Drinks, drugs, and do-gooders. By Charles E. Goshen. The Free Press, a division of MacMillan, 866 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022, 1973. 256 pp. 14 × 21.5 cm. Price $6.95
- Book ID
- 102408283
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1974
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 90 KB
- Volume
- 63
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-3549
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
An objective appraisal of how the nation has reacted to laws attempting to curb "pleasure seeking" through chemical means is attempted in this book. A cultural and historical perspective is essential to satisfactory solutions of the problems of drug abuse.
The author delineates common factors that lead to drug and alcohol addiction and states: "The current issue of drug abuse is essentially indistinguishable from the problem of alcohol. The only significant difference is the fact that the drug problem is insignificant in size compared with the alcohol problem."
Recent recommendations by the American Bar Association and a presidential commission on crime to eliminate or downgrade penalties for victimless crimes such as marijuana use tend to support the author's claim that such laws have been ineffective.