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The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics

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In the midst of the War on Terror, we can only hope that it is going to be more winnable than the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs has been going on by name (and being lost), only for a few decades, but this represents merely a parochial view of the problem of drugs and societies. It might be better to take the long view, and this is what Richard Davenport-Hines has done in _The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics_ (W. W. Norton), a weighty volume that demonstrates that such wars have never been won in free societies, and have been waged at larger harm to their societies than the drugs themselves. A telling theme throughout Davenport-Hines's book is that just about anyone has wished for some sort of chemical aid towards taking the edge off life, towards making pleasure a little easier to get, and most people do indeed go for such chemistry of pleasure in some form. His contention that "absolute sobriety is not a natural or primary human state" is surprising and is inarguable, given the huge range of legal and illegal and temporarily legal drugs that humans have come up with. This will conflict with those who favor prohibition, and particularly with Americans whose brand of puritanism has always distrusted hedonism.

The distrust of drug use _by others_ seems universal, but _Pursuit_ gives, in its monumental length, remarkable stories of use in specific instances. Such details as these make reading _Pursuit_, with all its bulk, a hugely entertaining and enjoyable activity (recommended to all hedonists). It is good to see that the use of drugs crosses all times and all cultures. Davenport-Hines also makes the reading easy because, although there is a definite point of view to the book, it is much more a history rather than a polemic. But he does demonstrate that virtually every attempt to enforce particular prohibitions has increased drug profits and drug use. A president of Columbia explained, "The only law the narcoterrorists don't break is the law of supply and demand." Prohibitionists can't break that one, either. Some of the specific tactics of the current war on drugs are shown to be silly and short-sighted. It would be different if these actions were making drugs unattractive, decreasing jail populations, and increasing the overall general health, but we do not see that happening.

Davenport-Hines shows the advantages of the Dutch system. Making marijuana and hashish available in coffee shops, for instance, lowered use of the drug, and separated cannabis and heroin suppliers. Intravenous drug use is treated as a chronic, relapsing condition, and social and medical services are made available, such as needle-exchange programs and sale of syringes without a prescription. By such means, the heroin addict population is simply growing older and new recruits are not joining their ranks. It is, of course, not certain that such steps would work in the American atmosphere, and it is even less certain that American puritanism would allow anything like them. But _The Pursuit of Oblivion_, comprehensive and well-referenced, makes clear that anti-drug policy now is little different than what has been tried for hundreds of years, and is just as unsuccessful. This is the sort of book that anyone involved in making drug policy, including those who vote for policy-makers, ought to be reading.

THE PURSUIT OF OBLIVION is a well-written, deeply researched history of drugs, their use, the emotional extremes drug use has created in individuals and cultures over the past 500 years, and the ineffective efforts to control it.

Using drugs to induce euphoria, reduce anxiety, control pain, increase physical and mental energy, and alter perceptions are, according to the author, natural activities in human experience. Richard Davenport-Hines, a highly regarded historian claims prohibition of illicit substances is a bad idea. He argues that craving the drug is what drives users to criminal behavior and if the illegal supply of drugs was legalized and made available there would be no need for the expensive and ineffective strategies of enforced abstinence and the punitive treatment of users.

Whether you agree with legalization or not, the history of drug-taking over the last 500 years is fascinating. His presentation of the material and the provocative argument against prohibition will create a variety of reactions. It will anger those who believe drug use is a moral plague attacking and destroying society. It will please those who require rationalization for legalization and are exhausted by the futility of the ineffective strategies in the War on Drugs and "Just Say No" campaign.

Regardless of how you feel about legalization, if you wonder about drug use, its origins, its effects on individuals and societies, its manufacture, marketing, and distribution, you will be enthralled with THE PURSUIT OF OBLIVION. It is Highly Recommended.

This 498 page compendium of stories that go back thousands of years (to Sumer), detail in extraordinary (sometimes stifling) detail, mankinds continuous love hate relationship with intoxication. Be it with narcotics, hypnotics, stimulants, inebriants, or hallucinogens, mankind, for good or ill, loves to get f***'ed up.

Hate that fact, or appreciate it; regardless, the global illicit market for narcotics is nearly half a trillion dollars and growing. Growing despite centuries of government regulation, and, more recently, decades of intense global conflict.

