NP?

[Doug Millison]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/29/books/review/29KENNEAT.html

The Pursuit of Oblivion': Drug Taking as Part of Human
Nature
By CHRISTINE KENNEALLY


review of
THE PURSUIT OF OBLIVION 
A Global History of Narcotics. 
By Richard Davenport-Hines.
Illustrated. 576 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
$29.95. 


n a sunless room in Bengal in the 1670's, a group of
English sailors enacted a scene that would, in spirit,
be repeated in basements, bedrooms and alleys of the
Western world for centuries. First, they each
swallowed a pint of bhang, a local drink. One of the
sailors then sat and sobbed all afternoon, another
began a fistfight with a wooden pillar, yet another
inserted his head inside a large jar. The rest sat
about or lolled upon the floor. They were completely
stoned. 
Advertisement

Psychotic, depressed or mirthful, the sailors'
behavior was induced by bhang's crucial ingredient --
cannabis, also known as ganja, charas, grifa, anascha,
liamba, bust, dagga, hashish, hemp and marijuana.
Their drug-addled afternoon, reported firsthand by the
merchant Thomas Bowrey, who sat sweating throughout
it, is the earliest account by an Englishman of
recreational cannabis use. With this report, the
English writer Richard Davenport-Hines begins ''The
Pursuit of Oblivion,'' a history of drug taking that
is dense with scholarship and, because it is a
''history of emotional extremes,'' highly absorbing. 

Early on, Davenport-Hines presents with appealing
plainness a radical idea: ''Intoxication is not
unnatural or deviant.'' This small statement shapes
his book. In refusing to view drug use through the
lens of the modern criminal justice system,
Davenport-Hines extends his focus beyond the ''drug
problem'' or the miseries we bring upon ourselves
(though it includes many examples of that). Instead,
he sees it as part of the repertoire of normal human
activities. [...] 

''The Pursuit of Oblivion'' follows a long trail of
desire, despair and bad decisions, and it is
impossible not to feel a sense of connection with many
of its case studies. Whether or not the book's readers
are personally familiar with the effects of narcotics,
they will understand at least some of the emotions
that surround their use. After all, who hasn't longed
for oblivion or dreamed of ecstasy? Who hasn't wished
for something, anything, to take the edge off daily
life? 


Christine Kenneally is writing a book about the
evolution of language.





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