If you are on a statin drug or are thinking of going on a statin, this fully referenced book, Statin Drug Side Effects, is a "must read" for you. The unacceptable legacy of statin drug use at today's high doses is a trail of chronic aches and pains, numbness, weakness, confusion, fatigue, shortness of breath and even heart failure in hordes of unsuspecting victims. Only by knowing this information, and in consultation with your healthcare professional, can you make an informed decision about your health care. If you are a user of Vytorin, Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, Mevacor, Pravachol or Lescol you must read this book. Most of the statin side effects I discuss are unknown to your busy doctor. Although knowledgeable about muscle and liver problems, few have heard of statin amnesia and other forms of memory dysfunction and fewer still associate hostility, aggression and profound depression as statin related. As a former astronaut, aerospace medical research scientist, flight surgeon and family doctor, I was appalled by the lack of information in the medical community on the full range of side effects of the statin drugs. This book is a comprehensive reference source and summary of side effects of statin drugs.

"Shooting Up" analyzes how involvement in the production and trafficking of illicit commodities, especially drugs, affects the strength of belligerents and governments. Much of U.S. anti-narcotics policy abroad is based on the assumption of symbiotic relationships between drug producers, traffickers, insurgents, and terrorists; thus, policy is organized around the premise that the suppression of drug production will service both anti-drug and counterterrorist goals. The author challenges this narcoguerrilla premise of U.S. policy. She shows that, far from being complementary, anti-narcotics and counterinsurgency policies are frequently at odds with one another. Given that warlords, terrorists, and insurgents gain vast financial resources from the illicit drug economy, U.S. policymakers rely heavily on crop eradication as a way to end the military conflict in a particular country. Eradication, however, often fails to significantly diminish the physical capabilities of the belligerents and-counterproductively-enhances their legitimacy. She demonstrates that success in suppressing illicit economies, such as drugs, cannot be achieved without first addressing the security situation in the country. The book provides hard-hitting recommendations for reformulating this dimension of U.S. national security policy and for optimal sequencing of counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and counternarcotics policies. Likewise, it points the way for other governments to deal effectively with the nexus between military conflict and illicit economies. The book contains specific case studies of Peru, Colombia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Northern Ireland.

Our drug prohibition policy is hopeless, just as Prohibition, our alcohol prohibition policy, was before it. Today there are more drugs in our communities and at lower prices and higher strengths than ever before. We have built large numbers of prisons, but they are overflowing with non-violent drug offenders. The huge profits made from drug sales are corrupting people and institutions here and abroad. And far from being protected by our drug prohibition policy, our children are being recruited by it to a lifestyle of drug use and drug selling. Judge Gray's book drives a stake through the heart of the War on Drugs. After documenting the wide-ranging harms caused by this failed policy, Judge Gray also gives us hope. We have viable options. The author evaluates these options, ranging from education and drug treatment to different strategies for taking the profit out of drug-dealing. Many officials will not say publicly what they acknowledge privately about the failure of the War on Drugs. Politicians especially are afraid of not appearing i??tough on drugsi??'. But Judge Gray's conclusions as a veteran trial judge and former federal prosecutor are reinforced by the testimonies of more than forty other judges nationwide. Author note: James P. Gray is Judge of the Superior Court in Orange County in Southern California. He has served as former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and as a criminal defense attorney as a member of the JAG Corps in the Navy. In 1998 he made an unsuccessful run for Congress as a Republican against Bob Dornan. Judge Gray has discussed issues of drug policy on more than one hundred radio and TV shows and numerous drug forums around the country.

In a blistering expose based on interviews with policy makers and a catalog of damning statistics, journalist Dan Baum shows how America's war on drugs went from a politically potent campaign play to today's multibillion-dollar government boondoggle--a "war" that's run roughshod over Constitutional rights and put a quarter of young black men behind bars without so much as denting the demand for drugs.

Voted Outstanding Academic Title in 2004 by Choice.

