Ceremonial Chemistry : The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers

s/t: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts & Pushers
This is an excellent analysis of the institutionalized, state-sponsored persecution of certain rule-breaking behavior (illicit drug use) & the similarities between cultural & religious demands for specific mood-altering ceremonies & substances. One is impressed by depth of Szasz' philosophical & medical understanding of human behavior. Ceremonial Chemistry is an important book & a cornerstone in the debate on prohibiting certain foods & plants & their inevitable decriminalization.
Introduction
Pharmakos: the scapegoat
The discovery of drug addiction
The scapegoat as drug & the drug as scapegoat
Medicine: the faith of the faithless
Communions, holy & unholy
Pharmacomythology: medicine as magic
Licit & illicit healing: persecutions for witchcraft & drugcraft
Opium & Orientals: the model American scapegoats
Drugs & devils: the conversion cure of Malcolm X
Food abuse & foodaholism: from soul watching to weight watching
Pharmacracy: medicine as social control
Missionary medicine: holy wars on unholy drugs
Cures & controls: panaceas & panapathogens
Temptation & temperance: the moral perspective reconsidered
The control of conduct: authority vs autonomy
Appendix: a synoptic history of the promotion & prohibition of drugs

Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) was professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, Washington, DC. He was a prominent figure in the anti-psychiatry movement and a critic of the moral and scientific foundation of psychiatry.