Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Drugs - to ban or not - Lee Harris expostulates

This article is the best I have ever seen on the topic. It reviews Theodore Dalrymple's book 'Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy', and Richard DeGrandpre's alternative approach in 'The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World’s Most Troubled Drug Culture'. Who says history is bunk, after reading Harris' skilful interlacing of the Greeks, John Stuart Mill, and the content of these two books? I must confess that Theodore Dalrymple (a pen name, real name Anthony Daniels) is a personal favourite, yet Harris gently steers away from some of TD's more uncompromising positions. A great article, by a great author.

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