The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs
by Edward M. Brecher and the Editors of Consumer Reports Magazine, 1972Part I - The Opiates: Heroin, Morphine, Opium, and Methadone
1. Nineteenth-century America - a "dope fiend's paradise"
2. Opiates for pain relief, for tranquilization, and for pleasure
3. What kinds of people used opiates?
4. Effects of opium, morphine, and heroin on addicts
5. Some eminent narcotics addicts
7. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
8. The Harrison Narcotic Act (1914)
9. "Tightening up" the Harrison Act
10. Why our narcotics laws have failed: (1) Heroin is an addicting drug
11. Why our narcotics laws have failed: (2) The economics of the black market
12. The "heroin overdose" mystery and other occupational hazards of addiction
13. Supplying heroin legally to addicts
14. Enter methadone maintenance
15. How well does methadone maintenance work?
17. Why methadone maintenance works
18. Methadone maintenance spreads
19. The future of methadone maintenance
20. Heroin on the youth drug scene - and in Vietnam
Part II - Caffeine
21. Caffeine
22. Caffeine - Recent findings
Part III - Nicotine
23. Tobacco
24. The case of Dr. Sigmund Freud
25. Nicotine as an addicting drug
26. Cigarettes - and the 1964 Report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee
Part IV - Alcohol, Barbiturates, Tranquilizers
28. The barbiturates for sleep and for sedation
29. Alcohol and barbiturates: Two ways of getting drunk
30. Popularizing the barbiturates as "thrill pills"
31. The nonbarbiturate sedatives and the "minor" tranquilizers
32. Should alcohol be prohibited?
33. Why alcohol should not be prohibited
Part V - Coca, Cocaine, Amphetamines, "Speed"
34. Coca leaves
35. Cocaine
36. The amphetamines
40. Should the amphetamines be prohibited?
42. A slightly hopeful postscript
Part VI - Inhalants, solvents and glue-sniffing
43. The historical antecedents of glue-sniffing
44. How to launch a nationwide drug menace
Part VII - LSD and LSD-like drugs
45. Early use of LSD-like drugs
48. Hazards of LSD psychotherapy
49. Early nontherapeutic use of LSD
50. How LSD was popularized, 1962-1969
51. How the hazards of LSD were augmented, 1962-1969
52. LSD today: the search for a rational perspective
Part VIII - Marijuana and Hashish
53. Marijuana in the Old World
54. Marijuana in the New World
55. Marijuana and alcohol prohibition
57. America discovers marijuana
58. Can marijuana replace alcohol?
59. The 1969 marijuana shortage and "Operation Intercept"
60. The Le Dain Commission Interim Report (1970)
Part IX - The Drug Scene
62. Prescription, over-the-counter, and black-market drugs
63. The Haight-Ashbury, its predecessors and its satellites
65. First steps toward a solution: innovative approaches by indigenous institutions
66. Alternatives to the drug experience
67. Emergence from the drug scene
Part X - Conclusions and Recommendations
68. Learning from past mistakes: six caveats
69. Policy issues and recommendations
70. A last word