This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America [Hardcover]

Ryan Grim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2009

Everything we know about drugs-from acid to epidemics to DARE and salvia-turns out to be wrong

Stock up on munchies and line up your water bottles: journalist Ryan Grim will take you on a cross-country tour of illicit drug use in the U.S.-from the agony (the huge DEA bust of an acid lab in an abandoned missile silo in Kansas) to the ecstasy (hallucinogens at raves and music festivals). Along the way, Grim discovers some surprising truths. Did anti-drug campaigns actually encourage more drug use? Did acid really disappear in the early 2000s? And did meth peak years ago? Did our Founding Fathers-or, better yet, their wives-get high just as much as we do?

• Traces the evolution of United States's long and twisted relationship with drugs
• Gives surprising answers to questions such as: how did heroin become popular, when did the meth epidemic peak, and has LSD gone the way of Quaaludes
• Based on solid reporting and wide-ranging research-including surveys, reports, historical accounts, and more

Not since Eric Schlosser ventured underground to marijuana's black market in Reefer Madness has a reporter trained such a keen eye on drugs and culture. A powerful and often shocking history of one of our knottiest social and cultural problems, This is Your Country on Drugs leads you on a profound exploration of what it means to be an American.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Admitting that "so much has been written on drug use and American culture that it would take weeks to roll all of that paper up and smoke it," journalist Grim plunges into the counterculture, the literature, the research, the opposition, the pharmaceutical interests, the media coverage, the kids and users, the heroes and the hypocrites to chart the evolution of drug use in America, covering every illegal high, taking on well-entrenched myths and turning up fascinating stories on current trends-beginning with the end of LSD. Backed by plenty of startling facts (i.e., 1984's drug-related criminal population was 30,000; by 1991 it was more than 150,000), Grim fashions a sharp critique of anti-drug programs ("exposure to anti-drug ads led to higher rates of first-time drug use among certain groups, such as fourteen-to-sixteen year olds and whites") and other policy decisions (President Clinton's approval of NAFTA led to an unprecedented influx of drugs across the Mexican border). Grim isn't all talk, however: he barely survives on-site research during drug riots in Bolivia, goes through a typically fraught trip on ayahuasca, and scouts the battlefields of the fight to legalize cannabis ("In San Francisco, pot clubs quickly outnumbered McDonald's franchises"). This lively, personable history should strike fans of Martin Torgoff's Can't Find My Way Home as a worthy follow-up.

Review

Admitting that “so much has been written on drug use and American culture that it would take weeks to roll all of that paper up and smoke it,” journalist Grim plunges into the counterculture, the literature, the research, the opposition, the pharmaceutical interests, the media coverage, the kids and users, the heroes and the hypocrites to chart the evolution of drug use in America, covering every illegal high, taking on well-entrenched myths and turning up fascinating stories on current trends—beginning with the end of LSD. Backed by plenty of startling facts (i.e., 1984's drug-related criminal population was 30,000; by 1991 it was more than 150,000), Grim fashions a sharp critique of anti-drug programs (“exposure to [anti-drug] ads led to higher rates of first-time drug use among certain groups, such as fourteen-to-sixteen year olds and whites”) and other policy decisions (President Clinton's approval of NAFTA led to an unprecedented influx of drugs across the Mexican border). Grim isn't all talk, however: he barely survives on-site research during drug riots in Bolivia, goes through a typically fraught trip on ayahuasca, and scouts the battlefields of the fight to legalize cannabis (“In San Francisco, pot clubs quickly outnumbered McDonald’s franchises”). This lively, personable history should strike fans of Martin Torgoff’s Can’t Find My Way Home as a worthy follow-up. (July) (Publishers Weekly, July 27, 2009)

"One of the theses of This Is Your Country on Drugs -- a cornucopia of unconventional wisdom about our relationship to mind-altering substances -- is that the popularity of drugs waxes and wanes according to a complex sum of factors." (salon.com, July 20, 2009)

"Mark Kleiman calls it "Atonishingly clear-headed and well-written, as if someone had taken David Courtwright and added just a splash of Hunter Thompson." (Mark Klieman, TPMCafe)

"A wide-ranging, fascinating romp through the history of America's insatiable appetite for all manner of drugs, from opium to crystal meth, all the way up to the possibly soon-to-be-illegal hallucinogen Salvia divinorum." (The Philadelphia City Paper)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470167394
• ISBN-13: 978-0470167397
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 9.5 x 6.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #648,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This...It Will Make You Feel Good June 29, 2009

By Traven

Format:Hardcover

Whether you've thought long and hard about the "War on Drugs" or never seen an episode of The Wire, this book will open your eyes and give you a fresh perspective. The research and historical bits alone are worth the price of admission (who knew coke was big in the 1890s or NAFTA allowed Mexican Meth to flow freely across the border?). What really sets this book apart, however, is the author's humor and willingness to include personal anecdotes in his story telling. Highly recommended.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating peek into the history of drugs in America June 28, 2009

