Confronting the Drug Control Establishment: Alfred Lindesmith as a Public Intellectual (Suny Series in Deviance and Social Control) (Suny Series, Deviance & Social Control) [Paperback]

David Patrick Keys (Author)

Book Description

Series: Suny Series, Deviance & Social Control | Publication Date: December 31, 1999

Confronting the Drug Control Establishment is a biography of Alfred R. Lindesmith and an intellectual history of his times. A sociologist at Indiana University, Lindesmith believed legal prohibition of addictive drugs was futile and wrote widely on the threat to democracy inherent in such a policy.

Lindesmith's career began during the 1930s and developed along with the emerging drug prohibitions in the early and mid-twentieth century. Throughout his life Lindesmith attempted to utilize his research for the creation of more rational and humane drug control laws. His consistent message was that the addict's self-concept is a central element in human addiction. Lindesmith felt that an overriding influence on an addict's self-concept is a fear of withdrawal, which keeps an addict from seeking treatment and becomes a key driving force in the drug problem.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Patrick Keys is Professor of Political Science at West Texas A & M University. John F. Galliher is Professor of Sociology and Director of Peace Studies at the University of Missouri. He is the author of Criminology: Human Rights, Conflict and Criminal Law and, most recently, Marginality and Dissent in 20th Century American Sociology: The Case of Elizabeth Briant Lee and Alfred McClung Lee, published by SUNY Press. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (December 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791443949
• ISBN-13: 978-0791443941
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,156,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David P. Keys was born in Saint Louis, Missouri in March 1955 to Cora Jane and James A. Keys. His father was an officer on the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (1937-1968), rising to the rank of Detective Sergeant and commanding the 3rd District detective squad in the last years of his life. David, his only living son, attended Herman Mehlville Senior High School and was admitted to the University of Missouri-Columbia as a journalism student. He failed miserably in that major, as he did at anthropology, economics, and engineering, until finding a home in the UMC Department of History. At that time the department had litany of fine scholars (e.g. Charles Nauert, Thomas Alexander, Charles Timberlake, Richard Bienvenu, Kirby Miller, Ford Mitchell, Eli Zaretsky to mention a few)who generously nurtured him. The university also maintained the noted continental philosopher Joseph Bien, the brilliant art historian Edzard Baumann, and economist John Kuhlmann who were instrumental in Keys' training. In the late 1970s, in his senior year, Keys left without a degree, worked at odd jobs, held temporary positions of all types, and moved across the country. Returning to the university in 1989, with his wife Janis Burkhardt, Keys resumed his studies taking an AB (History 1990); MA (Sociology 1994); and PhD (Sociology-Criminology 1998), the terminal degree studying with John Galliher, the famous criminologist and death penalty researcher. Keys was subsequently employed by Montana State University, West Texas State University, State University of New York-Plattsburgh (tenured), and New Mexico State University-Las Cruces (tenured) as a criminologist and social psychologist. Beside the little-known "Confronting the Drug Control Establishment" he has co-authored one book on death penalty abolition, another on the controversial sociologist Laud Humphreys, while writing a dozen journal articles on an array of subjects ranging from drug addiction to prison sexuality. He now resides in Las Cruces with Janis Burkhardt. They celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary recently and continue to oppose death sentencing whenever possible.