Richard Davenport-Hines makes a powerful argument against the war on drugs, but he doesn't do it like so many authors of that thought genre, who, between tokes, rant and rave about the plight of users, or the unfair religious influence on "modern" policy (no dig on them intended, that was my best attempt at humor now that all my malt balls are gone and it's 3am)... Instead, the author makes a factual case, drawing in statistics that demonstrate clearly how ineffective public money is spent combating drug use. The stats used aren't homogeneous to the US, many extensive statistics are used from our more experimental neighbors across the Atlantic.

Like many, I believe this book could have been condensed considerably without losing its argumentative efficacy. However, there were more than enough compelling stats and human stories to keep me engaged. Among them, stories of the founding of Coca Cola, or the first western experimentors with Cannibus, or the lengths some have gone to stay intoxicated...fascinating stuff.

If you have a particular interest in understanding the relationship between man, drugs, government, and the societal impacts of interrelationship between them, then run and get this book. If however, you have a more casual interest, and would like to sharpen your argument for or against the war on drugs, walk to get this book, and skip chapters 2-5.

Enjoy,

Christian Hunter

Santa Barbara, California

I expected a more thorough evisceration of the idealogies behind the war on drugs from this book. Davenport-Hines doesn't really get down to attacking what is really our modern inquisition until near the end.

Too much of the book is a litany of statistics and dry accounts of the spread of drug abuse and the subsequent escalation of authoritarian measures to counter it. Although he adequately demonstrates how prohibition created the global black market in drugs he does not hammer home enough how criminalisation is responsible for most of the ills associated with drug abuse, including violent crime, overdoses and the spread of diseases like HIV.

Although this is a history and not a polemic if there is one thing the history of drug abuse amply demonstrates is that prohibition has been a collosal failure if not a profound evil. Davenport-Hines could have emphasized this theme more throughout the book to unify the disparate elements. And while I would not expect a romanticization of drug use I would think that a complete history of narcotics would give at least some attention to the perspective of the user. Davenport-Hines seems too preoccupied with maintaining an air of compassionate but stern disapproval. I got the feeling that this guy has never had a drink let alone smoked a joint.

This book traces the fascination, profits and uses of various drugs and mind altering substances throughout history. It is especially good with quotations, use of the substances during various time periods, and the social views of useage during those periods.

It is well documented and gives us a real view of the politics and economics of government manipulation of drug use and trafficking, throughout history. I wondered if some of the large drug companies, who are presented as the chemical inventors of some of our most dreadful drugs, should have some responsibility for the state of drug useage today -- this author names names.

I found the early chapters to really be history and sometimes lacking in read-appeal. Later chapters reveal something of the author's personal views on solutions, the War on Drugs, which he calls a "war on drug users" and his disgust with the failed policies of this nation and Britain. Altogether a good book, but it took me a while to read.

It is rare to find a nonfiction book that, if read, will render the reading of other books on the topic almost superfluous. Yet that is the case with "Pursuit of Oblivion." Richard Davenport-Hines has set himself the very ambitious task of chronicling, as the subtitle states, "A Global History of Narcotics", and he does it well. Nearly 500 pages of salient prose are presented, assiduously researched and encompassing all corners of the globe and all illicit substances of note, from early experimentations with opiates (the first known narcotic) right through to designer drugs and the explosion of the club scene at the end of the past millennium.

Great pains are taken to explain not only the origins, but the proliferation and subsequent legislative backlash against each drug as well. Liberal use of quote and anecdotal evidence are inserted to keep the text flowing throughout. The body of research undertaken by Davenport-Hines is commendably daunting. The ongoing Drugs Wars wages unsuccessfully by every modern nation are exposed in all their folly. A various times, prohibitionists have attempted to promote the idea of drug user as moral deviant, criminal, hedonist, pedophile, rapist, psychotic, and unapologetic vagrant, none to great success. As Davenport-Hines navigates the history of drugs, a recurring theme emerges, one which the author states directly in the Prologue: "It is not the supply of a drug that turns a user into a criminal, but the illicitness of that supply." Simply put, making drugs a crime creates a world full of criminals. And, in a world increasingly dominated by the "destructive idealism" of American uber-moral drug policy, this book proves a welcome elixir to the scourge of narcotic fear-mongering that has spread throughout much of the modern world.

