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The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs

by Edward M. Brecher and the Editors of Consumer Reports Magazine, 1972

Part 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

6. Opium smoking is outlawed

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?

16. Methadone side effects

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

27. A program for the future

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

37. Enter the "speed freak"

38. How speed was popularized

39. The Swedish experience

40. Should the amphetamines be prohibited?

41. Back to cocaine again

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

46. LSD is discovered

47. LSD and psychotherapy

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

56. Marijuana is outlawed

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

61. Scope of drug use

62. Prescription, over-the-counter, and black-market drugs

63. The Haight-Ashbury, its predecessors and its satellites

64. Why a youth drug scene?

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