I always find David Musto's "The American Disease: Origins of Narcotics 
Control" a useful reference for these questions, a good complement to 
the Duster book mentioned earlier especially vis-a-vis opiate addiction 
in the 19th and early 20th century.

A good review of the sociological literature on addiction (including 
the classic early case studies from Chein, Cloward and Ohlin, and 
Firestone) is Elliot Currie's "Reckoning: Drugs, The Cities and The 
American Future." (1993)  Currie is rather adamant that addiction is 
incorrectly understood as either a medical or psychological problem.  
He argues that addiction as a problem is neither an unfounded "moral 
panic" nor an individual level problem of pure choice, but inextricably 
linked with alienation, anomie, and lack of economic opportunity (see 
chapter 2 of his book).

For a structural argument about the role of drug addiction and dealing 
in the changing American economic structure, I recommend Philippe 
Bourgeois' "In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio."  This is 
a fantastic book all-around and I would recommend it for undergrads.  
For teaching undergraduates I have also used Simon and Burns' "The 
Corner: A Year in the Life of Inner-City Neighborhood."  This is a 
journalistic account of a severely heroin-addicted neighborhood in 
Baltimore that addresses the problems of addiction and manages to be 
both sharply critical of the drug war while still posing some very 
difficult questions to advocates of legalization.  "The Corner" was 
also turned into an excellent mini-series that's on DVD.

For an extensive review of marijuana law and arguments over policy, try 
"The Marijuana Conviction," Bonnie and Whitebread, recently back in 
print though very hard to find.  Also Himmelstein, "The Strange Career 
of Marijuana" (1983).

The comparison to legal drugs is always good, and an interesting book 
on the history of cigarettes as a social problem/addiction is Sullum's 
"For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public 
Health." (1998)

This is all a bit vague and in the sociological vein, so apologies if 
it's not useful to you. - Adam

Adam Jacobs
Department of Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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