Reviews
A well-written and thoughtful book... Acker presents a fascinating account of how addicts' negative image came to dominate public and official perceptions, as well as how it forced some users into the mold. Her careful analysis of research findings will make this book of interest to historians, drug-abuse workers, and anyone else who wants to examine the origins of American drug policy.
Fascinating... A compelling journey through drug-addiction history... This book lays a firm foundation for re-evaluating our approach to the study of addiction.
Draws on familiar themes to create a novel and compelling portrait of the times.
This book makes its most original contribution by probing the intersecting interests of professionals and policy makers who believed in managing the drug problem through a self-conscious combination of legal control and scientific knowledge... Acker's history of drug policy and science during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century illustrates the recent guise of an old social divide between deserving and undeserving Americans.
A thorough and compelling survey.
A fine book, convincingly arguing its central points, and in the process concisely making a significant original contribution to an intensely studied field.
A critical text for scholars and policy makers alike that underscores the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to developing anything approaching an accurate model of substance-dependence and humane policies for dealing with people dependent on opiates.
While harm reduction supporters will find this book validating, readers do not need to subscribe to this particular drug policy alternative to find Dr. Acker's book to be filled with fascinating stories about the people and the ideas which have shaped today's ptiched battles in the drug policy wars.
Provides an excellent foundation for understanding not only the prevailing attitudes of the day but also the influence of those attitudes on current policy and theories of addiction.
This is an accessible study of interest to a broad and varied audience. Acker has a good eye for the revealing quote and incident. She has undertaken an important task in seeking to configure the social historical (who the addicts were and what constituted addiction), the sociology of knowledge (the involvements of the several groups of researchers considered), and public policy.
Book Details
Introduction
Chapter 1. Heroin Addiction and Urban Vice Reform
Chapter 2. The Opportunistic Approach
Chapter 3. The Technological Fix: The Search for a Nonaddicting Analgesic
Chapter 4. Constructing the
Introduction
Chapter 1. Heroin Addiction and Urban Vice Reform
Chapter 2. The Opportunistic Approach
Chapter 3. The Technological Fix: The Search for a Nonaddicting Analgesic
Chapter 4. Constructing the Addict Career
Chapter 5. The Junkie as Psychopath
Chapter 6. Healing Vision and Bureaucratic Reality
Chapter 7. The Addict in the Social Body
Conclusion
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index