. Although this leads to a false sense of happiness, it does not generate true contentment let alone a sense of well-being. As such, many of us are left to drift with few essential values, certainties and stable points of reference. This book attempts to lead the reader on the path from "the post-modern dependence on psychological addictions" to freedom, the expression of one's identity and a true sense of well-being.

Smoking tobacco presents serious social problems with major impacts on public health. It is estimated that 25-30% of the general population in western countries are currently smoking. Tobacco use is the major preventable cause of death in the United States, responsible for more than 400,000 deaths annually. Within the USA and Europe, 70% of all smokers have tried to quit smoking at least once, but only about 6% of these succeeded in maintaining abstinence. This book covers the latest nicotine-related research. The selection of chapters has a certain unity as physiologic, pathologic and psychological themes run through the book and supply the logical connections between the various authors. This work is intended as a contribution to the reversal of the current tobacco epidemic and thereby to preventing many of the deaths attributable to tobacco predicted in this century.

Synthetic drugs, as opposed to natural drugs, are chemically produced in a laboratory. Their chemical structure can be either identical to or different from naturally occurring drugs, and their effects are designed to mimic or even enhance those of natural drugs. When produced clandestinely, they are not typically controlled pharmaceutical substances intended for legitimate medical use. Designer drugs are a form of synthetic drugs. They contain slightly modified molecular structures of illegal or controlled substances, and they are modified in order to circumvent existing drug laws. While the issue of synthetic drugs and their abuse is not new, the 112th Congress has demonstrated a renewed concern with the issues. This book provides an overview of current trends in select synthetic cannabinoids and stimulants, and reviews relevant legislation in the 112th Congress as well as issues for policy-makers.

This book presents and discusses research in the study of drug policies, the effects of substance abuse and addiction and the efforts being made to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. Topics discussed include the International Drug Control Policy; Mexico's drug cartels; U.S. assistance to curve the flow of illicit drugs being brought into the country; self-regulation in the alcohol industry and alcohol treatment.

This book presents current research in the study of drug abuse, drug trade and various policies surrounding these issues. Topics discussed include NIDA informational facts regarding steroids; anabolic steroid use and federal efforts to prevent and reduce the use of steroids among teenagers; international drug control policy; illicit drug trafficking and U.S. counterdrug programs in Latin America and the Caribbean; illegal drug trade in Africa and the background, effectiveness and policy issues for Congress regarding drug courts.

This book examines the impact of different doses of cocaine on three interrelated measures related to affective behaviours between adolescent and adult mice in order to assess the range of affective and rewarding responses, measure of despair, activity, and reward were used. Such methods included the forced swim test (FST), motor activity (MA), and the conditioned place preference (CPP) tests, respectively. Cocaine was selected, in part, because of its robust psychostimulant properties, its use by millions of substance abusers world-wide, and its well understood mechanism of action. This study may help explain some of the neurobiological underpinnings of these finding because cocaine was especially effective in reducing despair-related behaviour in adolescence compared with adults, yet less effective in as an euphoric agent.

Cutting through the myths about the white market, Tome Feiling's The Candy Machine is the story of cocaine as it's never been told before. Gabrielle unwinds at weekends with a line of coke - and also works for a major police force. Juan Pablo is a drugs mule in Bogota who gets his stash from a sweathouse. Belica started picking coca when she was eleven. Kurt Schmoke, former mayor of Baltimore, thinks legalization's the only way ... Cocaine is big business. Governments spend millions on an unwinnable war against it, yet it's now the drug of choice in the West. How did the cocaine economy get so huge? Who keeps it running behind the scenes? In The Candy Machine Tom Feiling travels the trade routes from Colombia via Miami, Kingston and Tijuana to London and New York. He meets Medellin hitmen, US kingpins, British crack users and Brazilian traffickers, and talks to the soldiers and narcotics officers who fight the gangs. 'An important study of the cultivation, usage and suppression of cocaine' Financial Times 'The Candy Machine is highly addictive' Metro 'It is hard to decide if Tom Feiling's future lies as a QC or the new Paul Theroux. A vivid, argumentative, arresting book' Sunday Telegraph 'I've read a few documentary accounts of the rise of cocaine, and this might be the best of them' Evening Standard Tom Feiling is an award-winning documentary film-maker. He spent a year living and working in Colombia before making Resistencia: Hip-Hop in Colombia, which won numerous awards at film festivals around the world, and was broadcast in four countries. In 2003 he became Campaigns Director for the TUC's Justice for Colombia campaign, which organizes for human rights in Colombia. His book Short Walks from Bogota: Journeys in the new Colombia is published by Allen Lane.

The hallucinogenic and medicinal effects of peyote have a storied history that begins well before Europeans arrived in the Americas. While some have attempted to explain the cultural and religious significance of this cactus and drug, Alexander S. Dawson offers a completely new way of understanding the place of peyote in history. In this provocative new book, Dawson argues that peyote has marked the boundary between the Indian and the West since the Spanish Inquisition outlawed it in 1620. For nearly four centuries ecclesiastical, legal, scientific, and scholarly authorities have tried (unsuccessfully) to police that boundary to ensure that, while indigenous subjects might consume peyote, others could not. Moving back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border, The Peyote Effect explores how battles over who might enjoy a right to consume peyote have unfolded in both countries, and how these conflicts have produced the racially exclusionary systems that characterizes modern drug regimes. Through this approach we see a surprising history of the racial thinking that binds these two countries more closely than we might otherwise imagine.

