Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/01/drugs-without-the-hot-air-the.html
I first read “Drugs Without the Hot Air,” David Nutt’s astoundingly good book about drug policy back in 2012; in the eight years since, hardly a month has gone by without my thinking about it. Now, there’s a new, updated edition, extensively revised, and it’s an absolute must-read.
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I‘ll get this for my kids so they can make an educated choice which drugs to take and which to avoid. Back in the day, I had to try them all to figure that out.
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Welcome back!
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This radical idea that legitimate science should be at the center of public policy- rather than superstition or tradition or power politics- is surprisingly new. And although this country is all horny fot things that seem futuristic, scientific, or intellectually advanced, it amazes me how much pushback there’s been against evidence based medicine. Evidence based policy has even further to go.
Maybe the covid 19 scare will prompt more of us to ask ourselves if we would prefer living under an evidence based civil infrastructure, over the current tradition of witch doctors and warlords.
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Back in, I think 1972, there was another book out by The Consumers’ Union called Licit and Illicit Drugs which would be a precursor to this book. Marvelously readable. I think there used to be a copy of it on the net, but I can’t seem to find it now. Never mind; found it:
https://www.e-bookdownload.net/search/licit-and-illicit-drugs
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That’s been largely a deliberate effort from the right. Evidence and science are very bad for Republican policies, so they have engaged in an extensive coordinated effort to discredit science. This is one of the primary roles that Fox News plays, for example. As another example, the Koch brothers invest heavily in PR and fake science to muddy the waters on things like climate change and poverty remediation. It has worked very well. Belief in science is at historically low levels by 20-21st century standards.
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I saw him when he came to the Royal Institute. One of the Good Guys.
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I believe Auguste Comte had a similar idea somewhere between 1830 and 1840. But people are somewhat slow to catch on.
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Erowid is a pretty good source of information, although some of it is more anecdotal than factual.
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His team’s website is still my default recommendation for unbiased information about drugs.
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A friend of mine used to do research for him, which meant they occasionally had to ring him up and ask for drugs (because he had the authority to allow access to legal supplies of otherwise illegal drugs). So, in our house he’s just known as “the Nutt”.
We had a drug education class when I was growing up back in the 60s-70s (yes, olde)
It was basically:
Kill you
Kill you
Kill you
interesting…
Kill you
Kill you
interesting…
Kill ya
Kill ya
Kill ya
Still a few interesting ones to check off but I don’t think I’m going to be trying peyote with a native american shaman or spirit guide any time soon (mores the pity). Now ayahuasca… hmmmmm
Earth and Fire represent! Unfortunately, due to the war on drugs, double blind trials are lacking, especially with respect to the more obscure psychedelics and entheogens. Earth and Fire are obsessive, workaholic librarians of drug information, much to our collective benefit.
MAPS.org is conducting stage 3 clinicsl trials on MDMA adjuvant talk therapy for PTSD, a sign that evidence based pharmacological self determination is becoming a reality.
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