1. The mysteries and miseries of intoxication and addiction -- Roots, berries, herbs, and grains : thoughts on cocktails, brews, and other libations and potations in Stone-Age culture -- Professors, politicians, word games, and the FDA : some trivial distinctions between drug use, drug misuse, and drug abuse -- Answering the enigmatic question : is it drug addiction or drug dependence? : or maybe it's something called pseudoaddiction -- How many drug abusers are there? -- Postscript -- pt. I. Drug fads, fashions, and epidemics : some perspectives on getting high in America -- 2. From Dover's powder to the evil weed of the fields : the early history of drug-taking in America -- Thomas Dover, Robinson Crusoe, and the great American medicine show -- Triplex liver pills, French wine coca, and the introduction of cocaine to the United States -- The peculiar legacy of Bayer Laboratories -- Hucksters, the red clause, and the emergence of antidrug legislation -- Snow parties, German war propaganda, and the rise of the criminal addict -- Marijuana : the evil weed of the fields, roadsides, and river beds -- Postscript -- 3. Everybody smokes dope : drug use in post-World War II America -- The road to H -- Timothy Leary is dead -- From Black Beauty to King Kong -- The many lives of Captain Quaalude -- Everybody smokes dope -- Tic, rocket fuel, and the specter of the living dead -- Postscript -- 4. Binge drinking, raves, circuit parties, and the Mickey Finn : drugs and the youth culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century -- Alcohol : the devil's cocktail -- Aqua Vitae, ambrosia, and the corruptor of youth -- Bladder busting and drinking to get drunk -- Club cultures and club drugs -- Raves -- House, techno, and trance -- XTC, Special K, and other club drugs -- Circuit parties -- The changing life of Mickey Finn : acquaintance-rape drugs, yesterday and today -- Knockout drops -- Rohypnol : a twenty-first century Mickey Finn -- Brews and blends both familiar and strange : the adulteration of club, party, and dance drugs -- Postscript -- pt. II. Shit, smack, Superfly, and hillbilly heroin : the most dangerous substances on earth -- 5. China white and Mexican black : comments on the production, trafficking, and use of heroin -- What, indeed, are narcotic drugs? -- Heroin : "the most dangerous substance on Earth" -- Adventures on the opium express -- Mexican black tar and Colombian death wish -- H is for heaven, H is for hell, H is for heroin -- Gambling with death -- The heroin epidemics -- Heroin chic and the Gen-X junkie -- Postscript -- 6. Cocaine, crack, and other analogs of "Mama Coca" -- Cocaine : "the most dangerous substance on Earth" -- Adventures along the cocaine highway -- The Colombian cocaine cartels -- The Mexican drug cartels -- Hotel California -- Fire in the brain -- Coca paste and hurricane crack : the smoking of Mama Coca -- The discovery of crack -- Unraveling crack cocaine -- Sketches from the crack hustle -- Cracks, hard white, and eight-ball -- "Crack is my pimp" -- The crack baby myth -- Postscript -- 7. Bars, footballs, OCs, and Watson 387 : prescription drug abuse and diversion in the twenty-first century -- Opioids, benzos, and prescription stimulants -- Opioids -- Benzodiazepines -- Stimulants -- The epidemiology of prescription drug abuse -- OxyContin : miracle medicine or devil drug? -- OxyContin and oxycodone -- Diversion of OxyContin -- OxyContin abuse in the early 2000s -- A national OxyContin epidemic? -- "Hillbilly heroin" and the crazed media frenzy -- The diversion of prescription medications -- Studying prescription drug diversion -- Other sources of diversion -- Postscript -- pt. III. Some consequences of drug taking and drug seeking -- 8. Legends of the living dead : unraveling the drugs-crime connection -- Religious alchemy, the saga of D.B. Cooper, and the genesis of the drug myths -- The tale of a terrible vice -- Fables and parables of the "living dead" -- Drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll -- The riddle of the Sphinx -- America's first war on drugs -- Heroin, cocaine, and crime in the streets -- The drugs-violence connection -- Drug use, sex work, and the subculture of violence -- Postscript -- 9. Mainlining in the shadow of death : probing the HIV/AIDS-drugs connection -- AIDS : a strange disease of uncertain origins -- The emergence of AIDS -- The rise and fall of Anita Bryant -- Exploring the viral frontier -- The origins of HIV/AIDS -- Mainlining death -- Shooting galleries and injection drug use -- Shooting galleries and viral contamination -- Rip offs and running partners -- Viral hepatitis and injection drug use -- The dilemmas of drugs, sex, HCV, and HIV/AIDS -- HIV risk reduction among injection and other drug users -- Trojans, rubbers, frogskins, and bishops : a brief discourse on condoms, both male and female -- Needle/syringe exchange -- Postscript -- pt. IV. Strategies in the war on drugs -- 10. The great drug war : policies and programs to reduce drug supply and demand -- Supply-reduction strategies -- Fat Albert, Blue Thunder, and Posse Comitatus : weapons for the new war on drugs -- The Conch Republic rebellion -- Zero tolerance -- Presidents, czars, chiefs, and generals : leadership for the war on drugs -- The Bush/Walters strategy -- Demand-reduction strategies -- Substance abuse prevention -- Substance abuse treatment -- Postscript -- 11. The great drug debate : the war on American drug policy -- Legalization of drugs : the professed benefits -- Unresolved issues in the quest for a legalized drug market -- The public health and behavioral consequences argument -- The crime and enslavement argument -- The drugs/violence argument -- The expanded market argument -- Sophism, legalization, and illicit drug use -- Prohibition versus regulation -- Postscript -- What harm is reduction? -- 12. War is not the answer -- The Golden Fleece Award -- Incarcerating drug-involved offenders -- California's Proposition 36 -- Treating drug-involved offenders in correctional settings -- Postscript -- Appendix A. General drug terms and concepts -- Appendix B. Scheduling provisions of the Federal Controlled Substances Act.