The Real Drug Abusers

By (author) Fred Leavitt

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 May 2003

Length of book:

288 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742525177

While well over one million small-time drug users languish in overcrowded prisons because of nonviolent drug offenses, tens of thousands of others get rich from legal and illegal drugs. Drug company representatives persuade doctors to prescribe inferior products. Children as young as two are routinely given powerful drugs. Legal drugs, taken exactly as prescribed, are a leading cause of illness and death. Scientists beholden to drug companies fabricate and misrepresent data. This eye-opening book richly documents disturbing trends in Western medicine and urges readers toward a broader understanding of drug use and abuse. Leavitt shows how and why American society must change its medical and policy approaches to drugs and re-orient medical practice to new ways of thinking.

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Part I: The Pharmaceutical / Medical Complex Chapter 3 A Significant Portion of Medical Research Cannon Be Trusted Chapter 4 Drug Companies Place Profits over Progress Chapter 5 Medical Personnel Prescribe Incorrectly Too Often Chapter 6 Human Subjects Have Often Been Treated Inhumanely Part 7 Drugs in Psychiatry Chapter 8 U.S. Citizens Are Overmedicated with Psychiatric Drugs Chapter 9 There Are Effective Alternatives to Psychiatric Drugs Part 10 The Wars on Drugs Chapter 11 Widely Believed Misperceptions about Drug Addiction Do Great Harm Chapter 12 Most Citizens Are Harmed Rather then Helped by the Drug Wars Chapter 13 Many Drugs Are Dangerous Chapter 14 Extensive Marketing of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Caffeine Causes Great Harm Chapter 15 Many Individuals and Organizations Benefit from the Drug Wars Chapter 16 Popular Programs for Combating Drug Abuse Are Unsuccessful, While Effective Programs Are Underused Part 17 Appendix: A Brief Introduction to Pharmacology Chapter 18 How Drugs Work Chapter 19 Classification of Psychoactive Drugs Chapter 20 Variability Part 21 Epilogue

By juxtaposing the many ills of the war on drugs with the corruption of the medical-pharmaceutical establishment, Leavitt expertly diagnoses our systemic national pathology concerning drugs—both illegal and legal.