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Opium's Orphans: The 200-Year History of the War on Drugs by P. E. Caquet (review).

  • Published In: Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 2023, v. 97, n. 2. P. 356 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Herzberg, David 3 of 3

Abstract

P. E. Caquet's I Opium's Orphans: The 200-Year History of the War on Drugs i is a sweeping and thoughtful synthesis of the robust historiography of global drug policy. In keeping with his argument that medicalization was a key driver of drug war policies, Caquet sees the emergence of the brain disease model of addiction in the 1990s as a powerful new justification for prohibition. Caquet is reluctant to predict whether the drug wars' century-long run is truly coming to an end, but he does conclude with three clear lessons from its life and times: supply suppression does not work, criminalizing consumers is a disaster, and the medicine/drug divide is socially constructed. [Extracted from the article]

Additional Information

  • Source:Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 2023/06, Vol. 97, Issue 2, p356
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:History
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:0007-5140
  • DOI:10.1353/bhm.2023.a905737
  • Accession Number:172330058
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Bulletin of the History of Medicine is the property of Johns Hopkins University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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