Despite great public interest in the use and abuse of psychoactive substances this is the first comprehensive and reliable book on this fascinating and controversial topic. The encyclopedia covers the entire range of naturally occurring psychoactive species, and also a great number of man-made synthetic drugs and compounds. It explores the use of intoxicating plants by Neanderthal man through to the role of hallucinogens and narcotics in contemporary youth culture. It provides basic details on the botany and chemistry of intoxicants, and examines their influence at all levels of our culture and society. The book also tackles controversial issues such as legalisation and details the legal classification of illicit substances alongside additional relevant information on detection, prevention, punishment and other criminological subjects.
Reviews
This really is a fun read ... there are great little bits of information, such as the one about Eton schoolboys being flogged in the 17th century if they forgot to bring their tobacco pipes to school
A perfect psychonaut's guide to a strange galaxy ... a brilliant index to the weird and wonderful and a timely reminder that ours is not an unusually reckless age
Fascinating
Rare and unusual is an encyclopaedia that you can read from cover to cover without wanting to put it down ... Richard Rudgley's book is one of those rarities ... fascinating, funny, informative and provocative
Fascinating ... Suddenly, clubland seems tame
Formidable ... Rudgley's curiosity, distilled concentration, inter-disciplinary connectiveness, deadpan humour, prodigious reading, magpie eclecticism and anecdotal ease are all massively appealing
A thorough and entertaining reference text
a enjoyable anthology of drugs, from opium and LSD to giraffe livers.
Will deeply satisfy the curious ... impressive
... tobacco, ground beetles, glue, coffee, Prozac and so on ... Rudgley concentrates with startling results, on the history of the use of such substances
A gold-leaf reference book