The Strength of the Wolf is the first complete history of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), which existed from 1930 until its wrenching termination in 1968. The most successful federal law enforcement agency ever, the FBN was populated by some of the most amazing characters in American history, many of whom the author interviewed for this book. Working as undercover agents and with mercenary informers around the globe, these freewheeling "case making" agents penetrated the Mafia and the French connection, breaking all the rules in the process, and uncovering the Establishment's ties to organized crime. Targeted by the FBI and the CIA, the case-makers were, ironically, victims of their own fabulous success in hunting down society's predators. An incredible, never-before-told story, The Strength of the Wolf provides a new, exciting, and revealing look at an important chapter in American history.

Written by a leading researcher and textbook author in the field of alcohol and drug studies, this text presents a series of perspectives and reflections on the worlds of drug-taking, drug-seeking, and public policy. This highly readable book takes a candid look at the world of drug and alcohol use, abuse, and control. The text presents many sides of major issues, the history and patterns of abuse, and coverage of the major drugs (e.g. heroin, cocaine, crack, prescription drugs, marijuana, amphetamines, hallucinogens, and club drugs). This excellent resource can be a main text or supplement, and serves as a basis for discussion and debate of some of the major issues related to the drug problem (e.g. legalization, medical marijuana, needle exchange, harm reduction, supply reduction strategies versus demand reduction strategies).

The domestic phase of Washington's war on drugs has received considerable criticism over the years from a variety of individuals. Until recently, however, most critics have not stressed the damage that the international phase of the drug war has done to our Latin American neighbors. That lack of attention has begun to change and Ted Carpenter chronicles our disenchantment with the hemispheric drug war. Some prominent Latin American political leaders have finally dared to criticize Washington while at the same time, the U.S. government seems determined to perpetuate, if not intensify, the antidrug crusade. Spending on federal antidrug measures also continues to increase, and the tactics employed by drug war bureaucracy, both here and abroad, bring the inflammatory "drug war" metaphor closer to reality. Ending the prohibitionist system would produce numerous benefits for both Latin American societies and the United States. In a book deriving from his work at the CATO Institute, Ted Carpenter paints a picture of this ongoing fiasco.

The image of the drug-addicted American soldier disheveled, glassy-eyed, his uniform adorned with slogans of antiwar dissent has long been associated with the Vietnam War. More specifically, it has persisted as an explanation for the U.S. defeat, the symbol of a demoralized army incapable of carrying out its military mission.
Yet as Jeremy Kuzmarov documents in this deeply researched book, popular assumptions about drug use in Vietnam are based more on myth than fact. Not only was alcohol the intoxicant of choice for most GIs, but the prevalence of other drugs varied enormously. Although marijuana use among troops increased over the course of the war, for the most part it remained confined to rear areas, and the use of highly addictive drugs like heroin was never as widespread as many imagined.
Like other cultural myths that emerged from the war, the concept of an addicted army was first advanced by war hawks seeking a scapegoat for the failure of U.S. policies in Vietnam, in this case one that could be linked to permissive liberal social policies and the excesses of the counterculture. But conservatives were not alone. Ironically, Kuzmarov shows, elements of the antiwar movement also promoted the myth, largely because of a presumed alliance between Asian drug traffickers and the Central Intelligence Agency. While this claim was not without foundation, as new archival evidence confirms, the left exaggerated the scope of addiction for its own political purposes.
Exploiting bipartisan concern over the perceived drug crisis, the Nixon administration in the early 1970s launched a bold new program of federal antidrug measures, especially in the international realm. Initially, the War on Drugs helped divert attention away from the failed quest for peace with honor in Southeast Asia. But once institutionalized, it continued to influence political discourse as well as U.S. drug policy in the decades that followed.

Every year the U.S. budgets millions of dollars for the war on drugs but there is no consensus on whether the fight to combat illegal drug use is a success or a failure. Chapters in this all-new anthology include Is the War on Drugs Succeeding? Is There a Link Between the War on Drugs and Terrorism? Which Policies Are Working in the War on Drugs? Should Illegal Drugs Be Legalized? (20020801)