The desire for humans to alter their states of consciousness seems hard-wired into our DNA. And the history of recorded human drug use goes back to the earliest days of civilisation; opium poppy seeds have been found at Neolithic sites from 4500 BC and opium was well-known for pain relief to the Sumerians at 3500 BC. Across the world, plant drugs have been used for pain relief and other medicinal purposes and as part of religious ceremonies and tribal 'coming of age' rituals. But the nineteenth century saw scientific developments whose unintended consequences laid the foundations for the modern explosion of recreational and chronic drug use, which has in turn sparked a worldwide effort to stop it. At first encouraged by the commercial opportunities afforded by widespread 'cures' - many consisting of little more than heroin or cocaine - by the twentieth century a moral crusade had gathered force to curb this new social ill. In truth, although the dangers of drug use were very real, the origins of the war against drugs stemmed from wider fears in society. In this new book, a culmination of a lifetime of research and writing on the topic, Harry Shapiro isolates the different elements behind the war on drugs - drugs and race, youth culture - to present an issue reaching boiling point. Using a range of interviews, documentation, private papers, government archives and studies from the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence, Shapiro synthesizes a tale of crime, money, politics and exploitation bigger than any country.
