CHASING THE SCREAM - Johann Hari

Johann Hari’s book is the perfect antidote to the war on drugs, one of the most under-discussed moral injustices of our time. It combines rigorous research and deeply human story-telling. It will prompt an urgently-needed debate.
Glenn Greenwald, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

In this energetic and thought-proving book, Hari harnesses the power of the personal narrative to reveal the true causes and consequences of the War on Drugs.
David Nutt, former chief scientific advisor on drugs to the British government

This book is an entertainment, a great character study and page-turning storytelling all rolled into one very sophisticated and compelling cry for social justice.”
Stephen Downing,  Narcotics Division of the Los Angeles Police Department

DRUGS WITHOUT THE HOT AIR - David Nutt

​A refreshingly clear-eyed work. Anyone looking for a calm and objective overview of the drugs available in Britain would do much better to read Professor Nutt's book than to believe what they read in the papers, or what they hear from the lips of government ministers -The Economist



​Professor Nutt is both committed to rigorous, evidence-based policy and to clear, no-nonsense prose that makes complex subjects comprehensible - a book that everyone should read​ - Cory Doctorow ​
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David Nutt is Professor of Neurosychopharmacology at Imperial College, London, but is best known as 'the scientist who was sacked' by the UK's Home Secretary because he compared the harms of horse-riding with taking ecstasy or cannabis. He was Chair of the ACMD's Technical Committee for seven years, and became chairman of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs in 2010.

GOOD COP, BAD WAR - Neil Woods & JS Rafaeli

​T​he best book ever written about the British war on drugs - Johann Hari

Read this book to find out why more ​& more police ​support legal regulation

Neil Woods spent fourteen years ​infiltrating drug gangs as an undercover policeman – befriending and gaining the trust of some of the most violent, unpredictable criminals in Britain. With the insight that can only come from having fought on its front lines, Neil came to see the true futility of the War on Drugs – that it demonises those who need help, and only empowers the very worst elements in society. Neil is a board member of the international organisation Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) in the USA, and Chair of the organisation in the U.K.

HIGH PRICE - ​Carl Hart

In this ​memoir Carl Hart recalls his journey of self-discovery; how he escaped a life of crime and drugs and avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now studies. In High Price ​Prof Hart examines the relationship between drugs, pleasure, choice, and motivation, sheds new light on common ideas about race, poverty, and drugs and explains why current drug-related policies are failing.

Carl Hart is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University​ and a Research Scientist in the Division of Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. ​He is a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and on the board of directors of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the Drug Policy Alliance​

THE BIOLOGY OF DESIRE - Marc Lewis

​In The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing.

Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it's supposed to do — seek pleasure and relief. ​ ​He shows why ​therapies based on the disease model so often fail, and how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery​ when the factors influencing brain plasticity are taken into account. Combining intimate human stories with clearly rendered scientific explanation, The Biology of Desire is enlightening and optimistic reading for anyone who ​is interested in the latest developments in the neurobiology of addiction.

‘The most important study of addiction to be published for many years.’ The Spectator

Marc Lewis is a neuroscientist and professor of developmental psychology. Now at Radboud University in the Netherlands, he taught for more than twenty years at the University of Toronto. He has authored or coauthored more than fifty journal articles in neuroscience and developmental psychology.

UNBROKEN BRAINMaia Szalavitz

​​Challenging both the idea of the addict's "broken brain" and the notion of a simple "addictive personality," The New York Times Bestseller, Unbroken Brain, offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addictions are learning disorders and shows how seeing the condition ​from this perspective can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention and policy. ​

By illustrating what addiction is, and is not, the book ​explains how timing, history, family, peers, culture and chemicals come together to create both illness and recovery; and why there is no "addictive personality" or single treatment that works for all.

Combining Maia Szalavitz's personal story with a distillation of more than 25 years of science and research,Unbroken Brain provides a paradigm-shifting approach to thinking about addiction.
Her writings on ​ have been featured in The Washington Post, Vice Magazine, The Wall Street Journal,​ The New York Times​ and other publications.