People have been using substances to lift their spirits for millennia. Techniques for fermenting beer and related tipples are known from Egypt and Sumeria 4000 years ago, and they soon spread across the inhabited world. Coca leaves (the source of cocaine), tobacco, and caffeine were also popular with ancient cultures. Humans may have an evolutionary pre-disposition to seek out narcotics, even though they can be addictive and damaging. Some people may have genes which make them more genetically prone to drug addiction than others. This book includes research on drug taking, examining both legal highs, such as alcohol, nicotine and caffeine, and illegal stimulants, such as marijuana, LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines, heroin and magic mushrooms and the so-called date-rape drugs rohypnol and GHB.

Breathing other people's smoke is called passive, involuntary or second-hand smoking. The non-smoker breathes "sidestream" smoke from the burning tip of the cigarette and "mainstream" smoke that has been inhaled and then exhaled by the smoker. Second-hand smoke (SHS) is a major source of indoor air pollution. Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemicals in the form of particles and gases. Many potentially toxic gases are present in higher concentrations in sidestream smoke than in mainstream smoke and nearly 85% of the smoke in a room results from sidestream smoke. The particulate phase includes tar (itself composed of many chemicals), nicotine, benzene and benzo(a)pyrene. The gas phase includes carbon monoxide, ammonia, dimethylnitrosamine, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and acrolein. Some of these have marked irritant properties and some 60 are known or suspected carcinogens (cancer causing substances). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the USA has classified environmental tobacco smoke as a class A (known human) carcinogen along with asbestos, arsenic, benzene and radon gas. How does this affect the passive smoker? Some of the immediate effects of passive smoking include eye irritation, headache, cough, sore throat, dizziness and nausea. Adults with asthma can experience a significant decline in lung function when exposed, while new cases of asthma may be induced in children whose parents smoke. Short term exposure to tobacco smoke also has a measurable effect on the heart in non-smokers. Just 30 minutes exposure is enough to reduce coronary blood flow. In the longer term, passive smokers suffer an increased risk of a range of smoking-related diseases. Non-smokers who are exposed to passive smoking in the home, have a 25 per cent increased risk of heart disease and lung cancer.

"Germans on Drugs" is both a groundbreaking study of the creation of youth drug culture in Hamburg during the 1960s and 1970s and an innovative exploration of the paradoxes of modernization. The very processes that allowed West Germany to flourish after the devastation of the Second World War--consumerism, globalization, and democratization--created the conditions under which a new intractable set of social problems could emerge. Placing Hamburg's drug scene within national and international contexts, Robert P. Stephens examines the ways in which mass consumerism created complicated forms of resistance to state power and cultural norms, and he highlights the fragility of the physical and cultural boundaries of the nation-state in a globalizing world.

"Coming in a rush of historical work on the 1960s and '70s, Stephens's study offers a unique approach. Looking through the lens of drug use and 'the drug problem, ' Stephens brings new understanding to a raft of issues concerning not only the Cold War Federal Republic but also modernization, liberalization, globalization, and consumer society, offering important challenges to still-standing complacencies about the period and about West Germany's glide into 'the West.'"
--Belinda Davis, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University "Far more than a local or national study, "Germans on Drugs" is a lucid model of how research on drug cultures illuminates a remarkable range of historical issues." --Paul Gootenberg, Professor of History, State University of New York at Stony Brook ""Germans on Drugs" covers all aspects of the topic: production, distribution, consumption, practices of social agencies, public discourse, and governmentalaction. The book presents a vast amount of new insights into a subject that has never before been analyzed systematically. This will be an important contribution to the history of the consumer society in the 20th century."
--Detlef Siegfried, Faculty of the Humanities, University of Copenhagen "A fascinating book on a fascinating topic. From international trafficking routes to the streets of Hamburg to the halls of treatment centers, Stephens shows modern drug culture as part of consumer society and global trade, and he elucidates mind-reeling shifts in ideals of treatment and control. This is an essential work for anyone interested in the dramatic changes of the 1960s and 1970s."--Elizabeth Heineman, Associate Professor of History, Lecturer in International Programs, University of Iowa Robert P. Stephens is Assistant Professor of History at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Methamphetamine: A Love Story presents an insider's view of the world of methamphetamine based on the life stories of thirty-three adults formerly immersed in using, dealing, and manufacturing meth in rural Oklahoma. Using a respectful tone towards her subjects, Shukla illuminates their often decades-long love affair with the drug, the attractions of the lifestyle, the eventual unsustainability of it, and the challenges of exiting the life. These personal stories reveal how and why people with limited economic means and inadequate resources become entrapped in the drug epidemic, while challenging longstanding societal views about addiction, drugs, drug policy, and public health.