Lamentably, (as the book shows) this is a debate that has been raging in contemporary society for hundreds of years, and one in which both sides of the dispute have precious little interest in hearing the views of the other, as both have long been self-assured of the validity of their claims. It should not be lost on the reader that those who would most benefit from studying a book such as this will be those who would least seek to give it credence. Nowhere will you find such a number of cogent, concise arguments against the ineffectiveness of anti-drug legislation, and such a formidable body of evidence against the reigning cabal of would-be substance eradicators who govern over most of the world's nations today. But alas, this book, like countless others which preach an ethic of sense and sensibility regarding drug production and use, will be condemned to the fire by moral imperialists who inveigh against the turpitude of even giving such issues public discourse.

An invaluable reference for scholars seeking to prepare work on the topic, but equally suitable for the curious and open-minded, full of wonderful anecdotal ammunition for the next time you find yourself asked to defend more liberal drug laws, "The Pursuit of Oblivion" very adequately fulfills the task it sets out to achieve. If there is one complaint, it's that perhaps this book is too comprehensive - in an effort to explain it all, there are parts where the anecdote is overwhelming, and the evidence almost seems excessive. But if too much of a good thing is the worse offense a scholarly work can be accused of committing, it makes the efforts of the author no less laudable.

Pursuit Of Oblivion takes an historical approach to considering the traditional and changing use of illicit drugs around the world, pursuing a survey of five centuries of drug trade and showing how narcotics changed from untested medicine to pleasure tools. Social, political and cultural history blend in a treatment suitable for high school on up.

Nearing the end of the disastrous Bush administration, it's easy to forget that one of the biggest problems faced by Americans is the War on Drugs. The drugs themselves are at worst a minor medical problem, but the War continues to be a serious threat to things that Americans have always valued: liberty, security, and money. Strangely, the War has had only a negligible effect on another favorite past-time: drug use.

The blame for the fiasco lies, as is often the case, with opportunistic politicians. Throughout the fascinating history documented in this book, these guys have found drug use to be a convenient means of controlling the paranoid and the pious. The result is a political climate in which it's nearly impossible to have a rational discussion about the costs and consequences of drug use in society. Davenport-Hines shows that this kind of hysteria is nothing new: When for example a report commissioned by Richard Nixon recommended decriminalizing marijuana, he simply refused to read it.

I suppose that some of the blame for current drug policy mess can be laid at the feet of the users themselves. But as Davenport-Hines points out, "sobriety is not an easy state for human beings," so any serious attempt to reform the War on Drugs has to take into account that the enemy is ourselves.

Several people have taken exception to the author's call for a cease to the prohibition of drugs. It's rather absurd to argue the point the the money organized crime pulls out of drugs is a small factor in their power. This is simply emotionalism and ignorance. Anyone familiar with the five Mob families of New York? Like the more respectables, uh, say the Kennedy family? Who are also prodigious users. All made their fortunes on the most devious prohibited drug of all :alcohol. Of course, the criminals would still have [...] and prostitution, but those vices involve keeping people (i.e Victims) involved all the time, thus making them less desirable and less profitable than relatively clean drug sales. In fact, it's often the drugs that keeps prostitutes obedient. There's too much real evil in this world to waste our resources trying to stop people from doing what the want in their own homes. The only government that EVER had the slightest success in defeating drugs was the Chinese when the emperor (circa 1900 or so) made using, possessing or selling opium subject to immediate execution. It worked. But we don't have a totalitarian state...yet. Personally Barbara Hodgeson's book on Opium in America is better and more enlightening. (I discovered recently that both of my grandmothers were addicted to legal over-the-counter patent opium medicines in the 1940's) so let's be careful about heaving stones from our glass houses, eh?

Davenport-Hines may be one of England's most highly regarded historians, but he should have hired one of England's most highly regarded fact-checkers. The book is riddled with petty errors (singer Marc Almond becomes "Mark Almond", the German of "Knight of the Spirit" is translated to "Night of the Spirit") that make me doubt the overall quality of the author's scholarship.

The author has a strong point of view, namely that drugs and intoxication are a persistent part of the human experience, and abuse should be seen as a medical problem, not a criminal one. He undercuts this with descriptions of the horrific effects of both legal and illegal drugs - "anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations and psychotic behaviour" is the result of one common preparation.

I came to this book without any particular prejudices, and in fact live next door to a thriving and relatively peaceful open hashish market in Copenhagen, Denmark. But after reading several hundred pages about lives ruined by a rainbow of substances, I felt like banning the lot.