The Real Drug Abusers / Edition 1

by Fred Leavitt

Overview

While well over one million small-time drug users languish in overcrowded prisons because of nonviolent drug offenses, tens of thousands of others get rich from legal and illegal drugs. Drug company representatives persuade doctors to prescribe inferior products. Children as young as two are routinely given powerful drugs. Legal drugs, taken exactly as prescribed, are a leading cause of illness and death. Scientists beholden to drug companies fabricate and misrepresent data.

This eye-opening book richly documents disturbing trends in Western medicine and urges readers toward a broader understanding of drug use and abuse. Leavitt shows how and why American society must change its medical and policy approaches to drugs and re-orient medical practice to new ways of thinking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742525184
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/16/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.84(w) x 8.94(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Fred Leavitt is professor of psychology at California State University, Hayward.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 Part I: The Pharmaceutical / Medical Complex
Chapter 3 A Significant Portion of Medical Research Cannon Be Trusted
Chapter 4 Drug Companies Place Profits over Progress
Chapter 5 Medical Personnel Prescribe Incorrectly Too Often
Chapter 6 Human Subjects Have Often Been Treated Inhumanely
Part 7 Drugs in Psychiatry
Chapter 8 U.S. Citizens Are Overmedicated with Psychiatric Drugs
Chapter 9 There Are Effective Alternatives to Psychiatric Drugs
Part 10 The Wars on Drugs
Chapter 11 Widely Believed Misperceptions about Drug Addiction Do Great Harm
Chapter 12 Most Citizens Are Harmed Rather then Helped by the Drug Wars
Chapter 13 Many Drugs Are Dangerous
Chapter 14 Extensive Marketing of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Caffeine Causes Great Harm
Chapter 15 Many Individuals and Organizations Benefit from the Drug Wars
Chapter 16 Popular Programs for Combating Drug Abuse Are Unsuccessful, While Effective Programs Are Underused
Part 17 Appendix: A Brief Introduction to Pharmacology
Chapter 18 How Drugs Work
Chapter 19 Classification of Psychoactive Drugs
Chapter 20 Variability
Part 21 Epilogue

What People are Saying About This

Alexander Shulgin

The Real Drug Abusers is a devastating presentation of the propaganda and deceit that defines the pharmaceutical industry. This book presents a fascinating glimpse of the academic, economic, and medical abuses that are associated with legal drugs.

Editorial Reviews

This is one of the most important contributions to the field of drug research of the last decade. It is authoritative in its rendering of the complexities of the drug interaction effects, yet written in a straightforward and available style.

Troy Duster

The Real Drug Abusers is a devastating presentation of the propaganda and deceit that defines the pharmaceutical industry. This book presents a fascinating glimpse of the academic, economic, and medical abuses that are associated with legal drugs.

Alexander Shulgin

By juxtaposing the many ills of the war on drugs with the corruption of the medical-pharmaceutical establishment, Leavitt expertly diagnoses our systemic national pathology concerning drugs—both illegal and legal.

Ethan Nadelmann

This book will interest college students of nearly any level. Recommended.

Choice Reviews

The dichotomy that Fred Leavitt highlights demonstrates a need to rethink how we deal with all drugs while we dismantle the damaging war on drugs.

Kevin B. Zeese

This book will interest college students of nearly any level. Recommended.

Choice

The Real Drug Abusers is a devastating presentation of the propaganda and deceit that defines the pharmaceutical industry. This book presents a fascinating glimpse of the academic, economic, and medical abuses that are associated with legal drugs.--Alexander Shulgin

The dichotomy that Fred Leavitt highlights demonstrates a need to rethink how we deal with all drugs while we dismantle the damaging war on drugs.--Kevin B. Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy

This is one of the most important contributions to the field of drug research of the last decade. It is authoritative in its rendering of the complexities of the drug interaction effects, yet written in a straightforward and available style.--Troy Duster, Emeritus Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Berkeley

From the Publisher

This book will interest college students of nearly any level. Recommended.

CHOICE