A Brief History of Drugs: From the Stone Age to the Stoned Age (Paperback)

~ (Author), Ken Symington (Author)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A fascinating and informative history of humankind's checkered and often ambivalent relationship with psychoactive plants and drugs. From the role of the opium poppy in ancient Mesopotamia and the ergot-based mystery cult of Eleusis, through the opium wars in China and the persecution of medieval herbalist witches, up to the 'psychedelic rebellion' of the sixties and the insanities of the current 'war on drugs,' Eschohotado covers an enormous subject with scholarly acumen and brings the light of reason to bear on topics often shrouded in bigotry, ignorance, and cupidity. Highly recommended! -- Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., author of The Unfolding Self and Green Psychology

This book examines natural substances used by different cultures to alter the mind. Makes for interesting, thought provoking reading. -- American Herb Association, Vol 16:4

Review

"A fascinating and informative history of humankind's checkered and often ambivalent relationship with psychoactive plants and drugs.  From the role of the opium poppy in ancient Mesopotamia and the ergot-based mystery cult of Eleusis, through the opium wars in China and the persecution of medieval herbalist witches, up to the 'psychedelic rebellion' of the sixties and the insanities of the current 'war on drugs,' Eschohotado covers an enormous subject with scholarly acumen and brings the light of reason to bear on topics often shrouded in bigotry, ignorance, and cupidity. Highly recommended!"
(

Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., author of The Unfolding Self and Green Psychology

)

"This book examines natural substances used by different cultures to alter the mind.  Makes for interesting, thought provoking reading."
(

American Herb Association, Vol 16:4

)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Park Street Press; 1 edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892818263
• ISBN-13: 978-0892818266
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #708,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A concise version of a lengthy classic, May 3, 2000

By	G. Bujak (East Coast) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This wonderful new volume is a very readable and informative condensation of and expansion on Escohotado own previous publication, the lengthy three-volume 'Historia General de las Drogas'. Here, in a text finely balanced with history and science, he traces humanity's affair with drugs and intoxicants beginning with the third millenium B.C., and leading up to the modern hi-tech psycheledics. He traces some of the most popular drugs like caffeine and hemp back to their surprisingly early origins. Taking into account the involvement of drugs in early religious festivities, he offers an analysis how they've made an easy move from there to a more secular, pleasure-seeking culture, accompanied by the parallel villification of drugs by religion, the institution that played a leading role in their introduction to society. This concise book will make readers aware of the extent of the spread of drugs through history, and of the hopelessness of all attempts to make them disappear from future history as well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No bibliography makes me a dull boy, May 25, 2006

By	Stefan Isaksson "www.stefanisaksson.se" (Malmoe, Sweden) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've never begun a book review by quoting the very last sentences of the book, but well, I guess it's true that there's a first for everything:

"Drugs have always existed everywhere, and judging by the present times, tomorrow there will be more drugs than exist today, so that the options are not a world WITH or WITHOUT drugs. The alternatives are to teach people how to use them correctly, or to indiscriminately demonize them: to sow knowledge, or to sow ignorance."

These two sentences work perfectly for summarizing what A Brief History of Drugs is all about. The book, a short version of the massive three-volume Historia General de las Drogas (only available in Spanish, however), is well-written, sober, clever, fascinating, and most importantly honest description about how various drugs have always been a part of human nature, civilization, and development. Without arguing whether or not all or some drugs should be made legal or not, Escohotado shows what the real world looks like; and it's a description that a whole lot of people probably don't want to know about.

Yes, it's true that the word "drugs" to most people have a very negative ring to it, and obviously it would be both ignorant and retarded to deny that numerous lives have been utterly destroyed due to drugs. Still, one cannot deny - whether you happen to be pro or against drugs - that less than one hundred years ago substances such as cocaine, heroine, and marijuana could be bought perfectly legal in drugstores all over the world, and that the great majority of drug uses managed to live perfectly normal lives before their drug of choice was criminalized, which only made things a whole lot worse (except for politicians on the search for votes). The drug question is an extremely complex question, and can therefore obviously not be completely summarized in a short book review.

All books about drugs are likely to be labelled in a negative way before people have even bothered to read them, and it's especially unfortunate when it happens to such a well-written and informative book as A Brief History of Drugs. Because this is NOT a sloppy "legalize it" book about drugs. Definitely not.

Instead it's the story about the human being and her development, misunderstandings between Western materialism and Eastern nature religions, political corruption at its very worst, and perhaps most of all the human weakness in fearing the unknown and accepting false truths without any scepticism whatsoever. A Brief History of Drugs will not turn the reader into a strung-out heroin junkie, but what it will do is start a debate and influence the reader into making his or her own decision. And isn't that what a successful non-fiction book is supposed to do?

The only negative thing about the book is the lack of a complete bibliography, something Escohotado himself mentions in the preface. He suggests the reader to look up the large work that this book is based on, but what good does that do to all of us who don't speak Spanish?

5.0 out of 5 stars The English Translation is Coming Sonn, December 18, 2008

By	Glenn W. Robinette (Valparaiso, Chile) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Yes, I agree. This one volume is a perfect introduction to the real thing, which unfortunately is only available in Spanish, and only if you read excellent Castellano. But the English translation is on the way. There have simply been too many requests for this classic 1500 page, three-valume, meticulously researched work that changed the entire debate about drugs in post-Franco Spain and led to the Spanish changes in drug policy, some of the most advanced in Europe. Escohotado demands of the reader a dedication to an objective fact-based understanding of the issue of drugs, exactly what has been missing in the U. S. for the last eight years. But this one-volume precis is a good start.