INSIDE THE BOOK
From opium shipped in the service of empire to cocaine branding, wartime stimulants, LSD experiments and the modern pharmacy counter, High and Wired follows the history of getting high, getting well and getting permission. Along the way, a substance can acquire a trademark, a uniform, a prescription or a criminal reputation. The people deciding which label applies rarely have to queue with everybody else.
Pay attention to the language. Who gets to call their habit a treatment, their experiment research, their appetite an investment in themselves? Who gets asked what happened to their self-control? There is a remarkable amount of moral certainty available to people whose own arrangements are handled privately.
I will take you through the chemistry and the hypocrisy. I have a considerable personal interest in both. My accountant would like me to stop talking. He charges by the hour, so this is a serious expression of concern.
If you've ever wondered why one person's drug problem becomes another person's business opportunity, pull up a chair. Mine cost more than it should have.
I can afford a chemistry problem. You're expected to have a moral one.