Marijuana as medicine has been a politically charged topic in this country for more than three decades. Despite overwhelming public support and growing scientific evidence of its therapeutic effects (relief of the nausea caused by chemotherapy for cancer and AIDS, control over seizures or spasticity caused by epilepsy or MS, and relief from chronic and acute pain, to name a few), the drug remains illegal under federal law.

In Dying to Get High, noted sociologists Wendy Chapkis and Richard J. Webb investigate one community of seriously-ill patients fighting the federal government for the right to use physician-recommended marijuana.

William Pryor, a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, was a heroin and then alcohol addict for twelve years in the sixties and seventies. He brushed death several times, but, against overwhelming odds, survived, and, in 1975, was one of the first patients at the first American-style addiction treatment centre in Europe. His experiences - and subsequent transformation to non-addiction - have given him a unique insight into the world of hard drugs and addiction.

Reader: I'll bet not one person in a hundred who is employed in the addictions field has any idea of the history of their profession. This is a history book that is chock full of the befuddled efforts of millions of people who have tried almost everything to get sober. Carrie Nation, The Keeley Institute, Kellogg and his corn flakes, the gold IV injection treatment, and the use of methamphetimine right down to MADD... this book details a group of people who, on their own, tried to fight addiction and support each other in their sobriety. All this without the help of the government until recent times.

Journal of the American Medical Association : Vaillant addresses a number of important issues and questions, which are core prerequisites for achieving more precise knowledge about the causes and consequences of alcohol abuse and dependence...These important issues have been reexamined in a thoughtful and scholarly manner. Dr. Vaillant has added new survey data and information to his current text, and he has also expanded and revised his original interpretations.

It's hard to argue with Califano's thesis, that substance abuse is a huge, expensive and often tragic problem in the U.S., particularly when it affects children; best known for declaring cigarettes "public health enemy number one" as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Califano is clearly passionate, well-meaning and unafraid to think big: "We must end our denial, stamp out the stigma, rethink our concept of crime and punishment...to confront this plague." His sincerity and conviction is a two-edged sword, however: he comes off big-hearted one minute ("I am calling for...acceptance of such abuse and addiction as a chronic disease"), humorless and out of touch the next ("Movies like 40 Year Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers play excessive alcohol use for laughs").

This book is a guide for the one million-plus Americans per year who face coerced religious indoctrination in the guise of alcohol or drug treatment. It outlines legal strategies and existing court decisions and shows how useless and sometimes harmful 12-step treatment can be. It also contains a considerable amount of material on the routine violation of standard medical ethics by addiction treatment providers, and examples of such violations.

"A courageous indictment of the destructive mindset that all deviant behavior is a disease. Peele offers mindful alternatives to those suffering from addictions and to professionals seeking to help them." (Ellen Langer, professor of psychology, Harvard University)