TY - BOOK ID - 2550548 TI - Drugs and narcotics in history AU - Porter, Roy AU - Teich, Mikulás PY - 1995 SN - 0521431638 052158597X 0511599676 9780521431637 9780511599675 9780521585972 PB - Cambridge Cambridge University Press DB - UniCat KW - Pharmacology KW - Drugs KW - History KW - Drug Industry KW - Drug and Narcotic Control KW - Narcotics KW - Substance Abuse KW - History. KW - history. KW - Arts and Humanities KW - Ethics and addiction KW - World history KW - History of civilization KW - Pharmacology - History KW - Drugs - History KW - -Pharmacology KW - -Drug effects KW - Medical pharmacology KW - Medical sciences KW - Chemicals KW - Chemotherapy KW - Pharmacy KW - Medicaments KW - Medications KW - Medicine (Drugs) KW - Medicines (Drugs) KW - Pharmaceuticals KW - Prescription drugs KW - Bioactive compounds KW - Medical supplies KW - Pharmacopoeias KW - Materia medica KW - Physiological effect KW - -History UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:2550548 AB - This collection of essays explores the complex and contested histories of drugs and narcotics in societies from ancient Greece to the present day. The Greek term pharmakon means both medicament and poison. The book shows how this verbal ambivalence encapsulates the ambiguity of man's use of chemically-active substances over the centuries to diminish pain, fight disease, and correct behaviour. It shows that the major substances so used, from herbs of the field to laboratory-produced synthetic medicines, have a healing potential, and have been widely employed both within and outside the medical profession. The boundary lines between use and abuse in society have been powerfully contested, while 'alternative' medicine has often sought to develop milder, purer, or more natural drugs. Clearly, these issues remain unresolved today: some highly addictive and dangerous substances such as cigarettes remain freely available, others are available only on prescription, while others are illegal and the objects of international contraband trade and the targets of 'drugs wars'. ER -