​NARCONOMICS -Tom Wainwright

Narconomics sets out the well researched economic realities of the drug war ​so clearly ​that it should leave the reader in no doubt that the legal regulation of the trade in all psychoactive drugs is the only effective way to end the devastating War on Drugs.

​A must-read for everyone interested in solving the drug issue, Wainwright makes a lot of sense at a time when the world seems helpless against drug traffickers.                                                                         ​The Washington Book Review

​Tom Wainwright brings a fine and balanced analytical mind to some very good research. By looking at the drug trade as a business, Wainwright is able to reveal much about why it wreaks such havoc in Central and South America. Wainwright shows how drug violence is not so much senseless but the devastating result of economic calculations taken to their brutal extreme. His conclusion titled Why Economists Make the Best Police Officers is one of the pithiest and most persuasive arguments for drug law reform I have ever read.  ​                                                                                                                     Misha Glenny, New York Times Sunday Book Review

DRUG WARS - Neil Woods & JS Rafaeli

From the bestselling author of Good Cop Bad War comes the first inside history of Britain’s War on Drugs told by those who were there.

Calling upon the gripping first-hand accounts from those on both sides of the battle, the cops and the gangsters; as well as Neil Wood’s experiences as an undercover drugs detective, Drug Wars ​builds a complex, authentic and terrifying picture of the reality of the drug war in Britain.

Beginning with the Misuse of Drugs Act in 1971, we watch decades of violence, racial tension, organised crime and a monumental increase in addiction unfold. We see the birth of rave music and dance culture, and yet even more tabloid hysteria. And throughout, we look at the huge numbers of civilians that have fallen victim to Britain’s war on drugs.​

GANG TOWN - Don Pinnock
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Cape Town is two cities. One is beautiful beyond imagining, known since its beginning as the 'fairest cape' in the world. Here tourists come to lounge on beaches, scale misty peaks and dine in fine restaurants. The other is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, where police need bullet-proof vests and sometimes army backup. Here gangs of young men rule the night with heavy calibre handguns, dispensing heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and fear. This is the story of the second city. In Gang Town​ Don Pinnock draws on more than thirty years of research to provide a nuanced and definitive portrait of youngsters caught up in violent crime.

Don Pinnock is a South African criminologist, investigative journalist and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Safety, Governance and Criminology ​at the University of Cape Town; and is a specialist in adolescent deviance. ​
​He has a PhD in political science, an MA in criminology, a BA in African history ​and has held lectureships in Journalism and Criminology

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND - ​Michael Pollan​

​​“Amid new scientific interest in the potential healing properties of psychedelic drugs, Pollan…sets about researching their history—and giving them  a (supervised!) try himself.  He came away impressed by their promise in treating addiction and depression—and with his mind expanded.  Yours will be too.”                                                                                                                                                           People

​"Do psychedelics open a door to a different reality, or is it just the same-old, same-old reality seen through a different set of lenses? I quickly became engrossed in Pollan’s narrative–– the intersection of science, consciousness-enhancing, and government prohibition. But at the center of Pollan’s story is the greatest conundrum of all–– why should substances that have been so beneficial to so many people, be the focus of crazy criminal penalties? Why, indeed.”
​Errol Morris

OPIOIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA - Edited by Thembisa Waetjen with contributions from SADPI members, Anine Kriegler and Shaun Shelly

Opioids in South Africa invites wider conversation, asking us to imagine policy responses that can better protect the constitutional dignity, health and access to healthcare of people using drugs as well as of their families and communities.

In twelve chapters, scholars from community medicine, pharmacology, social science and the humanities, along with civic actors and researchers, present their evidence-based arguments and insights, and explore possibilities for harm reduction approaches in South Africa.

Opioids In South Africa can be ordered from leading bookshops and online suppliers in South Africa and from Amazon