By Book Junkie

Format:Hardcover

Ryan Grim started with a simple question: "Where did all the acid go?" and expanded it to examine our country's obsession with drugs. The research is extensive, and it is woven together with interesting prose that is both thought-provoking and, perhaps unfortunately, extremely funny. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read both for serious drug policy students and laypeople who are just interested in the history of our unofficial national pastime. Highly recommended.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read, but lax source attribution July 29, 2009

By H. W. Remick

Format:Hardcover

This is an important, sweeping history and condemnation of the War on Drugs, full of real-world anecdotes and statistics to back up the premise that every time the government or prohibition movements manage to crack down on one substance, Americans shift to using another, making "progress" in prohibition impossible. The chapters on the hypocrisy of U.S. global policy vis-à-vis U.S. drug policy to be especially thought provoking--(e.g., evidence the CIA aided and abetted opium/heroin traffickers in Laos in the 60s-70s, aided and abetted cocaine traffickers in Latin America in the 80s by working with the Contras, and the U.S. military turning an intentional blind eye to opium use and trafficking in Afghanistan today--even though the narcotics trade funds the Taliban). As entertaining as it was informative, I found myself laughing out loud page after page.

My one fairly significant complaint is Mr. Grim's laissez-faire approach to source attribution. Although this book is brim-full of statistics, there are no footnotes, endnotes, or even a bibliography. The 250-page book is followed by a 3-page "Notes" section that provides references to major sources in only glancing detail, but without anything approaching the specificity a reader would need to go look up the source on one's own. I suspect this stems from Grim's background as a journalist: no one wants their newspaper all cluttered up with footnotes and parentheticals, of course. However, a serious academic endeavor such as a full-length book requires far more detailed source attribution. In the "Notes" section and at several points in the text, Grim writes that he will post links to sources--particularly the numerous studies from which he gleans his many statistics--on his website, [..], but as of this posting, he has not done so.... My own experience and world view make me predisposed to agree with most of Grim's theories, but the lack of attribution leaves me skeptical: I fear that those who support the country's current drug policies will point to the lack of citation (as well as Grim's unapologetic narratives of his own drug experiences) to undercut the legitimacy of his argument, and that would be a shame. Read more ›

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening AND Entertaining! June 28, 2009

By holla

Format:Hardcover

Having been a student of drug policy and having read tons of primary sources and reaction analysis, this was a good and refreshing read. Not only did it provide good analysis of research and material, but it was fun and really entertaining. The author's personal perspective and anecdotes pave the way for a meaty but well thought out and readable argument. If you know little about drug policy, this book is totally accessible, and if you're a wonk already, it'll make you see things you know in a different way. I definitely recommend checking it out!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hurray for this book!! December 23, 2009

By Laryca

Format:Hardcover

This book should be required reading for everyone in America.
The "war on drugs" is one of the most frustrating, fallacious, feckless and foolish money-sucking endeavors that our country has ever contrived, and this book will tell you why. Not only have government-funded enterprises like DARE, enforced drug-testing, and all those ridiculous fear-mongering public service announcements been repeatedly proven completely ineffective (by multiple third-party objective studies that the government has tried to suppress), but they continue to propagate, and waste millions of precious taxpayer dollars every year. Not only has marijuana been proven to significantly help the terminally ill (and do little to no damage to the healthy), but its legalization (and subsequent sales taxes) could provide millions of dollars for the government each year. And this is just looking at the situation from an economic perspective.
This is a book for those who wish to know the truth, no matter what your political or personal views are. It's a book that lays out the facts, clear and simple, objective and informative, and fully aware of the situation at hand. Grim is obviously writing from a liberal standpoint, but one realizes right away that he values the truth above all else, and he never fails to provide a plethora of data and citations to back up his facts.
Grim's thesis is obvious yet astute-- "In reality, there's no such things as drug policy. As currently understood and implemented, drug policy attempts to isolate a phenomenon that can't be taken in isolation. Economic policy is drug policy. Healthcare policy is drug policy. Foreign policy, too, is drug policy.... When approached in isolation, drug policy almost always backfires, because it doesn't take into account the powerful economic, social, and cultural forces that also determine how and why Americans get high." While the US government doesn't seem to understand this, you should, so read this book now! Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are even reading looking at this page, you got to read it! June 30, 2009

By holla

Format:Hardcover

I posted this review earlier, and for some reason it came off the amazon page, so here it goes again... Having been a student of drug policy and having read tons of primary sources and reaction analysis, this was an enlightening and refreshing read. Not only did it provide good analysis of research and material, but it was fun and pretty hilarious. The author's personal perspective and anecdotes pave the way for a meaty but well thought out and readable argument. If you know little about drug policy, this book is totally accessible, and if you're a wonk already, it'll make you see things you know in a different way.